Dreamer Diaries Part I: How a 12-year old planned to take over Microsoft
I dabble in machine learning, competitive programming, building blockchain dapps, software of all kind, chatbots, and composing music.
But that wasn’t the case 9 years ago.
I was 12 and I had just finished building my first operating system: Simpulse Virtual OS. I had just sent an email to a Microsoft rep to have them ship it with every version of Windows. It was a contained application to be used by kids who could play games, browse the internet, and use other applications including my own version of a high-powered scientific calculator, word, and spreadsheets.
But first, there were turtles.
I was known for having the top score in Pacman and the highest level Pokemon in Pokemon Simulator in 3rd grade. But then again, I had an unfair advantage. I was ahead in math. I was allowed to skip class, and everyday for my hour-long math class, I was sent to the computer lab to hangout. It was dope. I had almost an hour everyday to raise my pokemon. But then one day, I stumbled upon this unusual-looking triangle on my desktop. I wonder what that could be. And that’s where it all began.
I started programming when I was 9 or 10, starting with writing small routines in Microsoft LOGO. MS LOGO is way beyond deprecated at this point, and for those who don’t know, it has a turtle that drew lines on a blank canvas. As a programmer, you could command it to draw shapes and figures by writing routines. It taught me procedural programming, logical flows, and the concept of subroutines that could be looped to create astounding patterns.
For me, this is a log of my life. It is a constant reminder that I wasn’t born like this. At times, when I drift on to a fixed mindset: thinking I can’t dance, understand biology, or speak on stage because I failed at it, I see this 9-year old kid pulling an all-nighter to learn for-loops.
When I was 7, my class teacher wrote “This boy is 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration” in my report card. I wasn’t too happy about that. I asked my mom, why was I just 1% inspiration — aren’t all famous people supposed to be inspirational? Now I wear it proudly. It’s that 99% that really counts. And that’s all I will ever have control over.
In science fiction, it’s always the older self that comes from the future, giving words of wisdom. But sometimes, all we need to hear is the voice of a 12-year old, reminding us of where we came from.
