2024 wrapped 🇮🇳🇨🇦🇺🇸

4 min read: favourite links of the year + an ask from you

this is by far the most insane and best year of my life.

grateful for a year of beautiful ppl <3

some wild things I did:

• went to my first few frat parties

• drove a two-wheeler scooter in india

• childhood best friend visited sf so rented a convertible car and went off on a trip with him

• got a tattoo in japanese text

• organized events for ~800 people in 5 countries

• established a successful startup program in 3 months in a city i had never been in before, having known no one there, which helped change some people’s lives completely! more about it here

• flew to 10 cities

• made a research product for the ministries of education of Canadian provinces

• for once, got romantically interested in someone

• bouldered for 3 months every week for 3/4 days

• cold plunged in pacific ocean at 6am and lake ontario at 1am

• attended a berkeley class for an entire semester — asking and answering questions and presenting my final project in front of the class. i was never enrolled in the university.

• crashed a car. got a flat tire.

• walked/ran ~1700 kilometres

• made some of my closest friends and met tens of most beautiful and ambitious humans in the world <3

• stepped down as a co-founder for the residency and went back to university sophomore year

• got my lowest mark in uni.

• grew my twitter following from 200 to 4.4k.

mistakes:

1. there were some months where i got jack all done because i was around really ambitious and like-minded people and got swayed in hanging out with them and feeling at home — a reason i chose not to be in a hacker house august onwards. i need to get myself disciplined back again before going in the same environment.

2. i keep trying to find perfect things: a perfect dad, a perfect co-founder, a perfect girlfriend, a perfect university, a perfect city, perfect group of friends. when i don’t get perfection of my high standards, i often leave and try to find substitutes. i’m coming to a point of realization that no one and nothing is ever perfect. trying to find the better group of people, a better girlfriend, a better city, a better university — all has left me eluded inside. i think it’s time i help make these people/places better than chasing perfection in other places and people.

3. overpromising and underdelivering.

4. not setting priorities well.

learnings:

1. chase learning skills and knowledge, never status. if i work hard enough and let my work speak for myself, i will automatically get status for my work than status through credentialism.

2. work on more stupid projects, not expecting every project to the next facebook. typically, for every 5 ideas that end up making millions, there are 95 sideprojects that went nowhere.

3. the ppl i surround myself with, deeply impact my life. but that is not end all be all. i still need to gun-to-my-head chase learning and exercise authenticity regularly.

4. in startups as coding becomes easier and easier, distribution (access to a big following of ppl) is key for marketing.

5. post-secondary education is mostly severely outdated, yet dropping out is taboo because of credentialism.

6. how to build effective communities. check out my article on how I pulled the Bangalore cohort of The Residency off — the hardest challenge of my year.

7. working on my body is important. for longevity and also self-esteem.

8. the harder things I do, the better my self-esteem becomes.

9. don’t let the compliments inflate my self-esteem when they come from people i wouldn’t take advice from.

10. status lags by a generation typically. family is usually not good for career advice — mentors closer to my age are crucial.

11. i love capitalism. i was always confused my entire life how to combine my interests in coding, design, making videos, making art&craft projects, hosting events. university majors are very siloed. the best part about building the residency was being able to combine all my interests together for the first time, go viral and make a decent bit of money! that’s incredibly beautiful.

12. sometimes you could do everything right. raise millions of dollars, work on your dream company, achieve your dreams, but still end up feeling empty. buildspace shutting down affected me a lot.

goals for 2025:

• get a motorcycle license and a motorcycle (sorry family)

• learn to cook a few more dishes

• get a 3000/day calorie intake with food i like and bulk up.

• ship something every week for 2025. an app, an essay, a video on repairing my motorbike. have to dedicate 10 to 20 hours per week on this minimum.

• work under someone i admire

• make this the most learning intense year of my life — learnings things i value not just university.

major shoutout to the people who made this year so lovely and wholesome for me: the residency exec team + the community at large, arcadia gang, buildspace sf2 gang, c-house ppl, massi and bhaiya and family, and many more gems! special shoutout to will, abinaya, finn, samarth, aakarsh for being such wholesome souls whom i miss a ton <3

favourite links of the year:

1. [blog] what i would if i was eighteen: https://levels.io/eighteen/

2. [blog] school is not enough: https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/06/06/school-is-not-enough.

3. [technical blog] how discord stores trillions of messages: https://discord.com/blog/how-discord-stores-trillions-of-messages?curius=2555

4. [resource] teach yourself computer science: https://teachyourselfcs.com

5. [fun sidequest] tech bro purity test:

   https://www.techbropuritytest.com/?curius=2555

6. [personal website] riley walz (makes random amazing hacks): https://walzr.com

7. [book] the third door. if you’re someone who wants to really figure out a way to get into networks any people in the world (as high profile as you could) think for whatever reason, this book is the way.

8. [book] recession proof graduate. one of my friends mateo told me about this. impeccable book for anyone struggling to figure out what job to get in the future and how. 80 pages long. here’s the book.

9. [resource] merge.club. great guide if you’re looking to get grants for your projects. don’t necessarily need experience just a vision. vary from $200 to $100,000 with instructions from past alumni on how to get these. https://merge.club

10. [blog] life is a picture but you live in a pixel (thanks azmain for the send!): https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/life-is-picture-but-you-live-in-pixel.html

ask to you: i’m finding part-time/full-time roles for both jan 2025 and may 2025. priority is to work under exceptional people who will give me lots of responsibility and autonomy, while a place to learn a ton. industry agnostic but preferred media, education, ai b2b/b2c, venture. i can do design, growth, marketing and community building most strongly. also software, just not as cracked but willing to discuss and learn!

an ideal role is like this:

(i applied just haven’t heard back from them yet)

thank you for reading and happy holidays <3