About

Hello. I'm Irfan.

I'm an engineer based in Malaysia, working in the energy industry. That's enough about the day job.

Why "The Present Estimate"

Engineers make estimates all the time. Best-available-data, bounded-by-assumptions, revised-as-new-information-arrives kinds of estimates. None of them are truths in the philosophical sense — they're models, approximations, the present best guess given what we know now.

I think most of life works this way too. Opinions, beliefs, understandings of how the world functions — these are estimates. They're only as good as the evidence behind them, and they should revise when new evidence arrives. The discipline is in holding them lightly enough to update, but firmly enough to act on.

This blog is where I write down some of those estimates. It's the present approximation of what I'm thinking, reading, and building — updated as the estimate revises itself.

What You'll Find Here

A mix, really:

• Opinions on things I've been chewing on — sometimes technical, sometimes not.
• Stories from work, travel, family life, or whatever seems worth telling.
• Observations about places, systems, and the quieter patterns that run underneath them.
• Occasional digressions into law, language, history, or whatever rabbit hole I've fallen into recently.

I write in UK English because that's what I was taught, and because colour and behaviour look more dignified with their extra letters.

What This Blog Isn't

It isn't my employer's blog. Nothing here represents the views of any company I work for — these are personal opinions, written outside of working hours, on my own equipment. Nothing here is professional advice.

It also isn't a finished product. Posts may be updated, retracted, or superseded. That's the nature of estimates — they revise.

Getting in Touch

If you'd like to say hello, point out where I'm wrong, or compare notes on something I've written, you can reach me at [email protected].

Thanks for reading.