Hi! I am Irtiza.
An Engineering Manager by day, and a Blogger and YouTuber by night.
MANAGEMENT(2)
PHILOSOPHY(7)
PRODUCTIVITY(9)
TRAVEL(7)
MONEY(9)
BOOKS(2)
PROGRAMMING(14)
October 21, 2025
Measure Business Value, Not Number of Tickets Closed
Measuring developer productivity.
September 15, 2024
5 Engineering Management Philosophies I Have Found Helpful
A challenging, but rewarding start to management.
September 13, 2024
Thoughts on Living a Less Stimulated Life
Boredom + Silence can be truly transformative.
August 27, 2024
The App That Helped Me Cut Down Screen Time and Stay Productive
Saving 10 years worth of screen time using one iOS app.
August 13, 2024
Making a Childhood Dream Come True with Credit Card Points
Staying in South Carolina and watching Manchester United — Liverpool for FREE!
August 10, 2024
The Only Bank Account You Need to Hit Your Financial Goals
Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.
August 6, 2024
How I Stopped Overspending on Credit Cards
Earn rewards without paying interest and late fee.
August 4, 2024
Half Year Spending Check-in 2024
A deep dive into where I spent my money so far this year.
July 30, 2024
My Automated Payday Routine 2024
I have hit every financial goal since transitioning to this automated system.
July 23, 2024
Embracing Parental Advice for a Better Routine
Going back to basics for a better routine.
July 15, 2024
5 Books I Will Read in Q3’2024
Switching gears and moving back to reading non-fictions exclusively.
July 2, 2024
$3,712 of Free Travel in 2024 Using Credit Card Points
5 Cities. Business Class Flights. Free Hotel Nights.
June 19, 2024
I Turned My Blog Into an RSS Feed
Instead of relying on algorithms to push your content, use old-school RSS feeds to notify your followers whenever you post.
June 15, 2024
Creating an Audio Blog Using OpenAI and PyDub
Grow your audience by appealing to people who enjoy audiobooks and podcasts.
June 11, 2024
I Created A Comprehensive Self-Hosted Digital Identity for $12/month
Smart search, blog, newsletter, analytics, affiliate marketing, RSS feed — everything self-hosted and FREE!
June 4, 2024
I Built a Realtime Smart Search Pipeline
Making all my blog posts and YouTube videos searchable in real-time.
June 1, 2024
Building an AI Search Feature With OpenAI Embeddings & Postgres Vectors
Helping visitors search across all my blogs and YouTube videos with some OpenAI magic.
May 27, 2024
Protecting Against Bot Attacks Using Nginx Rate Limits
Implement custom rate limits per API endpoint.
May 19, 2024
Investing $30 Daily vs $150 Weekly
Experimenting with growth vs value investment strategies in 2024.
May 12, 2024
The 2-Hour Plan to Achieve Goals in 2024
Lowering the bar and increasing the frequency. A new plan for better results in 2024.
May 4, 2024
A Powerful Private Open Source Alternative to Google Analytics
Custom events, reports, and conversion funnels - all with more privacy baked in.
April 28, 2024
Self-Hosting a Free Private Google Analytics Alternative
All the web analytics you need, without the surveillance-like tracking.
April 21, 2024
Finally Making Sense of Responsive Screens
How I made my NextJS website responsive without learning about HTML and CSS.
April 14, 2024
I Pay $0 for a 10,000 Subscriber Self-Hosted Email Newsletter System
I saved >$100/month by migrating to a self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager to run my small business.
April 7, 2024
Hosting Multiple Web Apps and APIs with Nginx Reverse Proxies
Deploy all your frontend apps, backend APIs, and other services using one server and one domain.
April 2, 2024
How I Set Up My Private Cloud Server for Development
Replicating my perfect local development workflow in a cloud server to code and deploy from anywhere in the world.
March 10, 2024
I Finally Figured out Nginx Reverse Proxy
How I exposed my NextJS and FastAPI powered website to the public internet using Nginx web server on a Linux server.
March 5, 2024
I Bought a Cloud Server for $12/month
How I saved more than $100 by self-hosting instead of using cloud-based SASS products.
January 5, 2024
5 Best Books I Read in 2023
A year of reading books from a wide range of domains and perspectives.
January 4, 2024
My 2024 Credit Card Strategy
Core setup, new cards, travel redemptions, and hotel, flight, and car rental elite statuses.
January 2, 2024
How Much Money I Made From Credit Cards in 2023
I earned 630,000 credit card points which equates to around $8,500 USD.
December 28, 2023
Flying 10,000 Miles in Turkish Airlines Business Class
First international business class experience with FREE upgrade using credit card points!
December 10, 2023
Travel Hacking San Francisco
How I paid $0 instead of $2,543 with credit card points.
October 20, 2023
I Spent $0 Instead of $4,000 on Travel in 2023
How I funded all my 2023 travel using credit card points, such as Membership Reward points and Capital One miles.
June 12, 2023
How I Travel the World for Free Using Credit Card Points
A simple 3-step process that earned me trips to Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, and Toronto for free!
January 4, 2023
5 Purchases to Boost Your Productivity in 2023
Kick off the new year with these purchases to have your most productive year so
November 30, 2022
What's on my iPhone (iOS 16 Edition)
A redesigned setup maximizing the latest iOS widgets for at-a-glance information.
November 13, 2022
10 Sustainable Lifestyle Changes You Can Make
For starters, switch to reusable water bottles and grocery bags.
November 5, 2022
10 Things You Should Do When You Get Paid
Prioritize your future self before budgeting and spending.
October 31, 2022
5 Cheap Purchases to Make You More Productive
Being productive does not have to be expensive.