About

Who am I

Hi. Looks like you’re more curious about who I am and what I do. I’m currently studying undergrad in CS at BRAC University (and probably getting a minor in business while I’m at it). I often experiment and tinker with technology in ways I haven’t done before.

How it started

My first experience to prgoramming and technology in general was when I was making games using game maker lite at the age of 11. I didn’t know any programming language but the drag and drop interface let me turn my imagination into reality. I built a terrible game but at least it worked and had 25 levels (and even an end boss who who’s an egyptian mummy and spams like 20 spiders every second!). Later on, I got into building websites using website builders like wix, weebly etc.

Getting Started with Programming

Few years later, I joined the robotics club in my highschool. This was when I first got exposed to an actual programming language. We were given a book to learn the C programming language. I didn’t really enjoy it. I had to remember all these weird syntax. I was contemplating giving up on it. But then I discovered python. Python didn’t have many weird syntax rules I’d have to rememeber. So I could finally spend my time thinking about the logical aspects of programming and this is where I started enjoying it a lot.

Eventually, I decided to take on a big project. I wanted to be like Tony Stark and hence wanted to build something like JARVIS. The only problem was I didn’t know anything about AI. But I still managed to glue together a bunch of if-else statements and 3rd party libraries to build something that was a fake AI. I might not have learned much about AI from it, but I definitely got very comfortable with programming ever since that project.

The FOREX era

Later on, I got into trading. I thought the FOREX market was all about understanding “algorithms” and with my background in programming I should be good at it. Well, I wasn’t entirely wrong (but not right either). I could use my python wizardry to do lots of analysis on huge numbers and even joined a group of traders where I would help them by crunching numbers. But at the end of the day, it still felt like gambling. No matter how much I learned and analyzed, I could not be confident in my decisions and hence quit trading.

Getting into Websites

During my post-SSC exam (10th grade board exam) break, one of my friends asked me why I don’t build websites. Thing is, he was right. There’s a lot of demand for it and I should be able to make easy money right? So, I started learning django. I eventually managed to land a freelance gigs. Most of my gigs since then has been through word of mouth and luck. So don’t come to me asking how to get clients on fiverr or upwork because I have no idea.

During COVID, I even started a startup. I naively thought building an ecommerce marketplace is just building a website. Good thing I was very young when I learned my lessons. Later pivoted that startup to a hyper-local delivery platform and soon realized my expertise is with tech, why am I even bothering with all these operations. The startup endevear never worked out. But I learned some very valuable lessons very young, which I’m grateful about.

Proper Growth

I briefly worked at an agency where I got to work on some mildly interesting projects. But the breakthorugh in my career happened when I left that job and later joined a startup called Bonton Connect. I’m not calling it a breakthrough because it suddenly came with a massive raise or anything. But while working there, I got to experience, for the first time, what it’s like to work alongside a group of very competent people, trying to solve a very hard tech problem. And I was addicted to that. I even got to dab around hardware a little bit. Overall that whole experience helped me grow my skills and increased the bar of what I should expect from a job.

Current Era

After leaving Bonton Connect, I’ve been mostly exploring things on my own. Very ocassionally I take freelance clients (if their projects are really interesting or they offer a very decent pay). I’m trying to focus on academia and maybe try out some AI projects. And very recently, I picked up a new hobby, self-hosting. Anything beyond this I don’t know. Stay tuned and we’ll both find out together where my life goes.