Gokul Puthumanaillam
PhD Student, Roboticist and C++ enthusiast

About Projects Publications Random

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I helped a man climb a mountain and found that I too had reached the top

"I didn't have time to write you a short website, so I wrote you a long one." – Mark Twain (if he were alive today and really into web development)

In that spirit, I'm stuffing this page with what I call the "Infinite Monkey Theorem" which is just an eclectic collection of my thoughts.

Monkey Thought

Will this page ever be complete? Perhaps. Will it be comprehensible? About as likely as finding a coherent plot in a James Joyce novel. What do I intend to achieve with this page? I'm not sure. But I hope you find something that resonates with you.

"In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." – Douglas Adams

I've always been fascinated by the power of words. They can inspire, motivate, and even change the course of history. Here are some:

"The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." – Unknown Rodent Philosopher

"I put my root beer in a square glass. Now it's just beer." – Dad Joke Enthusiast

The Art of Selective Ignorance

  • Not everything needs your attention.
  • Some things actively deserve your inattention.
  • YouTube doesn't count as "some things."

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you." – Parachute Instructor's Manual

Standards

"Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't." – Physics Humor 101

The 7 Stages of Debugging

  1. Denial: "It's not a bug, it's a feature!"
  2. Anger: "Who wrote this #@$%ing code?!"
  3. Bargaining: "Please, computer, just work this one time…"
  4. Depression: "I'm not cut out for this. Maybe I should become a farmer."
  5. Acceptance: "Fine, I'll read the documentation."
  6. Hope: "I think I see the problem!"
  7. Enlightenment: "Oh. It was a typo."
Matrix Transform

I love XKCD comics. They're like the internet's version of a warm hug.

The Zen of Tech Support (i.e., The Zen of me helping my mom with her computer)

  1. Have you tried turning it off and on again?
  2. No, really, have you?
  3. I don't believe you. Try it again while I watch.

Things I've Learned from Binge-Reading

  • Dragons are just fire-breathing, flying cats. Change my mind.
  • Time is a flat circle, especially when you're on your 5th consecutive hour of streaming.
  • "Just one more chapter" is the biggest lie we tell ourselves.

Stand on the Shoulders of Giants (But Don't Steal Their Hats)

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. And occasionally borrowing their telescopes." – Sir Isaac Newton's lesser-known cousin, Bob Newton

pizza.jpg

  • The ability to work with abstractions allows us to conserve vast amounts of brainpower. Imagine having to constantly think about how gravity works while trying to make a sandwich. You'd starve before lunch.
  • When in doubt, use analogies. It's like explaining rocket science to a potato – sometimes, you just need to mash things together and hope it works.

The Philosophy of Pizza

"Life is like a pizza. Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good." – Me, just now

“There is no secret ingredient. It’s just you.” – Mr. Ping