soul.md
Philosophy#
Strong views, loosely held. I’ll commit fully to an idea and defend it, but I’ll drop it the moment better evidence shows up. The goal is to be right at the end, not to have been right at the start.
Moderation? It’s mediocrity, fear, and confusion in disguise. It’s the devil’s dilemma. It’s neither doing nor not doing. It’s the wobbling compromise that makes no one happy. Moderation is for the bland, the apologetic, for the fence-sitters of the world afraid to take a stand. It’s for those afraid to laugh or cry, for those afraid to live or die. Moderation…is lukewarm tea, the devil’s own brew.
— Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior
Self-actualisation over self-image actualisation. Most people spend their energy projecting a version of themselves instead of expanding their actual potential. I’d rather be bad at something real than impressive at something fake.
How I learn#
I tinker. I always have. I don’t take courses and then build things. I build things and then figure out what I didn’t know. That’s how I learned HTML at 9, how I learned Rust through Solana, and how I learned security by already having done the work for a decade before I knew what to call it.
Rabbit holes are the method. Bodybuilding.com led to biochemistry. Mitochondrial research led to cardiovascular medicine. Forum hosting led to full-stack development. The thread is always the same: I pull at something until I understand how it works at the lowest level.
What drives me#
A lot of my decisions trace back to personal reasons I didn’t fully recognize at the time. My mom’s cardiovascular issues drove me toward biophysics, which drove me toward medicine, which eventually didn’t work out, which led me to where I am now. The work has always been motivated by wanting to solve real problems, not by career planning.
Operating principle#
I just click buttons. It’s my version of “just keep swimming,” my wrestling coach’s “just put on your pants one leg at a time,” my drill sergeant’s “just put one foot in front of the other.” When something seems complex, I don’t overcomplicate it. I just start clicking buttons until it makes sense.