My journey in software started with an exploration into hardware in college.

On a winter break, I stumbled upon an ‘Electronics for Dummies’ book. On a whim, I challenged myself to learn about electronics, which led to me spending my free time experimenting with building circuits. I became particularly fascinated with implementing digital logic components, and the concept of how basic analog parts come together to form intelligent machines such as computers.

A mechanical engineering major at the time, I ended up switching into electrical engineering, partly in a quest to understand how silicon becomes a fully-fledged computer.

That quest eventually got me into the abstract language that manipulates the hardware: software.

Software felt magical to me, because unlike hardware, it seems limitless, in that entire universes and experiences can be crafted from code by anyone in the world with a computer and an internet connection.

What eventually truly turned me into a full-fledged software engineer was the realization that the future will be built on software. Those lines of code can change the world for the better. So I learned how to build these worlds: front-end development, creating APIs, databases, and even a stint teaching myself machine learning concepts and implementing projects such as a handwriting recognition program or a spam filter.

This all led me to where I am today: far from where I started, yet still striving to become better each day, all in order to take part in building the world’s future.


- Adrian