When I was just 11, I was already taking apart my toys to get to the motors and remote controller so I could build a remote-controlled boat. That’s when I discovered my passion for building things.
By the time I was 12, I got my hands on my first computer and, since then, I’ve been hooked on programming. At 13, I built my first “proper” program in .NET that would close all active games after a set time to stop my little brother from hogging the computer. But, it turns out he was smarter than I thought and he found a way to quit the program in Window’s taskbar. I learned my lesson on product iteration from my brother’s feedback.
When I was 15 and 16, I teamed up with two other enthusiasts to build a robot to assist teachers in lab environments. The robot was remotely controlled via a dashboard on a laptop and could move around, control the heater, and trigger an air cleanser when it detected toxins. Although we didn’t win any prizes at the engineering national fair, we had a blast. We also built a website to teach history to high school students. That was my first experience with web development.
At 17, I teamed up with another enthusiast to develop a solution that would prevent motorbikes from passing through railroad crossings. We won several prizes at local engineering fairs and even scored a prize at the national engineering fair.
When I turned 18, I tried out different things like being an event organizer, volunteer, singer, designer, and tutor, but I concluded that programming was my true passion.
At 19, I teamed up with two others, one of whom was a PhD, to build a machine to ferment black garlic. The nutrition metrics exceeded typical black garlic products on the market. It was a lucky hit, but I failed miserably due to my lack of knowledge of control theory. I managed to burn several batches in the process. That’s when I started using GNU Linux.
When I turned 20, I wrote a script to install my own Arch Linux distro and got to know more about how operating systems work. I even dreamt of working to contribute to the Android kernel at Google.
At 21, I transferred to the University of Adelaide and stopped building my projects due to the fear of failing subjects. Instead, I was involved in two defence research projects about machine learning and robotics. I also conducted my proudest piece of research, an honours project about distributed systems and artificial intelligence on multi-robot systems. I scored the highest in class.
When I turned 22, I teamed up with my ex-girlfriend to develop a Chrome extension that compared the prices of products across multiple major e-commerce platforms in Vietnam. Think of it like Google Shopping, but in the form of a pop-up when you looked at a particular product. At its peak, the extension reached over 500 users. We had to shut it down after 11 months of operations due to conflicts with the full-time job of other co-founders. That’s when I realized that girlfriends shouldn’t be co-founders and that full-time jobs are the enemy of start-ups. I got my full-time job as a software engineer.
When I turned 23, I attempted to build a platform to detect counterfeits by leveraging QR codes. But after two months of development, I shut it down when I realized it wasn’t a problem I was passionate enough to go all-in on.
I stopped building my own projects for close to a year due to burnout from working simultaneously on two jobs professionally and a gig on the side. But during that time, I had the chance to think hard about what I wanted to achieve in life.
Now, at 24, I’ve reached a six-figure salary and am working on Overread on the side, a problem that I am passionate about solving. As sitting at Changi Airport, I reflect on how far I’ve come - approaching my 25th birthday.