This was probably the most eventful year of my life so far. I attempted, failed, and achieved a lot, and I’m grateful for the opportunities I had and the people I was surrounded by.
Year Recap (with photos)
Jan – Feb:
Finished university applications
Made the local news for the robotics club I started
Won VEX provincials and qualified for worlds
Went to DECA provincials one last time with friends (qualified to icdc)
Named one of 52 finalists out of 3000+ applicants for the TD Community Leadership Scholarship
Read a Karpathy tweet about agency > intelligence and realized that you can just do things
Andrej Karpathy@karpathyAgency > Intelligence I had this intuitively wrong for decades, I think due to a pervasive cultural veneration of intelligence, various entertainment/media, obsession with IQ etc. Agency is significantly more powerful and significantly more scarce. Are you hiring for agency? Are
Garry Tan @garrytanIntelligence is on tap now so agency is even more important6:58 PM · Feb 24, 2025 · 10.8M Views1.95K Replies · 9.54K Reposts · 49.8K Likes
March – April:
Attended Socratica Symposium
Realized I actually liked Waterloo. Socratica was a completely different experience from any time I’d visited Waterloo for a hackathon. Everyone I met was extremely passionate, interesting, and doing genuinely cool things. On the GO bus ride back home, I kept thinking about how I could actually see myself at UW.
This was also the first time I was properly introduced to venture capital and pitched to a VC.
Got rejected from the TD Scholarship despite being one of the finalists
This was extremely gut wrenching at the time, but in hindsight it wasn’t the end of the world.
Flew to San Francisco alone for a VC Hackathon/Interview
After going to SF, I realized I had reached my local maxima back home. I needed to be a smaller fish in a bigger pond, find global minima, and then start working toward global maxima. Being there made it clear how much possibility exists to build things, and I came back extremely inspired.
Won the Ingenious+ Award for building autonomous drones to predict forest fires
May:
Graduation trip to ICDC with my high school friends
This trip wasn’t so much about DECA or competing for me anymore like it may have been earlier in high school. I’m really glad I was able to spend time with friends, explore Disney and Universal, and make a lot of memories and meaningful relationships here.
Wrote IB exams (shoutout sheridan)
Got into the University of Waterloo
Contemplated taking a gap year to build in agtech
June:
Went to Pakistan
Found my favourite childhood bookstore again
Spent time with family and ate an unreasonable amount of mangoes
Turned 18 and spent my birthday at a hackathon
Graduated high school
The day after graduation, had breakfast at the Shopify HQ and won the TTW hackathon
July – August:
Realized I’d always wanted a community of teenagers who liked building things as much as I did
Hosted a coffee and matcha meetup for young builders
Started teenbuilders.club
Hosted meetups, coworking sessions, and demo nights throughout the summer
Built performativepuritytest, got 800k+ users and went kinda viral
Spent a lot of time with friends, said many goodbyes
September – October:
Moved away from home and started Waterloo
Hosted a Waterloo Tech Week event
Built Street Fighter but IRL and won Hack the North
Went to New York City
Joined Revision Dojo (YCF24) as a Software Engineer
November – December:
Won Hack Princeton with my roommate
Hosted Cursor Cafe Waterloo
Had alot of Shawerma Plus and Shinwa (ifykyk)
Finished 1A at Waterloo
Content Worth Consuming:
Do What You Cant - Casey Neistat
The Art of Cold-emailing a Billionaire - Andy Lee
On Status – Daniel Ching
What To Do – Paul Graham
Advice for young people – Andrej Karpathy
Fried Rice – Tommy Trinh
Cities and ambition – Paul Graham
44 Harsh Truths About The Game of Life – Naval Ravikant
Things/Tools/Places I liked:
Coffee: I went to a bunch of coffee shops this year, definitely 40+. I realized I really enjoy working out of cafes
Arabica: The Kyoto Latte (its the best latte i’ve had)
Poke: iMessage AI assistant (you can bargain the price down)
Cursor: my 10x engineer intern
Freewrite: super clean writing app
Apple Wired Headphones: mic is great for taking meetings
Film Cameras: i started shooting film this year and spent way too much on dispos and film, but I really enjoy it and would definitely recommend it
Pentax Espio 135M: thrifted this because i didnt want to waste money on dispos
Field Notes Notebooks: super handy to carry around
Adidas Spezials: this shoe is like the samba but 10x more comfortable and premium (also often cheaper)
bonus: things i lost :p
my airpods in a waymo (almost got them back)
my keys at my friend’s dorm in princeton
my travel adaptor at the doha airport
my wallet on the bus (got it back)
my laptop charger
my laptop charger again
can't wait to see what you'll cook up next :)
omg mention