About Me

Hey there! I’m Yazeed Alharthi, and welcome to my corner of the internet. I am a software developer with a Bachelor of Science in CS from Pittsburgh. I’m currently job-hunting and awaiting responses from a few graduate schools. This blog is all about my personal projects, discoveries, and interests. Here, I share new topics I’ve learned, software development techniques, and cool demos.

Software Preferences

I’m a fan of keeping things simple and customizable. I like tools that let me get under the hood and tweak things just how I want.

editor

I use Emacs as my primary text editor. It’s got everything I need like PDF tools, a built-in LSP client, a great built-in file manager, and smooth handling of shell commands. My Emacs setup is bare minimal; I stick to the defaults for buffer jumping, file switching, and code searching. Sometimes, I use VSCodium for quick tasks, so I juggle between the two.

OS

I favor Unix-based operating systems. I started with macOS, but a few years ago, I switched to Arch Linux. Arch’s philosophy and its solid package ecosystem won me over. The AUR and pacman are fantastic — I can confidently run pacman/yay -S [package name] and find what I’m looking for. I’ve got both an LTS kernel and a rolling kernel installed, and I can switch between them just in case one decides to misbehave (though that hasn’t happened yet). My system is lean and purpose-built — no bloated desktop environment. It’s just a text editor, browser, file manager, terminal, and a few tools for managing audio, WiFi, Bluetooth, and media. It’s simple, and I like it that way.

Window manager

I’m still sticking with X11. I started with bspwm and used it for years, but a few months ago, I switched to my own window manager. It’s opinionated and fits my workflow perfectly.

Languages I like

I love exploring different languages. I’ve written small to medium-sized projects in Rust, TS, Java, Zig, Haskell, C, C++, and Go but C and Go are my top picks. For me, C and Go stand out because they’re small and simple, and one can have a comprehensive understanding of them easily. Plus, they basically lack what you take for granted in other languages, which I find both challenging and rewarding!

If not coding, I will be

I do have a life outside of coding. If I’m not tinkering with my OS or writing code, I’ll probably be out for a walk, catching up on a TV show (recommendations welcome!), reading a book, or playing chess (always up for a challenge), pool, or volleyball. I’ve collected around 100 books over the years on topics like fiction, non-fiction, history, religions, cultures, and psychology. Some of my favorite authors are Paulo Coelho, Robert Greene, Matt Haig, Hans Rosling, and Jostein Gaarder.

I also enjoy following and learning from some of the big brains in computer science like Rob Pike, Andy Pavlo, John Carmack, James Gosling, and Linus Torvalds.

Contact

I’m not really into social media — I’ve tried Insta, Snap, and Twitter but just never got into them. However, I’m always excited to connect with people who share similar interests, potential employers, or anyone who wants to collaborate on cool ideas. The best way to reach me is via email at yazeed4n@gmail.com, or you can DM me on Discord.