What I’m doing now

Updated 11 October 2026, from Goa, India.

I’m spending most of my time building software, writing, and making room for a few things away from the screen.

Building ORA

I’m building software for maritime operations around one question:

What must be true for one person to continue another person’s operational work ~responsibly~?

There are logbooks, reports, conversations, and decisions. Understanding what happened often means piecing them together—and knowing where the picture is still incomplete.

That is the work occupying me now. Working through real evidence, questioning assumptions, and deciding what the software needs to understand. It is slow work. It is also teaching me how much can hide inside something that initially looks obvious.

Building with AI

Building Hibiscus and ORA has become an education in working with AI.

I’m learning to describe a problem more clearly, make smaller changes, and check what was actually done. An articulate explanation can sound convincing long before there is enough evidence behind it.

I want to write about these experiences on Substack. There is plenty to share from the ordinary work: mistakes, corrections, and the moments when a better question changes the direction.

Writing here

I’m gradually tending Ravi Wiki.

Essays give me room to work through a thought. The ~Daily Log~ lets me leave a small trace of a day. I’m also connecting articles through the ideas and people that recur in them.

I like the possibility that something written months ago can become useful in a new context. Keeping it accessible is part of the work.

Reading and going out

I’m reading The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman.

Alongside building software, I want to pay closer attention to the things I use: what they make easy, what they make confusing, and what they expect me to already know.

I’m also trying to make an hour at a café part of my day. A change of scene, something to read, and a little time to notice what is happening around me.

Field notes

I’m putting together a small everyday carry: a field notebook, a mechanical pencil, and my little e-reader.

I want the notebook to hold observations, questions, fragments of conversations, and ideas before they become polished enough to publish. Some might find their way here. Others can stay on paper.

This also connects to ~Hibi Field,~ an idea I’m exploring: a small, finite notebook for carrying forward what matters.

Watches

My Tissot is my daily driver. It’s the ~watch~I wear as I go about my day.

I’ve also been looking at vintage-looking Casios, especially the W-217H and the analog-digital AQ-230A.

I’m tying the purchases to milestones in the work: a Casio after WU-11, a Hamilton after WU-12. Small rewards for finishing something difficult.

The longer thought is to wear a watch for years and eventually pass it to Arjun. I like the idea of giving him something that has already shared a part of my life.

~Coaching~

I continue to coach.

The questions that interest me often concern judgment, boundaries, and how people see themselves. How do you make a difficult decision? How do you set a boundary without feeling you have to become someone else?

These conversations keep me close to the human situations that all our plans and systems eventually have to meet.

Inspired by ~Derek Sivers’s now page~.