Tinkering with Emerging Tech, Starting Personal Training and Interviewing a World Record Breaker
January Newsletter
Hi! If you’re new here, I’m a 19-year old design engineer, software developer and founder. Currently, I’m building tech for the Web3 gaming and ed-tech space as well as AI and am an astronomy enthusiast :) Previously, I’ve built an observatory in my back garden, was awarded a First Class Diploma in tabla by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and won the International Finalist prize for Uber Global Hackathon.
From Building my own NFTs to the Metaverse!
NFT art gallery in Dubai
Around the beginning of the month, I had the privilege to visit the ftNFT Art Gallery in Dubai, the first of it’s kind physical NFT shop. This is a place where visitors may browse and buy non-fungible tokens (NFTs) physically with cryptocurrencies. The store is organised around digital art, music and other ways of creating, utilising and monetising NFTs.
I was inspired to learn that when you switch on the camera on your mobile to point on a T-shirt with logos for example, it tags you to a website which has live information of the picture. For example, we tried to point a camera on a T-shirt which had the London skyline. It tagged to a website, which illustrates the full description of the picture.
It was all a great opportunity to learn about NFT designers, exhibitors and their work, and how technology is evolving.
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I found out coincidentally that at The Knowledge Society (for new readers it’s an accelerator that I’m a part of), that the first session back from break after Christmas would be about NFTs/cryptocurrencies. I couldn’t be more excited given I had just visited the aforementioned NFT gallery! Here’s an example of what I created based on my learning.
Exploring the Metaverse
Soon after the NFT session at TKS, we had a session about the Metaverse. What I learned is that the industry of the Metaverse is increasingly booming - projected to generate up to a staggering $5 trillion in value by 2030.
For readers who are interested, I used an app to create a Metaverse simulation of my acoustic guitar. What I did was take 360° photographs of my guitar in real life to transfer it into a Metaverse world!
Starting my Personal Training Journey
This month, I decided to start my gym sessions with a personal trainer to achieve my personal fitness goals of getting fitter and stronger.
Huge shoutout to Ben for being the best personal trainer ever! I truly owe you a lot for being around, teaching me that the mentality side of things are really important with it going hand-in-hand with weightlifting and pushing me to perform my best during workouts.
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Some training philosophies which I learnt that stuck to my mind (that can be applied to all other aspects in life):
Take the first step. When you first starting going and you lift weights, it feels heavy and the next day you wake up, you are sore. You eventually start to recognise that you can progressively add more plates and lift heavier.
Consistency is key. You’ll realise your capacity to do more things increases over time.
Gym is like oatmeal. You have to customise it to your liking (i.e. optimise the environment you train at, music you listen to, etc.).
Self-reliance. A trainer can show you the way to entering your ‘thrive state’. But at the end of the day, no one else can lift the weights or do the cardio for you. It’s up to you to put in the work.
Be patiently impatient. Focus on the process, not just the results you desire.
It’s meant to be hard. Just focus on staying disciplined. You can’t do this without having a system and a strong workout plan Once you have both, you’ll notice you’ll get much better at handling the difficultly.
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Interviewing Sebastian Drezek
At the tail-end of the month, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sebastian Drezek, who is leading his team to launch a rocket in late March/early April, which is set to break the record of being the world’s tallest rocket built by any educational institution (including colleges and universities). Check it out here!
A pioneer and young innovator, Seb taught himself rocket science at the age of 12. Today, his life mission is to make life multi planetary and expand the scope of human consciousness beyond the confines of our home planet. After learning about my next guest and hearing about the cool work he has done, I couldn’t wait to hear his story. We’ve discussed mind-blowing topics from hopes for the future of space exploration and “unconventional paths” to educating himself on complex topics and the mindset behind being a leader.
In addition, I have produced an infographic summary of the insights that resonated with me the most from Sebastian in our podcast, which I think would be valuable particularly for young innovators and builders:
Personally and owing to my childhood interest since the age of 7 in space science, this was nostalgic and renewed my interest all over again. Highly recommend listening to our discussion to anyone who is interested in all things related to space exploration and innovation.
As those that have read my previous month’s issue are already aware and as I mentioned earlier, I was privileged to have been to Dubai where I have seen the world’s tallest tower, tallest hotel and other record-breaking landmarks. My question is: relating to Seb and other inventors who design such things, what is behind these people who invent things and break world records? Share your thoughts in the comments or email me!
Recap: Consulting for Google
You’re probably reading this subtitle twice. “What? A teenager consulting for a trillion-dollar company?” Yep, you read it right.
Back in December, myself and three others teamed up to answer an imperative question Google asked us: “How can we keep our employees informed to use an ever-expanding product portfolio?”. We worked tirelessly during the 2 weeks we were given…. harder than any challenge I’ve been in before.
It turns out that Google Ads has a major problem: Google's high-volume sales for SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) in Google Ads yield short-term gains but fall short on long-term value, leading to dissatisfaction and underperformance among clients. In other words, Google Ads isn’t well-suited towards SMBs which make up a massive portion of Google Ads revenue.
I’m going to keep our solution itself under the wraps for now since Google is still in the midst of choosing teams to present their solution to their sales teams. More to come in next month’s issue (subscribe to receive the update!).
Our solution was to use Artificial Intelligence to power a novel version of Google Ads called Google FunBytes. It has the potential to earn Google $4.4B in revenue within the first 5 years 🤯.
Nonetheless, I learned plenty from just developing a solution and participating. This was by far the hardest challenge I’ve ever taken on; I think I speak for the rest of my team as well.
Research, Research, Research: In the initial stages of our challenge, our team found ourselves at somewhat of a standstill, bogged down by research. The root of our struggle was a lack of in-depth understanding of the problem statement, leaving us unsure of what needed investigation.
Takeaway: Ask mentors for clarification or explanation on something. After that, immerse yourself thoroughly in the subject matter, to grasp its core operations. Identify a problem that stands out to you and tackle it head-on.
Done > Perfect: At the onset of the challenge, striving for perfection was our team's shortcoming, especially considering we were collaborating with a giant. We learned that completing a task often holds more value than achieving perfection. Aiming for perfection can lead to stagnancy. Focus instead on completing tasks to a high standard and then proceed to the next. This approach is beneficial across all life's endeavours and has significantly boosted my approach to any work.
Ask Really Good and Thoughtful Questions: The only way to get good answers is to ask good questions. If you ask insightful and well-considered questions, you're more likely to gain valuable insights that can propel you forward with your research.
Talk to People Who Work in Your Target Field: Make sure to communicate with individuals working in the field relevant to your problem or proposed solution. This practice is fundamental to any business, which prioritise customer interaction to gain insights into their challenges and obtain feedback on proposed solutions. For example, our discussions with specialists in the online advertising sector were pivotal in developing our project, FunBytes.
Snippets
Monthly favourites & media that I’m consuming
📖 Currently reading:
The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew by Lee Kuan Yew
After having been to and inspired by my trip to Singapore last month, I was curious to read into the founding story of what is one of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth and how it came to be. Much of the book reminded me of Balaji’s podcast I watched a while ago, where he talked about the concept of Founder/CEO of a nation and Singapore being an important model for this century. Aside from the politics aspect, the book gave me a glimpse into the mind of the founder who dreamt with his eyes open to build and curate a nation through innovation which all led to its unprecedented ascendancy.
The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
My first time reading this series, it’s an intriguing blend of science fiction and complex storytelling, offering a vast exploration of future societies and the intricacies of human and technological evolution. What I found particularly interesting is the concept of psychohistory. Psychohistory is a fictional science in the series that combines history, sociology and mathematical statistics to predict the future behaviour of large groups of people.
Evolution by Marc Elsberg
Shoutout to
for recommending me this excellent read. While I’m halfway through this as I write this, I already found one particularly striking part which is the depiction of how tiny genetic changes can have profound implications for the development of species, including humans. It’s a captivating exploration of humanity's past, present and future, weaving together science, history and speculative fiction to ponder where evolution might take us next.🎧 Podcast: Humanity 2.0 (Making Sense with Sam Harris)
🧠 Articles:
Life Hacks: 10 Stoic Principles (NJlifehacks): An eye-opening guide to Stoicism, breaking down its core principles into actionable insights for modern resilience. Perfect for anyone looking to navigate life's ups and downs with grace.
Eudaimonia and Happiness (Pursuit of Happiness): An exploration of Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia, painting happiness not as momentary joy but as a virtuous life well-lived. A must-read for those seeking depth in their pursuit of happiness
Interesting questions Patrick has (Patrick Collison): A compelling collection that sparks infectious curiosity, encouraging deep thought and exploration across a wide array of subjects. Ideal for the perpetually curious who relish pondering the world's myriad mysteries.
Next Month
In February, I’m going to be getting my AI-powered EdTech project that I’m building to work, playing in some chess tournaments and competing in a ‘focus’ hackathon. See you then 👋
Josh Roy