If I could give just one piece of advice to every aspiring builder/engineer/designer, it’d be to build something of your own. There’s a ton of courses, classes, and optimal paths that people will try to tell you to follow, but ultimately I believe that the best way to start is to… 

4 ways to live an asymmetric life, from Graham Weaver’s outstanding lecture at Stanford:
1.    Do hard things: Embrace challenges and discomfort because life is not supposed to be easy.


2.    Do your thing: Choose a path that aligns with your passions and values, even if it involves uncertainty and risk.

3.    Do it for decades: Commit to long-term goals and keep improving over time, realizing that great achievements take time.

4.    Write your story: Create a compelling vision for your future and take action to make it a reality, regardless of obstacles or fear.

Living an Asymmetric Life

tech that respects our time, attention, and wellbeing isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the future we should be building towards.

the real test of humane technology isn’t in how many problems it solves, but in how many it prevents. prevention over cure.

consider the impact of social media. initially, it solved the problem of connectivity but later created issues like misinformation and mental health concerns. humane technology anticipates these outcomes.

the key is in designing with foresight. it’s about asking, ‘what problems might this create?’ rather than just ‘what problems does this solve?’”

Designing Humane Technology

happy to announce that i'm returning to building projects and writing full time. the decision was simple: it's a matter of working on things that actually matter and are unique to my experiences and perspectives.

what i'm focusing on this year:

2023 was the year for ai. i believe 2024 will be the year for humane technology + ai.

what is humane technology? there's a lot of definitions, but i personally define it as technology that radically prioritizes a human's key goals and wellbeing, rather than exploiting them for profit.

there's been plenty of examples of humane products, but they've largely been overshadowed by profit driven ones.

i believe ai will completely flip this paradigm in an important way, yet controversial way.

chatgpt is the seminal example of this new, controversial age of humane technology. while google optimizes for the amount of sponsored links you see and click, chatgpt just gives you the answer.

but of course, with that comes all of the concerns with privacy, data rights, etc.

this space is rapidly growing and it's about to explode into mainstream conversation with the release of humane products such as Humane's A.I. pin, Rabbit R1's pocket companion, and more.

extremely excited to build and write in this space!

Returning to Building Projects and Writing Full Time

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Excerpt From:
Make Something Wonderful, available for free on Apple Books

https://books.apple.com/us/book/make-something-wonderful/id6446905902
This material may be protected by copyright.

Here’s to the Crazy Ones

Some people struggle to understand why startups exist when there are bigger companies with bigger wallets to execute on similar ideas.

The answer is focus.

Startups succeed over big companies because they focus on answering the questions that big companies are either too scared or too bogged down with corporate bureaucracy to answer.

And they answer them fast. Good startup teams are comprised of viciously fast executors…

The type of people to completely build and launch a new idea in the time it takes a big tech company to even pass the idea around to all the relevant stakeholders, let alone even thinking of building it.

I chose the startup path because of this. I want to learn what it means to be a part of new innovation in the world…

To poke and prod at completely new and exciting questions that, if answered, will change entire industries.

And above all, to have a chance to make something truly wonderful for people.

My goal isn’t to learn how to scale something to billions of people. This is the main concern at most big tech companies. It comes in different flavors and sizes, but it’s largely the same.

My goal is to learn what it means to build the type of product that elicits an overwhelming sense of joy and empathy when you use it.

Where when you use it, you immediately feel that someone else in the world understands you: your problems, your fears, your joy and happiness.

This is only possible when a small, optimistic group of people band together and wake up everyday with a singular, unified goal: to focus on a problem and the group of people that experience that problem, deeply.

The Power of Startups: Focus and Speed

Exciting news: as of a few weeks ago, I’m officially on a leave of absence from Rice to become a founding engineer at Hazel https://www.linkedin.com/company/meethazel/! It’s been a crazy ride so far. In the last 3 months, I:

- Quit my big tech NYC internship to move to a hacker house in Silicon Valley called Incepto
- Met the nicest people at Incepto, who introduced me to the Bay Area and made me feel at home
- Built an indie startup from the ground up and got it acquired

- Joined Hazel full time! At Hazel, we’re reimagining every realtors workflow with generative AI.

This is the start of a new chapter for me, so I thought it’d be fitting to share my thoughts and learnings so far:

Follow your heart. It’ll take you to the strangest of places. For me, my heart took me to Silicon Valley, to a random hacker house full of strangers from all over. It was the first time I’d ever left home to live somewhere myself. Everything was so foreign to me.

Often times, I’d wonder if I’m in over my head and if I should just call it quits. But deep down, in my heart, I knew I was in the right place.

I don’t know how all of the dots will connect yet. No one can. I’ll only know that looking back. But I can feel in my heart that they’re connecting in some way. That’s a good sign.

Going off the beaten path is hard. There’s a lot of uncertainty that your logical mind won’t be able to comprehend, and a lot of people that will tell you to stick to the safe path. That’s when your heart plays a huge role.

You’ll never be able to describe it in words, but your heart knows the way. You just have to listen.

When it comes to making tough decisions in life, the best way to decide is to ask yourself: when I’m on my deathbed, looking back, would I regret this decision? Evaluating future regret reveals what’s most important to you in life. Everything else falls to the wayside.

For once in my life, I want to see something all the way through. I want to get through the tough times and be there for the good times. It’s the journey to me that matters, not the end result. Now, I finally have the chance to do that.

I plan to start writing and posting again, as I’ve been learning so much during this journey. I can’t wait to share it with you all.

To everyone who supports me, especially those who helped me through this decision, thank you.

It’s a new day.

Joining Hazel as a Founding Engineer!

This isn’t when my story ends. And it isn’t when it begins either.

But it is when the story gets exciting.

When the pace picks up.

You shift to the edge of your seat.

And you can just feel with your heart how amazing the ending is going to be.

Within your body, there's a wealth of untapped energy. Unleashing it is no trivial task, but it's something you can work on daily.

1) Get in a comfortable, neutral position.
2) Take a deep breath, and close your eyes.
3) Visualize waves of energy flowing from the Earth to you.

This simple visualization is extremely powerful.

The world is full of energy, and you are a small but powerful part of the world.

Let that energy flow to you, and you can change the world.