Hi, I'm Walter!
Right now, I'm on sabbatical working on personal projects. My current focus is on helping busy people read more books.
In 2024, I built:
- BookSlice, a gamified book reader that helps you finish 1 book/month (guaranteed)
- img2icns, an image to ICNS converter for developers making macOS apps
- SojuHWP, an application for reading Korean legal documents
- VisaHacks, a tool that simplifies checking visa requirements for Indian passport holders
From 2020 to 2023, I worked as a Product Manager at igloohome, where I led our software and design teams on the following projects:
- Bridge, Bluetooth/WiFi gateway
- Padlock 2, world's toughest smart padlock
- igloohome API, B2B smart lock API
- 3-year engineering tech stack migration
- iglooconnect, B2C smart lock integration platform
- IoT Deadbolt, B2B Deadbolt operating over NB-IoT / LTE-M
- and 10 other smart devices...
- ...Mortise Touch, Retrofit, Keypad, Push-Pull Mortise, Smart Lever Mortise, Key Fob, Padlock E, Keybox 3E, Rim Locks (Wooden Door, Metal Gates, Glass Doors)
My formal educational background is in mechanical engineering at NUS and liberal arts at USP.
selected readings
The following are either:
- Ideas I regularly reflect on, or
- Recommendations I have for specific questions related to productivity or my interests
Sometimes it's both.
productivity
- Augmenting Long-term Memory (by Michael Nielsen)
- Productivity, Scheduling, Reading Habits, Work, and More (by Marc Andreessen)
- Prioritizing Better (by Lynette Bye)
- Research as a Stochastic Design Process (by Jacob Steinhardt)
- Fermi Estimates (by Luke Muehlhauser)
interests
- Age of the Essay (by Paul Graham)
- Tidy Data (by Hadley Wickham)
- Brief Guide to Writing the Philosophy Paper (by Simon Rippon)
- This World of Ours (by James Mickens)
- Your Half’s Bigger Than My Half! (by Ian Stewart)
- What if you could do it all over? (by Joshua Rothman)
- Career Advice (by Moxie Marlinspike)
videos
- How to Write a Great Research Paper (by Simon Peyton Jones)
- How To Build a Thrust Vectored Model Rocket (by Joe Barnard)
- Powerpoint Programming (by Tom Wildenhain)
- Spinning Up in Deep RL (by OpenAI)
- The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (by J. Kenji López-Alt)
websites
- 80,000 Hours (Nonprofit researching and promoting effective altruism)
- GiveWell (Research helps direct donations to the most impactful charities)
- Cryptopals Crypto Challenges (48 exercises that demonstrate attacks on real-world crypto)
- builtformars (Insightful case studies from a UX consultancy)
- beancount (Double-entry accounting from text files)
projects
- BookSlice (Early Access) - the gamified book reader for busy people.
- img2icns - an image to ICNS converter for developers making macOS apps
- SojuHWP - a Java application for reading Korean legal documents on macOS.
- VisaHacks - a tool that simplifies checking visa requirements for Indian passport holders.
- Pokemon Search - An app I built while learning asychronous programming.
- Dragon Repeller - A simple HTML game I made while doing FreeCodeCamp.
- To Do - A to-do list using localStorage.
- Decision Maker - Roll a d20 or flip a coin to help you make decisions.
- Palindrome Checker - A simple site for checking palindromes.
- Chamberlain Coffee - I tried building Emma Chamberlain's website (without inspecting element) while learning HTML and CSS. Not mobile.
contact
Email: walter.spades[at]gmail.com