Hey, I'm Aadil

I really like making people laugh and learning things so I can poke holes in the world.

I consider myself a good-hearted shit disturber. The most fun I've had has all come from finding glitches and backdoors to exploit in the world.

I made robots with Lego and started coding at 13. Didn't like my high school CS classes so taught myself Python. Went from honour roll to skipping class most days to read about AI and crypto, go to tech events, and sleep in.

At 16, I interned at a small innovation lab in Toronto. Made an iOS app and started selling stuff online. Turned that into an e-comm business and made enough to pay for college in 4 months. Taught my friends how to do it, got sued, shut it down.

At 18, I got a full scholarship from Shopify and a small salary to intern there part-time while studying CS. Learned a ton, but wasn't for me in the end. Joined a friend's startup and dropped out 2 years in.

At 19, I tweeted constantly and flew out to meet some people I met on the internet. Some of those people became my best friends and we hang out weekly in San Francisco, where I live now. I also worked harder than I ever have before on the founding team of my friend's crypto startup.

After that ended, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I booked a 1 way flight to San Francisco. This led to a 9 month sabbatical where I started making YouTube videos and met the greatest people ever at buildspace. Nothing changed my life like that summer and everything that came from it.

I realized that San Francisco was where I felt the happiest. I moved there soon after with no plan for a few months, eventually becoming "an engineer who can talk to people" at RunPod. I'm still there today (after moving around roles for a bit).

Maybe one of the greatest decisions I've made, mainly for the people. The job is great too, but the Find My Friends app told me my people were in the Marina, so I had to move and make it work.

Along the way, I wrote a lot about my thought process, made lots of projects for momentum and joy, and exploited some backdoors:

- I've never done a coding interview yet held multiple software engineering jobs.
- I'd never had sales experience before I was hired as an Account Executive.
- I'm a dropout who never set foot on his college campus yet somehow I have some of the most impressive and wonderful friends around.
- I had a free WeWork membership for a few years and get meal delivery for under $20/week.

I've come a long way, and have a long way left to go. I don't know where that is, but if for some reason you want to follow along, drop your email here and I'll save a seat for you.