Entering the Real World. 🌎
THIS MONTH - Getting my first AI internship, Creating a Symptom-Diagnosis bot, and Becoming Obsessed with Content Creation.
Now, I think we all can agree that doing things is insanely cool.
Especially, when those things are meaningful - not just to you, but to all of society.
There’s something to be said for the feeling of pure exhilaration one gets, when they do something that helps others. Something, that makes them excited to get out of their bed in the morning, excited to be alive.
In May, I found myself at the doorstep of this feeling. Because, for the first time, I ventured outside my little bubble of pet projects. I ventured outside the world of theory, outside my comfort zone, and entered a place where I could make real-world impact.
Buckle up - this is going to be a wild ride :D
Getting an AI Internship! 🤯
I legitimately don’t know what to write here - I was straight-up awestruck. After months and months of coding projects (which you know about, if you’re subscribed 😉), acquiring certifications, and sending resumes, I’m absolutely delighted to announce that I’ll be spending this summer at Actionable.co - a company focused on improving the effectiveness of employee training programs.
Actionable team - if you’re reading this, thank you so much for this fantastic opportunity!
Alongside Kevin Liu, Dickson Wu, and Christopher Yoeurng, I’ll be working on leveraging AI to better the company’s recommendation system. Basically, making sure that employee-trainers know what to change to make their programs better.
Ultimately, this marks an important transition for me - as I get to test out ML in the real world, and learn tonnes from the smart people around me. Will update our progress in the next newsletter!
Speaking of AI…
Creating a Symptom-Diagnosis Bot. 🏥
Earlier in May, Kevin and I had the phenomenal opportunity to present at the annual TKShowcase - talking about the growing healthcare crisis in 2021.
Tl;DR - people aren’t going to doctors or hospitals because of COVID-19.
In fact, even people with serious symptoms are staying home - which, in the case of quickly-worsening diseases like cancer, is extremely harmful to patients.
So, to solve this, I took advantage of the growing telehealth market - and deployed a symptom diagnosis webapp using Flask and Heroku. All you need to do is input a couple symptoms, and you can receive a pretty accurate (up to 95%) diagnosis!
For future projects, I’ll be looking to improve the app’s speed, performance, and increasing user input (like adding medical records). Because, you don’t want to be giving a diagnosis just based off of symptoms!
Here’s an article I wrote breaking down the method behind the madness - I learned a lot from this project, and I hope people can actually benefit from something like this!
Now, to end it off, let’s talk about content creation…which btw, exploded this month.
Becoming Obsessed with Content 🙈
Aside from the articles/videos I mentioned earlier, I had the fantastic opportunity to record more episodes of The 3 Bucket Podcast, with Jibraan Kadri, Laura Gao, and Carlos Sanchez. The newer ones take a more philosophical stance towards life, and, how we can maximize satisfaction as we journey through it!
Check out episode 4 here:
Aside from the three episodes published, I also put together a video on the last newsletter’s topic: The Warrior’s Mentality.
Ever since I’ve read David Goggins’ book Can’t Hurt Me, it’s been a topic that I’ve been obsessed with. Are we really only living at 40% of our potentials? Are we really, leaving more than half of our potentials on the table?
I answer these questions and more in my latest video: The mindset, that changed my life.
In terms of content creation, next steps for me are a) make my videos more concise, b) focus more on the script/story, and c) keep a consistent theme throughout the work!
In June, I’ll be working on releasing higher quality content than ever before - so, stay tuned!
Speaking of June - here are my high-level goals for the next month:
GOALS 🔥
Publish 2-3 episodes of the 3 Bucket Podcast.
Familiarize myself with AWS and AI implementation schemes (in prep for the internship).
Finish reading 12 Rules for Life, and potentially its successor - Beyond Order.
Publish at least 1, higher-standards video than before.
This month as been an amazing catalyst for getting me involved in things that actually give me meaning. Regardless of the struggles and mishaps along the way, I’ve learned more than ever could - and, I hope you’ll be along with me on the next part of my journey.
Peace!
Aditya Dewan