#13 Build
Win 20 hackathons
in progress
Two more to go. Specifically scoped to hackathons I personally led or co-led, not team participations.
$ cat ~/mission/goals.md
#mission
A working list, not a bucket list. 40 items in different stages of progress. Updated when reality catches up.
done 9 todo 24 done failed 1 in progress 4 deferred 1 partial 1
#16 Build
Run an LLM on a local home machine
in progress
Currently experimenting with the Dailyvox app. Llama 3 + a beefy Mac — closing in.
#24 Adventure
Complete 50+ treks
in progress
Roughly 40 trails behind me — Western Ghats, Himalayas, Sahyadris. Ten more before I hit half a hundred.
#34 Build
Launch a fund / manage external capital
in progress
Already building a quant trading hobby project. The next step is formalizing it — external capital, real AUM, audited returns.
#01 Build
Write a book
done
Two ML books published with Packt: Mobile Artificial Intelligence Projects and Machine Learning for Mobile Applications.
#04 Lead
Manage a large engineering team
done
Multiple times across nference, Sequoia, Chumbak, Pi42, VisionPlus.
#06 Adventure
Skydive
done
Dubai, 13,000 feet, free fall. The 60 seconds of weightlessness rewires you a little.
#10 Adventure
Dip in ice-cold running water
done
Glacier-fed stream, the kind of cold that makes you forget your name for a few seconds.
#20 Adventure
Scuba dive
done
Multiple times. Coral reefs, low-vis wrecks, night dives. The ocean is louder than you'd think.
#23 Live
Dance on stage in front of an audience
done
Done twice. Stage lights, live audience, the kind of nerves that make you forget the count for the first eight beats.
#31 Lead
Give a TEDx talk
done
TEDxSOAUniversity, 2017. Stood on the red circle, shared ideas worth spreading.
#39 Adventure
Ride a bike above 10,000 feet
done
Khardung La pass, 18,380 ft. Thin air, frozen hands, prayer flags at the top. The engine and your lungs both struggle equally.
#40 Travel
Visit 10+ countries
done
Passport stamps past double digits. Each country rewires a small assumption you didn't know you had.
#18 Build
Guinness World Record
partial
Was part of a team that set a Guinness record at a Microsoft hackathon. Counts as a partial — doing one solo or as the lead is the next step.
#05 Build
Start my own company
done failed
GazeMatic — Teleport Call VR app. Shipped, hit 420k+ downloads, ran for 4 years. Didn't reach escape velocity. Counts.
#02 Encounter
Meet Thalaivar Rajinikanth
todo
The man, the myth, the punchlines. Someday, somewhere — preferably without a queue.
#03 Build
1M downloads on a personal app
todo
Teleport Call hit 420k organic downloads in the first month — close, but not crossed yet on anything I solely owned.
#07 Adventure
Helicopter trip
todo
Some valley, some coastline, some sunrise. Not picky.
#08 Travel
Set foot in Antarctica
todo
The seventh continent. Probably via a research vessel from Ushuaia.
#09 Travel
Watch the Northern Lights
todo
Tromsø, Reykjavik, Yellowknife — anywhere the aurora puts on its show.
#11 Roots
Grow my own coconut trees
todo
Plant them young, watch them outlive me. Madurai backyard, ideally.
#12 Build
Build a wooden farmhouse
todo
Slow-living escape, off-grid solar, a porch big enough for a hammock.
#14 Build
Ship a personal hack that goes viral
todo
A weekend-built thing that hits the front page and stays useful past the news cycle.
#17 Collect
Possess a rare unique item on Earth
todo
Open-ended on purpose. A first edition, a meteorite, a one-of-one piece — TBD.
#19 Travel
Multi-country trip in one go
todo
A proper itinerary — three or more countries, two-plus weeks, one passport.
#21 Learn
Earn a PhD
todo
Probably mid-life, probably in something at the intersection of distributed systems and applied ML. No rush.
#22 Adventure
Sell at a shop in a foreign country
todo
Spend a week behind a counter abroad — different language, different currency, real customers. Learn the trade by doing it.
#25 Live
Cook for a large audience
todo
A proper feast for 50+ guests. Menu planned end-to-end, ingredients sourced, no caterers — just a long apron and a sharp knife.
#26 Lead
Volunteer for a bigger cause
todo
Sustained, hands-on, not just a donation. Pick something that compounds — education, disaster relief, environment — and show up for years.
#27 Learn
Learn a musical instrument
todo
Pick one — guitar, keyboard, mridangam — and stay with it long enough that it stops sounding like a fight.
#28 Adventure
Ride a long-haul convoy trip
todo
Multi-day road convoy with friends — bikes or cars, single arrow on the map, fuel stops as the only forced pauses.
#29 Build
Build a home AI assistant like Jarvis
todo
A personal AI that runs the house — voice-controlled, context-aware, integrated with lights, security, calendar, trading alerts. Iron Man's Jarvis, but real and self-hosted.
#30 Build
Build my own windmill
todo
A small-scale windmill — designed, built, and spinning. Off-grid energy that I can point at and say I made that.
#32 Adventure
Swim in a bioluminescent bay
todo
Mosquito Bay in Puerto Rico, Vaadhoo in Maldives — any bay where every stroke paints light.
#33 Adventure
Run a half marathon
todo
21.1 km — no shortcuts, no pausing. Just legs, lungs, and a finish line that earns itself.
#35 Build
Write and publish a book in Tamil
todo
Two English books done. Now write one in the mother tongue — fiction, essays, or tech, doesn't matter. Tamil deserves the ink.
#36 Build
Get a patent granted
todo
File and get granted a patent on an original invention — something that didn't exist before I built it.
#37 Live
Retire before 45
todo
Not stop working — stop needing to. Financial independence where every project is a choice, not a necessity.
#38 Adventure
Take a solo 15-day sabbatical with no screens
todo
15 days, no phone, no laptop, no screens. Just a journal, a backpack, and silence. Reset the operating system.
#15 Live
Own a 7-seater SUV
deferred
On the list more out of family-trip optionality than need. Currently no need — re-evaluating.