Aadil Mamujee

In December, we welcomed our second son, Remy, to our family and found myself dreaming a little about the future and technological advancements that make me optimistic.

I graduated from university as an engineer nearly 20 years ago with no idea what to do. I chose management consulting because my brightest peers also chose it, not because it appealed to me on a foundational level. I quickly realized that I neither enjoyed nor excelled at it, and it was a poor choice for someone who likes technology and building things.

If I was graduating from university today and inclined toward technology and engineering, here are some of the areas I would explore.

Blockchain

Yeah, it’s tough times now, and I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way, but the fundamentals are still sound, and I hope that blockchain technology ends up powering our financial, ownership and identity rails. 

The 2021 crypto boom was unique as it combined new technology, relatable consumer mental models (e.g., collectibles), and financialization, leading to heavy speculation and rapid ponzification and scammers doing their scamming. All the dust will settle, the true believers and builders will keep pushing forward, and the gold rush will hopefully move somewhere else. 

Digitally native forms of identity, ownership and payments will eventually lead to more seamless commerce and trade on the internet — I’m confident this is true. Our underlying financial services rails are archaic, slow, and centralized, and the blockchain is one solution to this issue. 

Personalized Health and Longevity

I recently read Peter Attia’s new book “Outlive,” and it profoundly impacted me. He talks about medicine 2.0 as treating existing diseases and medicine 3.0 as preventing the onset of disease in the first place to increase our “healthspan” (years of healty life). I’m exploring the interventions I can make now (top of mind as I’m 40 years old) that will allow me to live the healthiest and fullest life possible. I’m particularly excited about developments in the following areas:

• Personalized Medicine: Everyone’s genetics and baseline biomarkers are different, and both should be considered in both preventative care and disease treatment. 
• Wearables / Better Health Data: Doctors have relied on “point in time” essential biomarkers, but we can track these more continuously (weight, blood pressure, continuous glucose monitors, exercise, sleep) to paint a better picture of overall health. 
• Preventative medicine: What can we do with diet, sleep, supplementation, diagnosis, and exercise today that helps us both understand and optimize our health. 
• Mental health: There is no notion of regular mental health checkups like an “annual physical”. I expect this to change as a mind-body connection becomes part of mainstream medicine. The negative impact things like stress, anxiety can have on us and our relationships should not be neglected. 

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is having its moment in the sun but it does not feel like vaporware in the slightest. It’s reasonable to think that everyone will have an AI assistant to help them in life, work and learning. SAAS tools we use daily will have AI and assistance natively built into the products, and we already see this happening in tools like Notion. I’m confident that AI will allow humans to iterate and innovate faster and broadly increase our productivity — talk to any engineer who’s used GitHub Copilot to help them code better and faster. I spent some time exploring these ideas a few weeks ago, in case it’s of interest. 

My wife, Tej, works on helping Bard hallucinate less and tell the truth more (one of the biggest problems with LLMs), and it’s been great to observe the innovation in the space through her. I’ve also been enjoying the No Priors Podcast if that’s how you like to learn. 

Climate Change

Climate change is a huge problem, and there are lots of talented, mission-driven folks innovating and trying to make a difference. If we don’t reverse the damage we’ve caused the world may not be inhabitable (temperature change, flooding etc). I’m not an expert here and I’m trying to learn through reading and investing in a few funds (e.g. Jetstream). I’m attempting to follow innovation in clean energy, decarbonization, and lab-created nourishment in particular. 

An amplifier to technical innovators in all these areas is developing world class team working and communication skills. The best technical builders will be able to listen, communicate, influence, and align groups and organizations and synthesize complex concepts so that “normies” understand wtf is going on. Ultimately, they will build better and more impactful companies with these skills.  

I remain optimistic about technology’s impact on my family’s life. I hope to continue spending my career supporting the advancement of technology through building, investing, and sharing that enthusiasm with my kids as they grow up.