These are a collection of lessons that I learned from 5 years at Waterloo. Some of them are summarized as quotes that epitomize their meaning. Some have stories behind them and have required time and sensibility to cultivate. Some of them are combined with a reflection on my time there.

1. No one made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do little. They’d probably put this on my tombstone. I’ve found this quote from Edmund Burke most salient and it really warrants no explanation. This quote has pushed me to do better than be a “safety-net chaser. Being in Waterloo, you see the narcotic allure of Big Tech. A lot of Big Tech chasers choose it not for exceptional work but for optionality. They start weaving their own safety nets and end up in cocoons. You can’t blame them. But these side-quests aren’t waystations. They are dangerous rabbitholes. Its paramount that you start on your dreams. Start small. But don’t choose the chase of optionality.

2. Ask for forgiveness, not for permission - this I got my friend Devin Leamy. A clarion call for pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. And one for agency. I think of this very often, especially when I’m in a eustressic situation.¹ Often even to put myself in such situations.

3. The only real test of intelligence is that you get what you want out of life - this is a tweet from Naval that lives rent free in my head. This perfectly summarizes the conclusion I came to through films like Fantastic Mr. Fox and Good Will Hunting. I remind myself that I live in a bubble through my education, socio-economic stratum and location. Within this bubble, I say to myself “This is what life is. Herein lies fulfillment.” But there is nothing intrisincally better via this mode of living, nothing superior, nothing gained, compared to say, a shrimp farmer in Mazatlan. I’ve met people with riches that have crumbling interiors and paupers with vibrant lives. “While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings”.²

4. Your only limit is your soul. What I say is true. Anyone can cook. But only the fearless can be great - an eternal from Ratatouille. In this moment we live in, there is no moat to start cooking. I got this from a (unfortunately, very brief) conversation with Hardeep. We spoke about more and more tools nowadays are force mutlipliers. Yet there are not as many people who make use of them. You can get Tolstoy and Plato at the swipe of your finger but most people end up scrolling reels. It’s becomes a matter of choice. About choosing what you spend your time on. Day in and day out. Anyone can cook. But you have to commit.

5. Find out as soon as you can what games you wanna play in life. Once again based on the words of Naval. This is something I figured out the hard way in 2023 during my 1B - 2B terms. In Waterloo, just like any other university, you meet people playing different games. Some play the status game. Some play the money game. Some play the power game. Some play whatever everyone around them is playing. Looking back, I think I fit like a glove into the latter half in my first and second year. The mot du jour then was “Cali or bust”, FAANG, Leetcode and “Pray to the green bible”. “Dude, did you see Citadel pays 90/hr ?” “How many Leetcode Hards have you done ?” It gnaws and gnaws until it chews your ear off. I quit sitting at this table in 2023 after my 2B term. It took a lot and I’ve documented mine in detail. But there is no proxy or shortcut for finding the game you wanna play. You need to go it the hard way.

6. If you can’t be described by a trope, you’re doing something right - This came from a conversation with another good friend Paul. Very intimately related with [5]. Through my time in Waterloo CS, I sometimes questioned whether or not I fit in with the “tech millieu” aka Your Freindly Neighbourhood Techbro. You’ve heard this tune. Blue Bottle Coffee. Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk. Claude MCP. “How do we productize this?”. My whole point here is that these definitions and tropes apply only as far as you allow them to.³ You can still experiment with different hobbies. Still cultivate new tastes. Still broaden your scope. Your limit is your soul remember. Why prune yourself to look good in a bush ?

7. The greatest catalyst is a high energy ceiling - This is something I discovered through investing in my fitness during my time at Waterloo. An energy ceiling is simply your capacity for exertion. People think that energy is like a battery and that activites throughout the day drain this battery. This is not what I’ve found. I strongly believe human energy is a commodity. You can take actions to either increase your energy or give it away. Running a slow 10K run is a energy booster. Scrolling TikTok for the equivalent time is not. Commiting to fitness is a good proxy for increasing your energy ceiling. I’ve found running, swimming and strength training are what does it for me. A higher energy ceiling affords more proactive action and gusto. Improptu hikes. Random long walks. You can suck deep the marrow of life.⁴ A high energy ceiling serves as a catalyst for your dreams in this sense.

8. A life without friction is a life without traction - this I carry both in my personal life and with work. Cultivating frictions⁵ in your life is essential to letting meaning take root. Nothing lasting came without some sacrifice and struggle. In tech, there’s this giant race to remove any sort of friction. Some of it is grounded. Reducing the time to get a website going is admirable. But why tf are we reducing the “friction” of eating food” ? It’s palpably wretched. My point here is it pays to figure what “troubles you accept in principle” and retain them.

9. Open your mind up to people and they will decide whether to live in it - this comes from Henrik Karlsson’s excellect Looking for Alice and A blog post is a very long and complex search query. Besides being excellent dating advice⁶, its an excellent attractor for friends, colleagues, admirers, peers and mentors. I’ve coaxed several friends to start this jounrey of theirs too. Whether it be writing. It’s not enough to just do the work and let it sit in a closet gathering dust. Be loud. Tell people. Tell me. Show it off. Post it and place it in digital amber.

Its difficult to distill almost 5 years of life down but I’ve tried my best above. May it serve you well.