Over the past few decades, the world of technology and its impact on society has seen multiple step-functions changes and each larger than the previous.
I learned about semiconductors through textbooks, read articles about the internet and the dot-com boom, experienced the social and mobile revolution, worked on the cloud consumption story and I hope to build in the AI advancement story.
The Decision to Leave
It’s been nearly 3 months since I left VMware. I had spent just over 3 years there and had a great time building and growing vSphere+, an enterprise B2B application, which helps our customers manage multiple datacenters across different locations.
Although I was having a blast and enjoying my time there, learning & growing my skillset as a Product Manager, I felt now was the right confluence of the three - External Headwinds (AI advancements and ecosystem for building), Personal Stability (life stage, age and runway) and Capability (Education - Tech & MBA + Experience - Tech + Product).
On top of it, it just became difficult to not participate in the movement. There was immense FOMO (partly driven by social media hype) and a feeling of once (or one of few) in a lifetime arbitrage for a technology builder.
On the other hand, there was also a yearning - to be healthier, to be fitter, to travel and to explore and follow my curiosity. I will talk more about this dichotomy eventually as I figure out a way around it.
What I’ve Accomplished
But over the past 3 months, I have managed to:
- Participate and complete Hyrox Mumbai in 2:14
- Registered for a Wipro Half-Marathon (Target: 2:30 hoping for the best)
- Travelled across USA - 45 days - 9 cities, 7 states, 2 national parks and summer of a lifetime
- Got engaged to the love of my life
I have also managed to:
- Build a complete iOS + Watch app (Vibe-coded?) for voice transcription and note-taking
- Built an MVP for a SaaS application
- Gained practical experience with AI systems, from foundational models to application development
Questions Moving Forward
All of this represents just a step in the right direction. I have more questions than answers and more hypothesis that I seek to test. Few of them:
- What does a 1-person company look like? How far can AI-assisted humans build and run an organisation?
- What are the skillsets of the future? (I believe writing is one, hence this blog is a step towards that direction)
- What do organisations of the future look like? Generalist vs Scientist - who does the society value more?
- and many more.
I look forward to more such inquiries and (hopefully) few answers along the way. Until then, I hope to keep writing and keep building.