Living at intersections

When I first moved to the US from India at 11, I couldn’t speak a single word. I had to learn through observation: the social dynamics between friends, the way they talked to each other in English, the way they did their handshakes, how some became the ‘famous’ kid in school. And that habit never went away — I still people watch in the park, see how they’re interacting with each other, how they’re interacting with technology, etc.

In college, I wish I could be like a lot of my engineering friends who simply loved to code. But I was never like them. I had always loved to learn new things - this unsatiating curiosity to explore to understand how things (at that time, apps and products) are built. When I got my first job as a Product Manager, I felt like I was operating as a shell of myself. Before that, I dropped out at 19, started a company solo, and did everything from product design, full-stack engineering, sales/outreach, hiring, etc. — so being in a PM role felt limiting, like I couldn't reach my potential.

In some ways, it’s scary because I don’t think I have an identity. I always envied people who knew exactly what they were about: someone who loves coding, someone who loves baking, someone who loves sports - it’s comforting because it affords you a sense of identity. I like these things too but they’re not WHO I am. Turning any one of these into my identify feels like turning down the possibility to explore the other identities.

But why? To me, the beauty in life comes from maximizing your surface area to things you are exposed to because that leads to a life full of new and unique experiences, different ways to think about the world and it gives you a deeper appreciation of the artistry that goes into thinking, designing, engineering, and conceptualizing something. It’s my form of reverence to the art of building. It’s what makes my curiosity feel sacred than scattered. At least to me.

These past 5 years of building and running a company really highlighted something about what I am good at and what I am not:

I am NOT good at being JUST a product designer who spends hours tweaking components in Figma, even though I can do that.

I am NOT good at being JUST a software engineer who spends all their time coding in Cursor, even though I can do that.

I am NOT good at being JUST a product manager who writes PRDs, makes decisions, but does no actual building work, even though I can do that.

I AM good at being a generalist – someone who integrates across disciplines, who understands and connects. I know enough about design, engineering, product, marketing, ops, sales, hiring to think about these areas cohesively, not isolation because these are al interconnected. I don’t design things in a sandbox - I think about how it will be built, how it affects growth, the user, the product. Same with product-related work, I don’t prioritize in the void - I think through how something will be built, the experience we can afford, and how it affects the overall business strategy. I find … beauty in being at this intersection - translating complexity and bridging disciplines.

And this is true for life as much as it true at work. I am generalist in life - someone with a wide range of interests. I call it interests and not talents because it’s all driven by this same inquisitiveness to understand as much as possible about the world. I listen to hardcore Berlin techno, classical jazz, or piano from Romantic era or 80s pop or modern rap. I’ll cook Japanese or Indian or Thai or Peruvian or Spanish. I’ll bake tiramisu or a cheesecake or tres leches or attempt at an AI generated soba pudding with black sesame mousse with almond chocolate florentine. I write raps, Shakespearean sonnets, philosophical muses and pitch decks. I’ll nerd over coffee, teas, wines, spirits, protein shakes, sparkling water, adaptogenic drinks.

I always thought it was my biggest flaw and tbh, I sometimes still think that. I was this confused teenager who never picked a lane and decided who he wanted to be. But I realized … as AI gets better and better at being a specialist, there will need to be more generalist who can own, drive, and orchestrate things end to end. That is my strength.

I think through historical polymaths, figures like Leonardo da Vinci who understood fluid dynamics and built war machines and then painted the Mona Lisa, people like Benjamin Franklin who help write the Constitution but invented the lightening rod, or Steve Jobs who wasn’t an engineer or designer or operator, but he fused designs and technology and intuition that fundamentally changed technology. These people also lived at some intersection - they were probably just as misunderstood because we live in a society that prefers clear labels. But I am sure, despite their interests seem arbitrary, they saw it as connected.

We're going through a shift in how we think about specialization with the radical use of AI within orgs. AI (with good prompts) can do a specialized task pretty well. That capacity and capability will likely get better over time. And this future will favor the generalist, the one who can understand and connect across disciplines and ideas. Who can define what to work on, design the experience, and build the thing. Not just a product designer who lives in Figma or a PM who writes PRDs or an engineer who codes in React.

It's happening already. "Design Engineers", "Product Engineers", "Product Growth" — these are all interdisciplinary roles. And if you choose not to explore these intersection, the world might just pass you by.