rishi raj's blog

On marketing, tech, and building a services co.

2025

  • "Report to Your Nearest Podcast"

    September 30, 2025 1 min read

    Is there a PR disaster or a controversy to address? Yapping at all the nearby podcasts will solve it.

  • On Borrowed Hours

    September 13, 2025 1 min read

    We all operate on borrowed hours. The question is when we choose to borrow them.

  • Chasing Perfect Web Vitals

    August 17, 2025 4 mins read

    I spent the last few days trying to get perfect Web Vitals scores for this blog. Not because I believe in Google metrics - their own Pixel 9a page fails their test, remember? But I was curious: what would it actually take to hit those elusive 100s across the board?

  • Your Site Better Have "Answers"

    August 14, 2025 2 mins read

    Search engines dont want to send users to your site anymore. They want to answer questions directly. Heres what actually matters for SEO in 2025 - spoiler: its not keyword density.

  • Smart Home Management

    July 24, 2025 2 mins read

    My smart home works great 90% of the time. It's that other 10% that makes for the best stories. From geyser scheduling algorithms to Google Home being the ultimate device diplomat.

  • GPT Family Has A Naming Problem

    April 17, 2025 1 min read

    OpenAI just dropped the o3 family today, and I'm starting to think they're trolling us. We have o3, o3-mini, and o3-pro. But wait—there's no o2 because of some British telecom trademark.

  • Forms are still a mess (and ugly)

    January 15, 2025 3 mins read

    After years of building landing pages and lead gen campaigns, I've come to a sobering realization: forms remain the most frustrating part of web UX. Despite all our design system advances and component libraries, we're still fighting the same battles.

2024

  • Budget phones, anyone?

    October 30, 2024 4 mins read

    The weight of two SIMs on my iPhone 13 Mini was beyond what the tiny battery could handle for a full work day. I wanted to continue using my iPhone for my personal number and decided to shift the demanding workload to a separate, new phone.

  • Apple Notes is not enough

    July 30, 2024 3 mins read

    I adored Apple Notes for a decade. Here's why I finally forced myself out of it.

  • The 'Async Teams' Opportunity

    April 3, 2024 2 mins read

    When Zoom became the default meeting solution during 2020, it made a significant push toward something we didn't fully anticipate: creating the infrastructure for truly asynchronous teams.

  • Keynote vs Everything Else

    January 20, 2024 2 mins read

    Keynote doesn't try to be everything to everyone - and that's exactly why it works. While PowerPoint drowns you in ribbons and options, Keynote gives you a blank canvas and gets out of the way.

  • Welcome to Sobolev2 Theme

    January 15, 2024 1 min read

    A modern, minimalist Jekyll theme with light/dark mode support and beautiful card layouts.

  • Building Modern Jekyll Themes

    January 10, 2024 1 min read

    Learn how to create modern, responsive Jekyll themes with best practices for performance and accessibility.

  • Implementing Dark Mode in Jekyll

    January 5, 2024 1 min read

    A comprehensive guide to implementing dark mode in Jekyll themes using CSS custom properties and JavaScript.

2023

2018

  • Handheld to Handworn: Are you ready for it?

    January 5, 2018 2 mins read

    Thoughts on the significant shift in the personal device industry marked by the introduction of Apple's Watch Series 3. It marks an independence from handheld devices as we know them. It will shape consumer behavior and eventually surpass smartphones as the primary personal device.

2014