The Swiss Army Life
Becoming the master of experimentation
I am obsessed with Swiss Army Knives. There's just something about having one compact tool that can adapt to handle any surprising and uncertain situation and still prove to be incredibly useful.
When I turned 18, I decided to apply that adaptability to my own life. I wanted to gain a broad understanding of how the world works before specializing. My hope was that understanding the basics of how the universe works would really prepare me for the uncertainty and complexity I will face in the problems I will solve. While all my peers dove into engineering degrees, I revolted and chose physics. To my pragmatic family, physics seemed an unrewarding endeavor, but I yearned to grasp nature's hidden secrets. I'll admit, movies like Interstellar definitely romanticized physics and made me want to be McConaughey's character.
Of course, physics humbled me real quick. As I dug deeper into quantum theories and general relativity, each new discovery just spawned more questions. It was like peeling an infinite onion. But I also got to think about reality in ways I never imagined, and even started to grasp some of nature's perplexing sleights of hand. Physics let me peek behind the curtain, though most of the time I still felt lost in the magic show.
Alongside college, my interests swung from pure science to wanting to build things. I would team up with my friend Antariksh to build a tesla coil, pendulum wave demonstration and even a quantum eraser. I also started tinkering in all kinds of labs across India, helping develop new technologies like gas sensors, new memory technologies for computing and weather-prediction models. When COVID hit, I took a pause. Being stuck at home for months, I had time to reflect on what I wanted to do next.
I found inspiration in the recently released Bill Gates book: How To Avoid a Climate Disaster, which highlighted the energy transition as the single greatest entrepreneurial opportunity for our generation. His optimistic vision got me excited to help drive that transition. Soon I was off to Germany to immerse myself in climate solutions like advanced batteries and carbon capture. I also started participating in various hackathons, which rekindled that maker spirit in me. I loved rapidly prototyping ideas to solve pressing problems. It made me feel like a kid again, but for technology.
Eventually, I took on a "Swiss Army Knife" role at TUM’s deep-tech startup incubator, helping however I could - from organizing hackathons and startup lunches, to reviewing business models, helping future founders move from -1 to 0, and startups move from 0 to 1. It was a whirlwind of excitement and fulfillment, and I relished the opportunity to have my hands in so many different pots.
But as time passed, a restlessness began to stir within me. The urge to carve out my own path grew stronger with each passing day. I yearned to step onto the stage, pitch my vision in front of a captivated audience, and secure that crucial first investment. The entrepreneurial fire burned brightly within me, and I was ready to dive headfirst into the startup world.
Yet, amidst the flurry of ambition and determination, I realized that something went missing. Somewhere along the way, I had lost touch with the joy of creating, of building something from scratch with my own hands. The thrill of experimentation and innovation had taken a backseat to the pursuit of success. It was a sobering realization, but it also sparked a newfound clarity within me. I knew that in order to truly succeed in my entrepreneurial journey, I needed to rediscover my passion for building things. So, I made a conscious decision to shift my focus back to the basics - to become a master experimenter once again.
Now I am doing a fresh reset - sharpening my personal Swiss Army knife one tool at a time. My goal is to rapidly prototype ideas at the intersection of human needs, technical feasibility, and overall impact. I am slowly acquiring skills like 3D printing, robotics and AI to expand my adaptable innovation toolkit, and club them with my existing toolbox of electronics, materials science and nanotechnology. These technologies are progressing exponentially, and I believe they will prove invaluable on The Long and Winding Road ahead.
It may be time to put away my childhood Swiss Army Knife, having now built myself into a human version.Though the cosmic onion eternally confounds me, I'm peeling back its layers one innovation at a time.
