About me

From a young age, I found myself stumbling into achievements others found remarkable. When I was just 11, I dreamt up a fantasy fiction story, and by 14, I had transformed that idea into a full manuscript, which I published. By 15, I had managed to republish it at a lower cost for an Indian audience, which opened doors to book signings, speeches at schools, and media coverage in various Indian newspapers.

At 17, I decided to diverge from the traditional path of JEE prep and instead took the SAT on a whim, scoring 1480 out of 1600. A retake without any additional prep yielded a 1530, super-scoring to a 1550. Armed with these scores, I applied to international colleges and eventually chose to attend Carnegie Mellon, one of the top-ranked Computer Science programs in the world.

My four years at Carnegie Mellon were packed with opportunities. I majored in Computer Science and minored in Machine Learning, surrounded by the smartest people I could hope to be. I interned at Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go, and conducted research at Norilla, where I helped develop smart toys designed to enhance children's learning.

These experiences led me to my first job at Agot, a startup using Computer Vision to improve order accuracy in fast-food chains. I was fortunate to see the company grow from two people at a desk to a team of 50 with a valuation of $60 million. My role there expanded quickly, and I was given charge of the Platform team, rapidly advancing my career.

After a little over a year, I joined Elise AI, drawn in by an offer that doubled my previous compensation. Here, I found myself at the cutting edge of AI technologies, particularly in the real estate industry. I was the sole overseer of our leasing conversation engine and solo the developemnt of our affordable housing product. At the age of 24, I had made nearly $300k in a year.

But here's the truth: despite these achievements, I failed to grow at every single opportunity as much as I could have. My success often came from a combination of random smarts I had picked up and unordinarily fortunate circumstances.

At every turn, I missed out on deeper learning because of a fixed mindset—both my own and that of others. Standardized tests and others at school always gave me chance to shy away from my true potential by never studying - as long I didn't study, I could tell myself and others how smart I was to get the scores I did. And it worked. But I failed at what was a lot more important, which was actually spending that time learning and growing. Deep down, I shied away from actually studying because if I studied and didn't score high, then no one would say I'm the smart kid anymore. Being called smart all my childhood had made it part of my identity and I was afraid to lose that title more than I was afraid to fail a class.

Once at Carnegie Mellon, now things were the other way around and here I was the dumb kid (or at least I thought i was). Once again, afraid of failing out of college I wanted to spread my efforts optimally across the classes and perfectly calculated how to get Bs barely in every class by doing every homework and project only to the partial completion that I need. This worked as well, I got countless 81.5 or percentages, proof of my optimization for minimal effort in every class - yet another badge for me to flex over the years. Unfortunately, this strategy also optimized for minimal learning.

This trend continued through both my jobs, where I was afraid to take on difficult tasks for fear of bad appearances and constantly got in the way of my own learning. I started wanting to restart my education by revisiting the courses I had previously almost despised.

Whether I was seen as exceptionally smart or below average, both of these labels had only served to limit my growth and make me shy away from challenges. I chased accolades and milestones, but I now realize that true success is not about these outward markers but about continuous growth and learning.

I had a mini-turning point in my Junior year, where I decided to sleep better and focus on actually trying to learn and understand the material instead of optimizing for minimal effort and Bs. This semester, lined up with the hardest classes I had taken so far, ended up being the most relaxing, rewarding and growing experience I had so far. I went from a 2.5 GPA last semester to a perfect 4.0, getting named to the Dean's list - I couldn't believe this was something I was even capable of. After this, I continued this trend and nearly straight As through the rest of college, but once again shied away from challenge in my last semester, taking only 1 course and still getting a 52.5% in it, passing with a strongly curved D. Impressively optimal once again for minimizing my learning - I didn't even know the contents of the course even after having completed it.

The big turning point I hit in my life was leaving my high-paying job earlier this year. In the six months after, I have learned more than I did during my years at leading AI companies. I grew and transformed both mentally and physically. This transformative period of self-directed research and exploration has opened my eyes to the immense potential that still lies ahead, potential that I might have realized sooner had I approached each challenge with a more growth-oriented mindset.

This journey has reignited a long-standing passion for teaching. Recently, after spending time in India and engaging with young people, I've rediscovered the joy of guiding others. My experiences have taught me that real growth happens not just through personal achievements but through helping others unlock their potential. This is why I'm now focused on creating courses and offering consulting services that emphasize true learning environments—something I found lacking even at top institutions like MIT, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon.

My goal is to create a space where learning is not about competing for the highest grade or the best job offer, but about nurturing a mindset of continuous growth and curiosity. I’m excited to embark on this journey of learning and teaching, and I hope to inspire others to do the same.

To get started on your growth journey, take look at my course offerings and the articles on the three pillars of a good life - Knowledge, Sleep and Health. These articles take the ideas that had the largest impact on my own transformation and come from best-selling, fully researched-backed books and rigorous research papers.