Who Are You?

Who are you and what do you do?

I often struggle to answer this question. Sometimes, my answer varies based on whoever's asking that question. I do so many things. I wonder if there's a way to describe all of it briefly. I like to study cybersecurity, take over personal projects to learn business, software development or work on projects assigned by other people.

It's a blend of a lot of stuff. I can't just call myself a freelancer, a penetration tester, a writer even if these are things I actually do. I feel more like a generalist trying to figure out a lot of stuff at once, I do love this journey, I don't get bored this way, there are always better challenges.

Ali Abdaal introduced me to an awesome idea of forget the noun, do the verb by Austin Kleon

The idea dictates that we should let go of chasing titles and rather focus on the actual work we want to do and I believe that's a top-notch approach. The downside to it is that answering the question "who are you?" becomes difficult. There's a day you're reading computer science, some other days you're deep into English literature. What would you call yourself then?

Currently, my general answer remains "I'm a cybersecurity student" and I move on and do all the things I'm interested in - philosophy, writing, coding, even pursuing my entrepreneurial interests.

When answering the question we're talking about, the goal is to avoid uncertainty. You wouldn't want others to think that you're a confused individual, we live in a world where people know us and remember us by our professions.

"Look at Raghav, he's a well-paid engineer", that's how the world works but it's very restrictive. It identifies Raghav as just an engineer.

The real answer continues to be... "I do a lot of things including X, Y, Z" and that, my friend, is the approach of forget the noun, do the verb

- Ritik Sahni