In 2014, Alan Kay was a guest lecturer in my programming languages class at the University of Toronto.

I thought it was cool, but I definitely did not appreciate it as much as I should have.

To this day, one of his infamous quotes still resonates with me:

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

A Pattern I Canā€™t Ignore

With the new year, Iā€™ve been reflecting on my career up until this point.

A pattern I canā€™t ignore is that I consistently choose to work on paradigm shifts.

Itā€™s been interesting, fun, fulfilling, adventurous, and a learning journey across every aspect of life.

The experience is compounding, but it has taken longer than expected to translate into the outcomes Iā€™m optimizing for.

  • In 2011, as an intern, I worked on computer vision algorithms that ran on an iPhone
  • In 2014, as an undergraduate senior, I worked on GPU acceleration and distributed systems for fMRI analysis
  • In 2016, I left Twitter to join Magic Leap and work on the augmented reality cloud. I turned down an offer from Google and never finished my application for a Stanford computer vision masterā€™s program, even after taking the GREs.
  • In 2020, I moved to Waymo to work on planner evaluation for autonomous vehicles, turning down an offer from Metaā€™s Reality Labs.
  • In 2021, I tried to change how the construction industry works by building an ā€œAirbnb for construction soil.ā€
  • In 2022, I started building a blockchain to fundamentally change how applications find and pay for the backend services they rely on.
  • In 2025, I started working on how tipping and payments will function between agents and humans in the future.

This isnā€™t an accident. Itā€™s a deliberate preference.

The Cost of Working on the Frontier

So far, I havenā€™t achieved the goals that are always lingering:

  • Create a product that changes how people live, how work gets done, or ideally both
  • Build the foundation for a brand, company, and team Iā€™m proud of and can grow over time
  • Put myself on a clear path toward my long-term financial milestones

If you can relate, you already know how tough this is.

This path trades certainty for leverage. Writing this helped me see that more clearly. Each attempt expands what I understand, what I can recognize earlier, and how quickly I can move the next time.

Intuition is a muscle that can be built over time. Itā€™s where experience starts to dominate over formal expertise.

Progress here is nonlinear. The feedback loops are long, but they compound.

Why Iā€™m Not Built for Incremental Work

I donā€™t just need to work on paradigm shifts. I choose to.

I donā€™t want to work at a large company because I need to be a founder. I canā€™t be a cog. I need the freedom to pursue my own ideas, set direction, shape culture, build teams, and stay involved across every layer of the business.

If I were alive 150 years ago, I would probably be a scientist. Scientists were the ones pushing paradigms forward then.

Today, breakthroughs on paper are only one part of the equation. Building products, companies, and adoption matter just as much.

Paradigm Shifts Arenā€™t Reckless

Paradigm shifts donā€™t have to be zero-to-one leaps.

There are practical milestones along the way. Those milestones fund the work, sharpen the thesis, and make the long-term direction possible. Building something useful today is often the most effective way to buy leverage for tomorrow.

When Einstein was writing, he knew there was unexplored territory in physics. When Bill Gates started Microsoft, he knew cheaper computers would reshape daily life.

They werenā€™t guessing blindly. They were committing to where the world was moving.

Where This Is Going

Today, Iā€™m convinced the construction industry will operate very differently ten years from now. There will be robots, vast amounts of visual data, and AI systems processing information that humans handle manually today.

That conviction shapes what I work on and how I choose to build.

Or, as Ovechkin said:

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.

Thatā€™s the center of this for me.

I want to build technology for where the world is moving, not where it is today. Building for today is how you generate the capital, leverage, and insight required to build for the future.