I do not project distant futures. I operate strictly bottom-up: living at the frontier of my obsessions and building immediate missing primitives;
For the farther one projects into the future, the more likely they are to be wrong. True breakthroughs emerge organically. By staying at the bleeding edge of a domain that fascinates you, building what feels like play to you but work to others, your personal itch becomes a natural proxy for where the world is heading.
The pain of not getting what I truly want, is better, than the regret of not trying. I never downgrade an ambition to a "safer" alternative;
In high school, I put immense pressure on myself to get into the University of Waterloo's CS and Software Engineering (SWE) programs. I treated admission as the only path to success.
Applicants can choose only one engineering program. I wanted SWE, but fear of rejection led me to apply to Systems Design Engineering (SYDE) instead. I reasoned from what others had achieved rather than what I wanted, then convinced myself that the safer choice was also the better one.
I was admitted to SYDE but not CS. The rejection hurt, but what stayed with me was the regret of never applying to SWE. By avoiding the immediate pain of possible rejection, I chose a longer and more persistent pain: not knowing what might have happened if I had tried.
I do not wait for courage or complete certainty to commit. I choose the uncapped and unfamiliar path of possibility with infinite leverage, over the safe familiar local maximum;
While working in a comfortable role with autonomy, balance, and technical work I enjoyed, I applied to Y Combinator for a second time. I was accepted, but joining meant leaving the stability of my job.
The choice exposed two paths. Staying preserved immediate comfort and familiar learning, but capped my trajectory at a company with little recognition and uncertain equity. Joining YC was unfamiliar and risky. My dad, my closest advisor, urged me not to go, and I had no certainty about what would follow.
I hesitated for weeks and tried to hold onto both paths. When I finally had to choose, I joined YC despite my fear and my dad's advice.
I learned that a comfortable local maximum can quietly trade long-term possibility for short-term ease. YC offered an asymmetric leap: a credible name after dropping out, an exceptional network, growth under pressure, and the chance to test myself as a founder for the first time.