2017 was great | 2018 will be better!

28 Dec 2017 . category: report . Comments
#report #pilani #mumbai #bangalore

364 days earlier, i wrote a yearly blog report – 2016 was great | 2017 will be better!.

2016 was good, but you know what was better? 2017.

And just so you know, what’s gonna be bettering better? 2018.

By the way if you think this is a narcissistic blog, i just wanna ensure – it is ;)

i’d set out with a bunch of 2017 goals, lets do a comprehensive review:

• Top 10% of a Kaggle competition: I spent roughly two months each on a couple of Kaggle competitions, ranking within the Top 15% and Top 12% of the leaderboard. Not quite there, but i’d give myself half a strike.
• Fitness schedule: I’ve never been on a more regular fitness schedule, all my weeks are mapped out with run and workout sessions. At all times, i have a marathon goal at least three months into the future.
• Read more, consume less: Well, i’m consuming less – more like zero. I have eliminated all news, and all stupid social media from my life – whats all this frickin hype with Virushka?! I’m very conscious about what content i consume, its mostly Casey Neistat, Gary Vee, Peter McKinnon and Mumbiker Nikhil. I’m still trying to build a regular reading habit – i have put out a couple book review vlogs too. Still not quite there, it needs to become a subconscious decision.
• Bigger & better blogs: This hasn’t been one of my priorities lately – i’m still regular with my weekly blogs, but the bigger projects are amiss. Need to get back on it!

With that out of the way, lets get into a 52-week Mega-Massive-Compre-fuckin-hensive Report!

i went for a nice little trip to Malvan, a small fishing town near Bombay. We scuba dived! That was fun. Got kicked out of a bus in the middle of the night for sleeping in an unreserved seat. That wasn’t fun.

i joined Belong as an analytics intern, i don’t think i’ve been on a steeper learning curve. Not just in terms of tech, but startups, culture, leadership. Came back heavily inspired :)

i worked on a bunch of kaggle datasets. i turned kernels expert, hit the 50th rank worldwide :)

i ran the beautiful Auroville half-marathon. i injured my knee, was out of action for three months.

i worked on the NYC rental prediction challenge, hit Top 15%. Wrote a blog about it, got accepted as a writer in ‘Towards Data Science’, a Medium publication.

i turned 21. We went to Glocal, it was crazy!

i was bitten by the sports analytics bug. Worked on two blogs on the Fedal rivalry and one on the Boston Marathon. An Australian Sports blog picked it up, i just went international :)

i discovered the magical Cubbon Park. i went to Cubbon to run, to skateboard, it became my favorite place!

i worked my nights away on the Quora challenge on Kaggle. Hit Top 12%, wrote a blog, it has became my most-read one to date.

i watched the Indian Tennis Team kick Uzbekistan’s ass at Davis Cup, Bangalore. Was a unique experience.

i went on a 10-day trip to Bhutan, one of the more happier places i’ve been to! Wrote a blog, made a vlog!

i joined Myntra Data Sciences. my first job. Now i know the difference between an off-shoulder and a cold-shoulder dress!

i met Shreya, she’s on my favorite people list now! Thanks for everything, blue whale ;)

i went back to Pilani for my Convocation. Seemed like nothing had changed, not the people, not the place! i made a convo vlog, has become my most-viewed video!

i got myself a bicycle. its the best mode of transport :)

i went to a quite a few parties. i don’t like parties. i don’t go to parties. i’d rather write a blog about how much i hate parties than go to a party.

i participated in the Indiahacks ML challenge, ranked in the Top 15 in the finals. Taj Vivanta, yet again!

i got myself a GoPro. i started a super-ambitious experiment to make one vlog every week. 16 weeks in, still going strong.

i worked on another Kaggle challenge(Web Traffic prediction), didn’t give it my 100 percent. Disappointed with my efforts.

i ran the Satara Hill half-marathon, its been the best marathon i’ve been to! Words fall short to tell the experience, so i made a vlog :p

i pushed my first A/B test in production. our hypothesis failed. i learnt quite a lot of shit.

i began weight training. i suck at it, pretty bad. Gotta see the shit through, no one knew how to walk when they were born.

i visited Hampi, its basically heaven with rocks. Made a vlog, put Shreya’s face in the thumbnail, got a lot more views than i should have!

i started work on the RTO problem at Myntra. It is as “real-world data science” as it gets. Dirty data, assumptions and a lot of headaches!

i visited Sodhi for a weekend trip in Hyd. CharMinar isn’t hyped, it is beautiful!

i ran. i ran more.

i ran the Kaveri Trail half-marathon. The post-run dip in the Kaveri is pure bliss, go watch it!

i began skateboarding again. On a regular schedule now, i can ride the skatepark wave now!

i started playing squash, it feels more strategic than tennis. Or maybe that’s just my neural nets getting trained!

i built an end-to-end DS pipeline at work, proud of my efforts. Gotta push it through prod now!

i’m super-focused now – i journal everyday, i vlog almost everyday, i blog every Sunday, i have a bunch of tasks to cross off everyday, and my ToDos list doesn’t end. A state of mind i wanna be in. Always. Forever.

With two days to go before 2k18, i’m heading for a solo trek to Kumar Parvat! Wish me luck :)

Phew, that took me longer than i’d thought!

Now, goals for 2018:

• Career-wise, i have a major slightly-scary goal. Wanna keep that to myself, for now. That, or YC 2019.
• The Top 10% on Kaggle has been close, yet elusive. Get there!
• I wanna be in the physical conditions to run a full-marathon by year-end. Aiming for Standard Chartered 2019.
• I’m registering for AITA(All India Tennis Assoc), will work towards getting a decent ranking in the Nationals.
• I stand at 62 subscribers on my Youtube. Aiming for a 1000 by year end. Moonshot. But moonshots exist for a reason.
• Read more. Put in deep work. Eliminate distractions. Eliminate social media.
• I hope i’m in an emotionally mature position by next year. I struggle with being fulfilled or content, you might have guessed that by now :p

Boy, let the narcissism end! Later!

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