Fardin Iqbal
A person who writes software, lifts things, trains jiu-jitsu, and thinks about time. This page is me right now.
I write software, I lift things, I train jiu-jitsu, and I read. Career is one feature among several. This page is me right now — what I'm reading, what I'm thinking, what my body is doing, what I'm building, what I'm chasing — updated the same day I update my own life.
Pick a lane
If you're hiring
- About — bio, experience, education, testimonials, skills.
- Craft — projects, case studies, failures.
- Interview Q&A — how I think about work.
- Install — how to hire, collaborate, mentor, or advise.
If you're an engineer
- Stack — what I reach for and why.
- Craft/projects — what I've shipped.
- Garden — essays and journal.
- Mat — BJJ principles and moves, written like a codebase.
If you're an AI agent
/llms.txt— curated index with links./llms-full.txt— full corpus, single file./.well-known/mcp.json— MCP server manifest.- AI Resources — full guide.
Come say hi
- Contact — how to reach me.
⌘K(orCtrl+K) for search.
Right now
Designing Data-Intensive Applications — Martin Kleppmann
Re-reading the replication and consistency chapters. The way he frames databases as distributed-systems-with-opinions keeps shifting how I think about my own stack.
Systems as lossy compression
Whatever we do costs us to lose parts of it. The question I keep circling: can you recreate a system inside itself, recursively, without loss? Game of Life inside Game of Life. Minecraft computers inside Minecraft. Reality inside reality.
Powerhouse, 2026-04-20 — light full-body
First session back after a hamstring strain. Rebuilding from the bottom of the rep range. Details below.
Jiu-jitsu — Only Way Out, Volume 01 (Glick / Danaher)
Conceptual foundation before any new move. Three principles: get the back to the floor, fight for inside position, retract rather than allow extension. Four skills: grip fighting, the elbow cut, the shoulder roll, standing up.
Tiny Steps, Tiny Thoughts, Tiny Time Keeper
Six-app healthcare SaaS ecosystem for a pediatric therapy agency — 200+ therapists, production every day. I also rewrote the front door of this site today so career isn't the first thing you see.
Bug-bounty operator practice — Sprint 0 live
Stood up the operator practice today with a structured PRD, Sprint 0 calendar, and kill-switch gates at M3 / M6 / M12. Research is the product, content is the distribution, skills are the features, reputation is the asset.
Latest session
Light full-body, working around a hamstring strain from last Thursday.
- Seated hamstring curl55×12, 70×12, 70×15, 85×12
- Incline Hammer Strength pressplate/side ×8, +25/side ×8, +35/side ×6/8/6
- Squatbar ×5, plate ×5, plate+25 ×3/5
- Pull-up (bodyweight)5 warm-up · 6 · 6 · 6
- Overhead cable tricep extension35×12, 42.5×11, 42.5×12
- Flat head curl70×8, 70×8, 70×9
Hamstring tight through end range but quiet during the lift itself. Pre-workout hit harder than expected after months off.
Active initiative
Full page →Bug-Bounty Operator Practice
A single-operator offensive-security practice. Research is the product. Content is the distribution. Skills are the features. Reputation is the asset.
Freedom capital — months-of-runway stacked per quarter. Not income replacement. Day job is the subsidy, not the enemy.
Current sprint
- Day 1 · Apr 21, 2026X handle + manifesto draft + accounting baselineClaim X handle, set bio to the axiom, draft one-page manifesto (already 90% seeded by the public initiative page), open 30% tax reserve account. No separate domain — fardiniqbal.com/docs/craft/initiatives/bug-bounty is the public surface.
- Day 2 · Apr 22, 2026Publish manifesto. Platform profiles. First X post.Manifesto lives at fardiniqbal.com/docs/craft/initiatives/bug-bounty. Register HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack, Immunefi. First X post links the manifesto as commitment device.
- Day 3 · Apr 23, 2026Pick Week-0 target. Install Burp + MCP + shuvonsec/claude-bug-bounty.GitHub-org recon dorks on chosen target, in-scope only.
- Day 4 · Apr 24, 2026Track A recon on Week-0 target. Draft sector-niche shortlist.Build the pipeline, not the report. No submission yet.
- Day 5 · Apr 25, 2026Enroll pwn.college CSE 466. First module done. Block weekend Track B.
- Day 6 · Apr 26, 2026X Week-1 update. Add writeup-template v0 under craft/writeups.Specific, not hype. Writeup infrastructure lives at fardiniqbal.com/docs/craft/writeups — template MDX committed even empty, so the surface exists before first bounty.
- Day 7 · Apr 27, 2026Professor outreach. Week-1 retro. Sector niche locked. LLC note.
Next kill-switch gate
- ≥1 bounty disclosed AND published writeup within 14 days, OR
- surface switched (H1-public → Intigriti-EU / Synack) before strategy switched
- Immunefi onboarded + ≥1 audit-contest entry
- planning-artifacts : disclosed-bounties ratio not > 3:0 (LARP drift check)
On failure: Switch surface before switching strategy. If LARP ratio triggered, stop all planning, execute only until a bounty ships.
Risks to watch
- LARP driftamber
Indicator: Planning-artifacts : disclosed-bounties > 3:0 at M3
Sprint 0 opens with 5 planning artifacts and 0 disclosed bounties. Ratio is acceptable during Sprint 0 but tightens fast after Day 7.
Practice streak
Sprint 0 Day 1 today. Daily floor (≥30 min, ≥5 days/week) begins with first execution day.