By Suraj Chaudhary AI for Actual Intelligence Read on my website Dear Reader, There has been a trend in this year’s commencement speeches: speakers receiving a wave of boos while mentioning AI. This happened recently to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, real estate development executive Gloria Caulfield, and record executive Scott Borschetta. They went as far as to say that AI was “the next industrial revolution.” If you look at people of the Silicon Valleys of the world, they share a similar...
8 days ago • 3 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary On underselling things Read on my website Dear Reader, I just finished week one of my internship. I'd been planning a YouTube video about the experience, and my first instinct was to undersell it: "It's been normal, I'm learning things." But sitting with it longer, I realized that was wrong. I'd been underselling it to myself, not just to whoever might watch. Here's what's actually true: this week has been exciting. I've seen rare gear, robotic cameras, control rooms with...
15 days ago • 1 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary 11, not 2 Read on my website Dear Reader, What is the key to a lasting, fulfilling relationship? That is a question I think I’ve found a good direction regarding. I recently received a handwritten letter from a person I admire a lot, and she wrote: You two make 11, not 2; don’t forget yourself in the process. Initially, I didn’t think much of it. I was like, “Oh, right, yeah. Makes sense.” But now that I’ve gotten some time to think about this, it’s profound. When one is in...
22 days ago • 2 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary The pursuit of freedom Read on my website Dear Reader, One of the major themes my writing has focused on is living an intentional life. “Deep life” would be another way to put it. It is something that I aim for: building a life where I have control over what my day-to-day looks like. I have tried to obtain that in the past. When I started my first blog, the goal was to build financial independence. While that did not go as planned (the ROI on blogs was a downward slope), it...
29 days ago • 2 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary On losing adult friendships Read on my website Dear Reader, I am finally ready to talk about this; I hope it isn’t too late. I have fewer friends now than I’ve ever had in my life. Over the years, I’ve lost most of my friends. The sad part is that there was no argument, no fight, no issues, no reason. Recently, an article went viral; it was about the grief of adult friendships. It put into words exactly what I had been feeling. An Indian columnist called Pranav Jain wrote...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary Some good news and a lesson Read on my website Dear Reader, Suraj here – I have some life updates to share, good updates all of them: I finally got an internship, where I’ll be doing both tech (working with data) + production (TV shows). Such a wonderful blend of things I love doing. I received the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) grant from my university to do my research with an adviser. Alongside my STEM Peer Tutor job, I got another job on campus for next...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary The unseen cost of a dream Read on my website Hey Reader, My life has changed drastically over the last few years. I moved from a small village in Nepal to Kathmandu, and now, I am in New York. To an outsider, it looks like a straight line of remarkable progress. But all of this happened for one reason: education. People often ask why I came to the United States when I could have stayed with my family and studied back home. It is easy to assume it was a matter of lifestyle...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary The fear I thought I didn't have Read on my website Hey Reader, Suraj here – As some of you already know, I recently made a big purchase–I bought a camera. Prior to owning a camera, whenever I’d watch people’s vlogs, I’d always think that I too could easily do it, and perhaps even better. Since getting the camera, I’ve carried it with me almost everywhere I’ve gone. I must, however, admit that I’ve rarely taken it out of my bag. The reason has been that I’m worried about...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary What to do in life? Read on my website Dear Reader, Suraj here – How do you figure out what you want to do in life? This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately while re-reading So Good They Can’t Ignore You. Cal Newport, the author, would suggest that passion is a result of developing rare and valuable skills, not the starting point for finding a job you love. This would imply that, to figure out how you want to spend your life, you should focus not necessarily...
2 months ago • 2 min read