<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/">
    <channel>
        <title>Akhilesh Waghmare</title>
        <link>https://akhileshw.xyz</link>
        <description>Personal blog of Akhilesh Waghmare</description>
        <lastBuildDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 15:48:31 GMT</lastBuildDate>
        <docs>https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html</docs>
        <generator>https://github.com/jpmonette/feed</generator>
        <language>en</language>
        <image>
            <title>Akhilesh Waghmare</title>
            <url>https://akhileshw.xyz/favicon.ico</url>
            <link>https://akhileshw.xyz</link>
        </image>
        <copyright>All rights reserved 2026, Akhilesh Waghmare</copyright>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Clarity is Derived from Motion]]></title>
            <link>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/ClarityIsDerivedFromMotion</link>
            <guid>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/ClarityIsDerivedFromMotion</guid>
            <pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[A note on rage, learning, and why I'm done planning]]></description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[
I have a draft in my logseq for a while now. It’s titled: **“Just Post Something”**

Inside, it’s a mess of bullet points about how I “don’t create enough”, how I want to be a “generalist polymath,” and how annoyed I am that all my hobbies cost a “f*ck ton of money.”

But the line that hit me hardest when I re-read it this evening was this:

> I don’t yet have clarity on what to do yet, and I heard clarity is derived from actions, so I’m going to focus more on creating some motion.

I’ve spent way too much time waiting for ‘clarity’ before starting anything. I’d tell myself that the friction I felt was just a lack of info, that if I just read one more article or watched one more video, I’d finally be ready. But you don’t get permission from reading. I was just using research as a sophisticated form of procrastination.

The only thing that happened was that I got older, and that quiet frustration started turning into a restless energy I had no idea how to channel.

### The “Polymath” Trap

I’ve always wanted to be at the intersection of everything. Design. Code. Writing. Investing. But wanting to do everything usually results in doing nothing. It feels like you’re standing in the middle of a massive library, paralyzed because you don’t know which book to pull first. You feel the potential energy, but you have zero kinetic energy.

And when you add “economical anxiety” into the mix, the pressure gets weird. You want to follow your curiosity, but you also need to make sure you aren’t broke. I used to think I had to solve the money problem first so I could follow my curiosity later. I was wrong. You have to monetize the pursuit of curiosity while you’re in it. You do both together.

### No More Regrets

I wrote in my journal earlier this week:

> My only wish from life is to not have regrets. I do have a couple of regrets right now, but nothing unfixable with a year well spent.

So this is me spending the year well.
This is me finally thinking out loud.
This is me admitting that I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m doing it anyway.
Clarity doesn’t come from thinking. It comes from motion.
So let’s move.

---

### Things I’ve been reading this week:

#### **Compound Engineering**
I’ve been obsessed with [this piece](https://every.to/compounding-engineering/coding-is-shifting-to-managing-teams-of-ai-agents) from Every. It talks about how coding is shifting from “writing code” to “managing a team of AI agents.” This is exactly what we mean by vibecoding. It feels less like engineering and more like directing a movie where the actors are LLMs. I’ve been reading Every a lot recently, they write some really good blogs.

#### **Make Something Heavy**
A great reminder from [Working Theorys](https://workingtheorys.com/make-something-heavy). In a world where AI makes it easy to generate content (slop), the only way to stand out is to build things that feel heavy, things that have weight, friction, and visible effort behind them.

#### **The Job Isn’t Just The Job**
I used to think my value was just my output. The code I wrote, or the copy I wrote. [This article](https://www.humanloop.com/blog/the-job-isnt-just-the-job) argues that as AI automates the “work,” the real value shifts to Relational Labor. It’s about trust, context, and the human energy that keeps a team moving. In an automated world, being the person who actually cares is the ultimate moat.

### A personal update

Whenever I get pissed at something, or get anxiety, I just go on a run, or grab my road bike and go on a ride. I’m realizing that physical exhaustion is the best cure for mental anxiety. Also you get brownie dopamine points by logging your activity and completing challenges.
]]></content:encoded>
            <author>hey@akhileshw.xyz (Akhilesh Waghmare)</author>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Cryptography]]></title>
            <link>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/Cryptography</link>
            <guid>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/Cryptography</guid>
            <pubDate>Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The backbone of secure communication in the digital age.]]></description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[
In today's digital world, where data security is of paramount importance, cryptography plays a crucial role in ensuring secure communication and data protection. Whether you're sending a quick message or making a bank transfer, cryptographic algorithms are working behind the scenes to keep your data safe. This article delves into its fundamentals, types, and applications.

## What is Cryptography?

Cryptography is the process of securing information by transforming readable information (plain text) into random gibberish (ciphertext) that only the right person can decode. It uses mathematical algorithms and computational techniques to encode messages, making them unreadable to people other than the sender and receiver.

### The Building Blocks: Encryption and Decryption

Think of encryption as putting your message in an unbreakable locker. The key to this locker is what we call a cryptographic key - a set of mathematical values that both sender and receiver need to agree on beforehand. These keys are of two types:

- [ ] **Public keys**: This is the key that you share with everyone. Think of this as your digital address that anyone can see and send messages to but only you have the key to access the messages.
- [x] **Private keys**: Only you have access to this key.

## Why Cryptography Matters: Key Objectives

- **Confidentiality**: Ensuring your messages stay between you and your intended recipient
- **Integrity**: Making sure that the data has not been altered or tampered with during transit
- **Authentication**: Ensures that information is shared between the correct sender and receiver by verifying their identities during transmission.
- **Non-repudiation**: Once information is shared, the sender cannot deny sending it, and the receiver cannot deny receiving it.

## Types of Cryptography

Cryptography can be broadly classified into the following types:

### 1. Symmetric Key Cryptography

In symmetric key cryptography, the same key is used for encryption and decryption. Imagine having a single key that locks and unlocks the locker, then you'll need a secure channel to share the key to the receiver.

Examples Algorithms:
- Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
- Data Encryption Standard (DES)
- Blowfish

### 2. Asymmetric Key Cryptography

In asymmetric key cryptography, instead of one key, we have a pair of keys - a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. It's like having a mailbox where anyone can put mails but only you can read them.

Example Algorithms:
- RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman)
- ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography)
- Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

### 3. Hash Functions

Hash functions convert input data into a hash value of fixed length. No matter how many times you hash the input, you'll get the same output, but you cannot reverse the process. Common algorithms for hashing are:
- SHA256
- MD5
- BLAKE2

## Real-World Applications

### 1. Secure Communication
Cryptography is used to secure communication over public networks like the Internet, making it difficult for unauthorized individuals to access or intercept sensitive information. Data Encryption (End-to-End encryption) is also used in apps like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram to make sure that no one else reads those messages other than the sender and the receiver.

### 2. Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
The entire cryptocurrency ecosystem relies on cryptographic principles to secure transactions and maintain the blockchain.

### 3. Secure Authentication
Cryptography is used to secure online transactions, including online banking, e-commerce, and electronic voting. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) combines multiple modes of verification, such as passwords, biometric scans, or OTPs/TOTPs, making unauthorized access significantly more difficult.

### 4. Digital Signatures (PKI)
Public-key Infrastructure (PKI) is a system where you share your public key with everyone, and then sign your documents with the private key. Anyone with your public key can now verify that this document was indeed signed by you and has not been tampered with. If you have ever used Keybase then you already know about this.

### 5. Password Protection
Cryptography is used to store passwords securely. When you sign up for an app, they don't store the password - they store a hash of it, making it much harder for attackers to steal.

### 6. Data Protection in Cloud Computing
Cloud storage services use encryption to keep your data safe. Even if hackers get their hands on your files, they won't be able to read the data without the decryption key.

## Conclusion

As we build more of our lives around digital systems, cryptography's importance only grows. While its traditional role in security remains crucial, we're seeing exciting new applications in blockchain and decentralized systems. These technologies use cryptographic primitives in creative ways to build trustless systems - though remember, we're not eliminating trust entirely, just shifting it from human intermediaries to mathematical protocols.
]]></content:encoded>
            <author>hey@akhileshw.xyz (Akhilesh Waghmare)</author>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[hello]]></title>
            <link>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/hello</link>
            <guid>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/hello</guid>
            <pubDate>Sun, 18 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[
# Hey there, folks!

I'm super excited to finally have my own little corner on the internet! For a long time, I've wanted a personal space where I can share my thoughts, ideas, and experiences without relying on big platforms like Medium or Substack.

This blog is going to be my playground, where I can write about anything and everything that interests me. From tech and coding to life musings and random ramblings, this space is all mine!

One idea I've been playing around with is creating a separate section called '/thoughts' where I can share short, bite-sized posts, kind of like Twitter. What do you think? I got this idea from [soulninja](https://streams.place/soulninja), and I'm gonna recreate it but just for me lol. 

Feel free to reach out to me via email or Twitter if you have any suggestions, feedback, or just want to chat. I'm always eager to connect with like-minded people and learn from different perspectives.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you'll stick around for the ride!

Catch you later,  
Akhilesh
]]></content:encoded>
            <author>hey@akhileshw.xyz (Akhilesh Waghmare)</author>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Curate Your Love]]></title>
            <link>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/CurateYourLove</link>
            <guid>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/CurateYourLove</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 09 May 2023 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[
There's a really nice quote that goes like "We are the average of everything we consume. The movies we watch, the music we listen to, the books we read, etc." We’re just composed of things that we come across in our lives

We consume so much of data everyday, it can be you watching a real life incident or watching a movie. People who spend time IRL also try to convert that memory into digital memory, so it becomes a photo in your phone. 

The whole purpose of this post is me being a curator and me curating everything that there is to curate. for example: 
We retweet and bookmark tweets that we relate to, we save posts on Instagram, Pinterest, we make playlists on spotify, we rate and make lists of movies on Letterboxd, Goodreads, Podcasts, Blogs, etc. The list goes on. May it be a Amazon shopping list or a myntra one or some snickers app. This has nothing to do with capitalism or marketing, this is just stuff that you curated by yourself and this represents a part of you.

In essence, love is much like the art of curating a museum. We consider, assess, and most importantly choose the "artifacts" of most significance based on what we (uniquely) enjoy. The things we (uniquely) enjoy are informed by factors as varied and disparate as our blood-sugar levels, among other things. We carefully display our "exhibit of love" in beautiful frames and tags. 

Or, to put it differently - imagine an unimaginably vast wall that contains every interest, hobby, passion, and person to ever exist. The concepts of "self" and "taste" let us envision this entire wall illuminated, with every possibility available for the curator- that's you- to explore, evaluate, and choose from. You look at this wall and you pick and choose the elements that resonate most with you.

This lists we keep changing as we go through life, there's a month where I watch a lot of movies and make lists of movies I have to watch and then next 6 months I don't watch a single movie. Same goes with other hobbies and passions. Maybe you get into snickers someday and curate all the snickers you want to collect and then after completing that mission you'll get onto something new. It's like a giant list of things that we've to tick off. This shift is a natural part of curating your own wall of interests and experiences. Our tastes and preferences evolve over time, and so does the arrangement of what captivates us. What was once an obsession might become a cherished memory.

Just as a museum collection is a reflection of the curator's vision and taste, our love is a reflection of who we are - an evolving, imperfect, and profoundly human work of art.


]]></content:encoded>
            <author>hey@akhileshw.xyz (Akhilesh Waghmare)</author>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The writing process for all beginners.]]></title>
            <link>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/BeginnerWriters</link>
            <guid>https://akhileshw.xyz/blog/BeginnerWriters</guid>
            <pubDate>Mon, 18 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[
💡Prewriting- In this stage, you write ideas for the topic you gonna write about. Here you think and decide what to write and what not to write. Most simply, It’s a rough page where you can practice a mindmap methodology.

💡Writing- Here you draft your actual document, You write whatever you want to say about the topic, Obviously, after doing good research about the topic.

You write everything here about the topic and re-read the same.

💡Editing- Now, this is the final round and it’s a crucial one.

Here you rearrange your words, sentences, etc, and take out and add parts( if necessary)

You do proofreading, where you check every spelling, and grammatical error, correct your small mistakes, etc.

💡And at last, you should have someone to check your work and give some feedback about the same.
]]></content:encoded>
            <author>hey@akhileshw.xyz (Akhilesh Waghmare)</author>
        </item>
    </channel>
</rss>