Hi hello! Labels are hard but I consider myself a NYC-based technologist, engineer, amateur designer, and aspiring chef.
• "The world is open for play" - Robin Williams
• "It's all about finesse" - Thomas Keller
• Ski day (ideally powder), followed by homecooked meal with great wine and conversation
• Citibiking NYC streets, especially at night
• Observing the cultural zeitgeist from as many angles as possible
• Food and wine, trends in what we eat, what this says about culture, upsteam healthcare, and personal cooking
• What makes art art? Who are the tastemakers? Why? What's next for art? (nfts)
• The past, present, and future of consumer media (McLuhan, Jurgenson, boyd)
• The physical spaces we navigate and live in, Latour's missing masses
• American work culture, capitalism's iron cage (Weber), and the future of China/US relations
• Power of ritual and the sociology of religion
• 🏂🏃♂️🚴👨🍳🍷🏄🏕🏞️
• Is the Music Still Playing and Other Rhetorical Questions on My Crypto Journey (2024)
• On Emotionally Adjusted Bullishness and Technology Hype Cycles (2023)
• On Collective Effervescence, Running, and Memecoins (2023)
• On Kool-Aid, Cautious Optimism, and Joining Uniswap (2021)
• On Spatial Configuration and Social Interaction (2020)
• An Open Letter to Bay Area Families on College Admissions (2020)
• The Buddhist Work Ethic: The Influence and Role of Buddhism in Silicon Valley (2019)
• Art in the 21st Century: Challenging and Changing Convention (2019)
• Building a Modern Chinese Lifestyle Brand Through Food (Profile of Junzi Kitchen, 2019)
• On the Geneology of Myself (2018)
• My Middle School Campaign Speech (2012)
• Thinking About the Future of Culture and Identity in America (2017)
• My Biggest Small Contribution To DoorDash (2017)
• In the Information Age, Imagine There's No Heaven, No Countries, No Possessions (2017)
• From the Free Range Childhood to the Pre-Professional Adolescence (2016)
• Uniswap Labs (2021-2024) - had fun in crypto, a few highlights: helped build the Uniswap Wallet app, built a physical photobooth, took uni.eth usernames from zero to one.
• MIT Media Lab, Center for Constructive Communication (2020-2021) - built prototypes to understand and improve political polarization online and offline. Built a tool to monitor the most shared links on Twitter and associated political sharing patterns. Part of the Schmidt Futures Impact Fellowship.
• Karuna Health (2019) - designed and built iOS and Android mobile app for care teams to manage HIPAA compliant communication with patients via SMS, phone calls, email.
• Snackpass (YC W18) (2018) - built and launched a iPad self-service kiosk ordering system for restaurants. Redesigned the receipt. Helped with ground operations with restaurants in New Haven and got to know the incredible food scene (BAR, Arethusa 💯)
• DoorDash (KP Engineering Fellow) (2017) - worked on iOS and Android for the alcohol and group orders team, achieved mini-fame by writing iOS release notes
• superlabs (Acquired by Zynga) (2015) - helped build Draw Something for Messenger on iOS from scratch, one of the first games for Facebook Messenger.
• Ever (2014) - learned how a real startup operated and worked on location based photo search on iOS (an Atomic company)
• Retroplay (2020) - A 2020 year-in-review app for TikTok creators and fans. Reached #11 on Entertainment top charts, featured on Insider, Thrillist, Distractify, Techcrunch
• 1888 (July 2018) - Disposable camera-style iOS app that also sells physical prints. Originally released July 2018, reached #32 on Top Photo and Video charts, featured on Refinery29 and Business Insider. In Dec. 2019, went viral on TikTok and reached #3 on Top Photo and Video charts, #7 on Top Free Apps.
• MySmileBuddy (2018-2020) - worked with a team at Columbia Dental to build an iPad-based tool for community health workers to prevent childhood tooth decay in underserved communities (most prevalent chronic disease among children!)
• Kenzo Health (2018) - data-driven pain management for clinicians. Won 2nd Place at Columbia Venture Competition and received a grant from winning Columbia Engineering's Opioid Design Challenge. Learned a lot about digital therapeutics, but couldn't find a market fit and didn't have the necessary healthcare background.
• Selfie Activism (Spring 2017) - an app to send selfies and opinions to your representatives. Won Columbia's hackathon, learned a lot about the civic tech space, and realized most mail that reps receive goes to the trash.
• Eternal (2016) - a flashcard app that uses GIFs and the memory palace technique. I wrote about it, the local paper wrote about it, and Apple featured it on the App Store.
• Yo From (2014) - my friend Aakash Thumaty and I made a joke app in high school and got a tiny feature in TechCrunch.