learning

Motivation: Watching AI compose music, solve Olympiad questions, ace every test, and deliver a variety of work with little effort made me ponder: what kind of learning and work awaits us?

Process: Many conversations about AI, deep reading on its inner workings through academic papers and podcasts revealed a disconnect—people's experiences varied wildly from what research suggested. A systematic survey became the answer to objectively understand AI's real-world impact across geographies, job functions, and industries. Designing, testing, and distributing the survey required persistence and reaching out extensively for serious responses. I'm indebted to parents, teachers, and friends who helped socialize it.

Takeaway: Correlating AI impact reports, understanding AI capabilities and limitations, and analyzing survey responses revealed genuine disruption and redefinition. The uncertainty is both challenging and opportunistic. It requires acknowledging that definite paths will change, college planning must account for AI disrupting entry-level careers, and skills/competencies are being redrawn. This is a decent attempt to decode a very important, less-explored topic. For me, it's been incredibly helpful—I'm now making choices based on what interests me and where I thrive, applying my core strengths in my college planning journey. I don't have all answers yet, but this work provides a map through the noise.

India and the United States represent two of the world's most significant democracies—together home to over a billion people and critical experiments in self-governance for humanity. As a history buff, I found comparative analysis fascinating: a method to understand how different institutional designs respond to existential threats. Through this work, I came to understand much about people, societies, and the context for their actions and leanings. Above all, I discovered hope in the strength and promise of democracy—it is self-sustaining and progressive.

As an Indian American, this effort connected me with both countries in ways I didn't anticipate. The research examines how India (1947–1952) and the United States (1787–1791; 1850–1877) survived existential shocks using opposite constitutional strategies—India's dispersed, negotiation-heavy design versus America's concentrated, action-oriented system. These choices created durable trade-offs: India's plural architecture slowed sweeping change but made reversal hard; the U.S. model enabled rapid Civil War/Reconstruction action yet proved fragile when federal will waned in 1877. The claim is that democracies endure by design rather than luck, and each design still echoes today.

Analysis of how anti-imperialist movements transformed Asia politically, socially, and culturally after 1900. Examines the collapse of colonial empires, emergence of independent nation-states, and the varying degrees of transformation across regions—from profound changes in India and China to ongoing struggles with neocolonial dependency and authoritarianism.

Comprehensive review exploring Gandhi's autobiography as a vivid series of anecdotes detailing his successes and failures. Analyzes his development from childhood through the South African years to leading the Indian Independence Movement. Examines his philosophy of satyagraha, religious plurality, and the evolution of his personal moral compass through honest self-reflection.

What began as curiosity quickly became a study of how fundamental forces shape our relationship to virtual worlds and perhaps to reality itself. Using a gravity mod in Minecraft, I explored how altered gravitational conditions transformed gameplay, spatial reasoning, and sense of presence. High gravity made building deliberate and grounded; low gravity turned movement into chaotic ballet; reversed gravity created genuine existential disorientation. The experiment revealed that design thrives on invisible compromises, constraint gives meaning to action, and gravity—both literal and metaphorical—keeps us connected to our world.