Personal User Manual

Who I Am

Originally from Chennai, started my career in Gurgaon, now in Bengaluru—trying to make sense of the world one question at a time. As a kid it wasn't the gadgets that gripped me, it was the parts inside them: every component felt like a possibility, something I could build with. That pull took me from prying cameras open to Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, down a web-programming rabbit hole, and eventually to design engineering. Software gives me the same charge now—Figma, Notion, and Claude are the components I build with today.

I speak Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English, and enough Kannada to survive an auto ride without Google Translate.

How I'm Wired

• Internal processor. I think before I speak. I used to talk a lot; since 2025, between AI and everything else, I'd rather consume and learn than talk to fill silence.
• Logic-led, driven by curiosity. Understanding how things work is fundamental to me.
• A stoic over-planner. I map out the possibilities and quietly brace for the worst—so I'm rarely caught off guard, and rarely too high when things go well.
• I keep to myself. I don't socialize on autopilot, and I let people live their own lives—though I'll still lead a community or give a talk when it matters, then I need to recharge.
• Grounded, not gadget-chasing anymore. I used to try every tool to optimize myself and over-systematize life; now I keep to the essentials and feel more content for it.

What I Value

• Deep friendships over a pile of acquaintances—and never putting the people I love low on the list.
• Being a doer, not a talker. If I'll regret not doing something, I probably should do it.
• Trying something big, new, and risky every year.
• Assuming good intent and leading with empathy—people are often just having a bad day.
• I'm an atheist, but I'm genuinely curious about faith—especially from people who hold theirs quietly rather than preach it. I don't preach the other way either; I see god as an axiom we adopt for hope.
• Keeping perspective: the days are long, but the decades are short.

How to Connect With Me

I'm conversational and direct, with a soft spot for self-aware humor and far too many em dashes. I'm not very online, but you can reach me a few ways:

• Casual: DM me on X/Twitter.
• Professional: LinkedIn.
• A proper chat: book a call on Topmate.

When I go quiet, I'm usually deep in a rabbit hole or processing something—it's rarely personal.

I stay close to people in low-tech ways: I keep a short list of the ones I care about and call them on walks, and when we're actually together breaking bread, my phone goes on airplane mode.

What I Love

Most days I'd rather be home with a movie or series—my YouTube Watch Later hovers around 1,000 videos, and I've got 500+ films I've already vetted as my taste, queued and waiting. I also love to travel, solo or with a group, usually trying to reverse-engineer how a city works. I can talk forever about design, AI, productivity, gear, and cities. A couple of harmless quirks: I still break things open just to see what's inside, and I love a good list—like, a lot.