Let me start by telling you a story:
In 1957, almost 22 years into the Cold War, the entire world was rendered speechless after witnessing the successful launch of the first-ever artificial satellite - Sputnik. Furious by the Soviet Union’s leap into the heavens, the USA entered the space race. NASA was formed in 1958 by Eisenhower. In 1961, the Soviet Union successfully sent a man into space and Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
Going to the moon isn’t sexy to think about anymore so it can be difficult to imagine the impact of this move. A man was able to set foot on the moon for the first time in history in 1969.
In 1969, 96% of US telephones still had dials. The microwave oven wasn’t in half of US homes until 1986. The handheld calculator, the Sony Walkman, the VCR, and the cordless phone didn’t hit until the early 1980s. But America was on the moon. Let that sink in.
The space suits of the two Apollo 11 astronauts were assembled by hand. Their parachutes were cut and sewn by hand. Apollo’s two onboard computers had hardware programs instead of software. Their wires and tiny metal rings were woven by hand with absolute precision to create the 0s and 1s. The sheer dedication of hundreds of thousands of people to accomplish a goal so brave blows my mind.
I read somewhere that the purpose of life is to love, to suffer, and to do something bigger than oneself. Reading about all the chaos in the world makes me think about how some, under the influence of their circumstances, choose to inflict suffering on others, while some bravely absorb the suffering of others around them, turning it into their own. Thinking about the fundamentals of the Lucifer effect (how good people turn evil) and the fact that life inevitably ricochets back at us, helps me pick which side of suffering I’d like to be on.
The heaviness of doing something bigger than yourself weighed upon me when I realized that doing/building something great is, not a task that can be checked off a to-do list. It’s a mindset that one needs to accomplish for sustained growth. As I continue to develop that mindset, I aim to instill somewhat cliche but thought-about virtues in myself along the way - consistency, honesty, and liberty.
Things I am onto:
America in the 1960s laid the groundwork for a fast, interdependent, and technology-driven future. People believed that there was nothing they couldn’t do and that failure was unacceptable. Americans won the space race because they knew what their finishing line would look like and how that one race could change how the world looked at them. Not everyone took winning seriously, but those who did knew how to get others to run their race by simply proving that - “Us reaching our goal is inevitable. We will win despite you leaving, but if you stay, we can both win.”
Inspiration is a temporary, dopamine-filled substitute for unwanted desires. It’s very easy to forget about the important things that completely changed the world. So, to do great things, we choose to act on these inspirations with the hope of carrying the baton passed on by great men and women who once moved humanity forward
One of the stories that greatly inspires me is of a janitor. President Kennedy visited the NASA Space Center in 1962 and saw a janitor carrying a broom. Kennedy introduced himself and asked the janitor “What are you doing?”.
The janitor replied,
“I am helping put a man on the moon Mr. President.”We don’t know what the future will look like but I have a clear idea of what I want it to look like with infinite clean energy, extremely fast air travel, multi-planetary space flights for the public, connecting every corner of the world, and so much more. This is why I believe that it is very important for everyone to work on problems that are valuable for the future.
On reading about great scientists and engineers, dead and alive, I came across the fact that many of these people were pretty religious. It was a very interesting question of why. I came to the conclusion that people follow religion because it provides them with - meaning, purpose, and discipline. The 3 things we need to succeed in our work. Not everyone gets these sense of emotions from religion. I don’t. But everyone eventually finds something that can give them hope.
Meaning, Purpose, Discipline.
Duty, Honor, Country.
Love, Celebration, Life.
It's important to find what you believe in. It's important to find your religion.
I constantly try to tell myself that if I am not building for the future, I am doing something wrong. If my actions in the present do not make me a better person in the future, I am doing something wrong.
The chances of finding out what’s really going on in the universe are so remote, the only thing to do is hang the sense of it and keep yourself occupied. ~ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.There are two types of people in the world - the ones that follow the crowd and those that don’t. No one is born with either one of the personalities. They usually pick one and go along with it for the rest of their lives. Humans are very easy to comprehend.
Everything can be black and white. All your difficult decisions can be boiled down to a yes or no. Those who like to stay in the gray space are just not being honest with themselves. Being decisive is one of the hardest thing one has to do emotionally. But if you want to make bold decisions and move things forward, you have to be both decisive and honest.
I spent my entire first year in the university being insanely busy. Being busy is an incredibly easy thing to do but you don’t really want to do the easy things in life. Especially not when your time and cognitive output are on the line. Let me repeat it again - being busy is a VERY easy thing to do. All you need is 3 hours of sleep in a day, an illusion of being productive, and an unhealthy amount of caffeine. Actual productivity is tough to crack. Most people can’t sit down for more than an hour and be extremely productive. I haven’t figured out how to be productive yet but I have made exponential progress with my ability to differentiate between what’s productive and what’s just keeping me busy. It takes a lot of courage and honesty to tell yourself that everything you’ve done in your life so far is bullshit and it requires change. It’s difficult to accept that you’ve wasted time and potential. But I think it’s easier to be disappointed with your own actions than being disappointed with life itself.
Sam Altman’s essay “The Days Are Long but the Decades Are Short” talks about the importance of differentiating between being busy and being productive. The idea behind this completely changed the way I function.
I think the root cause of this problem is not having a vision in life. You know what the worst part is? - people fall into the trap of being busy when they are trying to tell themselves that they have something to chase after. When you have a vision, i.e. something you’re passionate about, then you won’t require any productivity hacks to keep you going. The sense of urgency to solve the problem would come naturally in that case. The popular opinion on finding your vision defines it as - “finding something that you’d want to do for the rest of your life”. I strongly disagree with that notion. We should have different visions for all of our projects and very frequently keep track of what we’re working towards. The half-life of any technical knowledge is 15 years. The technical world changes so rapidly. No way you should do one thing for the rest of your life.
here’s some math for this:
Productivity = Output/ InputI like to assess productivity by comparing it to impact since there’s no use of doing something if it isn’t benefitting you or someone else.
I=ΔU×P( I = Overall Impact, ΔU = improvement over the current state of the art (utility delta), P = number of people (or entities) affected by this change )
Combining impact with productivity:
for growing productivity, i like to compare how much more efficiently something can be accomplished using the new method compared to the old method.
The productivity for the old method:
Pold = Oold/IoldOold = Output using old method
Iold = Input using old method
Pold = Productivity using old method
The productivity for the new method:
Pnew=Onew/InewThe difference in productivity (ΔP) would then be:
ΔP = Pnew−PoldFinally the impact due to productivity change is:
I=ΔP×P(P is the number of people affected)
maybe this was an insanely long way of saying - stop being busy, cut out the noise, and focus on finding what excites you the most.
Some topics that I am currently interested in learning more about:
live long and prosper :]
I got a fridge magnet that says, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”. It sounded so motivating and inspiring in the moment so, I kept it on my desk and started staring at it, looking for the right answer. I could not think of anything that I was not doing already because everything thing I do has been my choice alone. Things are really simple for me that way - i don’t have anyone to blame for my actions, and no one is holding me back from what I really want to do. I am not implying that I am privileged. Freedom of your thoughts and actions is not a privilege, It’s a choice you make for yourself. With that being said, I believe that the question, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail” is faulty in itself. The real question one should ask oneself should be, “What would you still do if you knew you could fail?” Holding ourselves back just because there is a possibility of things not working out is not the most fun mindset to have. Especially not when the world is moving so fast. Failing quickly and constantly is such a powerful thing to do. It gives you the ability to try things out and move on if it doesn’t work out. A good example of that can be relationships. You go out with someone and it doesn’t work out. That breakup, aka failure in sustaining a relationship, teaches you to do things differently the next time and make the right choices - choices that aren’t just healthy for you but for those around you.
In San Francisco, I met the people I have considered idols all my life. Thanks to social media, we make idols out of a shit ton of people. Every word spoken (tweeted) by them is like a verse from the Bible and worth changing your life for. I was in a room filled with 800 of such people. Investors, founders, CEOs, developers, and whatnot - billions of dollars walking around the room. After sharing a couple of slices of pizza, talking about everything capitalism and looking them in their eyes, I realised how human they are. Not superstars, not idols. Just plain and simple human beings who chose to take risks in life and weren’t afraid of failure. It’s undeniably useful to be inspired by someone else’s work but making gods out of other human beings will only force you to change yourself for the worse. This realisation made me feel extremely free. Free from the rush mindset, and free from the clock that’s always ticking at the back of my head. Understanding the importance of originality was the most important lesson I could have learned before the age of 20.
Anywho, I am back at university for one more semester and I can’t wait to see how crazy it is going to be. I will be chasing experiences, not GPA. Saying Yes to a lot of things but not everything. Thinking long term but not ignoring the short term. Taking bold risks and failing embarrassingly a lot. see u.
Week 1 at Stanford has been amazing so far. Met new people, fountain hoped (stanny’s tradition where you jump into water fountains on campus), got tanned in the california sun and pushed myself to keep dreaming big. If you’re ever planning to be here, I 100% recommend taking ME 344 with Steve Jones. We are learning to assemble and install a computer node from scratch :))
Looking back into Stanford’s history, the founders - Jane and Leeland Stanford wanted to build something that would help humanity move forward. An institution for learning, a place to bring people together. I let history inspire me as I try to instill the same values into LifeWire. I’ve heard a lot of people telling me how this is the dotcom era for AI and how this is both the best and the worst time to build a company in AI. This makes me think about the trends of human rat race alot. From a non-pessimestic perspective, it’s fascinating how we like to absolutely dive deep into a field until it saturates and the “bubble” bursts. Future is highly undeterministic and I strongly believe in pursuing what excites us in the moment (ofc be responsible about it). We have received primary feedback from more than 70 potential users and secondary feedback from more than 120. We have 15 people signed up for our closed beta launch on August 1st. Sign ups still open at - https://www.lifewire.live.
What can you expect from this version? Great question.
We spent hours thinking about features that can help people find out their true ambition. Guess what? It doesn’t work that way. Ambition can be really personal and changes with every individual. What we can do instead is to provide them with a platform that helps them get started and try new things.
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. ~ Steve Jobs
Yeah I know, I clearly love this speech so much. I want people to be as concerned about being happy doing what they do as they are about looking for their perfect partner. Life’s too short to not do something epic.
Last month has been crazy - finished my first year of university with average grades and above-average life plans. Travelled all the way back to India only to die from the heat (ate some amazing food that instantly made me sick. Worth it.). It's fascinating what AI's been doing to the world lately. I wonder if people felt the same way when Apple introduced the iMac and Google introduced their first search engine. I am sure Gordon Moore had an "aha" moment after seeing the ambition during the 70s and covered it with his transistors mummbo jumbo to come up with Moore's law. Every day I wake up to someone building something cool on the internet and it genuinely excites me to see how much potential people have.
Ok enough with the emotional outburst.
Life update - I met Dominic Zlat, an 18-year-old high school student and self-taught full stack developer from Romania through Y Combinator's co-founder matching program (I clearly love to tell this story lol.) I don't think I've ever emphasized this enough but I love YC so much. I think they are doing some really cool stuff out there. So, Dominic and I instantly started talking about how it's 2023 and people are still stuck in their boring jobs and are unable to figure out what they truly wish to do in life. We instantly came up with this solution - why don't we let people try out different career paths before choosing the right one for themselves? Rest was history.
With shine in our eyes and strong black coffee in our cups, we started building our dream project - LifeWire (no we are not the tech news platform :3) We desperately wanted feedback and hence, we started talking to people. Within a week, we realized that this wouldn't be as simple as we imagined it to be. Thankfully, we also very quickly realized that it’s our monkey brain talking and started enjoying the thrill that’s coming with building a platform that’s not easy to make. I mean what’s a better way to learn than tinker with hard problems, specially at a stage where we have no users or investors to disappoint? I am writing it all here so that I can come back to this one day and connect the dots. Because -
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” ~ Steve Jobs
P.S. - I wanted to leave some resources that never fail to inspire me. I hope they can prove to be the same for you.