About Me — Avinash (Nash) Saravanan
Hello Medium,
I am Avinash (Nash) Saravanan. I have been on Medium for a couple of years now and have been writing consistently as a hobby on Medium for about a year. I am a computer scientist from the United States who has worked and studied in many different countries. I wear a bunch of different hats, and that informs my writing. Let’s get into the details, one by one.
Hobbies and Interests (TLDR: I Do Pretty Much Everything)
My goal is to be an absolute badass at anything that I believe to be worth doing. I try to leverage my past skills to gain new ones and this has resulted in a snowball effect. I code, I play electric guitar, and I can dance. I speak two languages fluently and Dutch at a basic conversational level and constantly work on memorizing words in other languages. I have published scientific research, read many of the great classics, watched many of the greatest films, watched quite a bit of anime, played many of the highest-ranked video games (although I’m still far from getting through my bucket list), jumped out of a plane in tandem, and pretty soon, I’ll be a self-published author. In the future, I plan to be able to do flips, and handstands, catch up on some of the best TV shows, read more Manga and novels in Japanese, and skateboard with ease.
Education
I completed my Bachelor's at The University of Michigan Ann Arbor. During this time, I started out as a business major before switching to Computer Science as a major and minoring in the Japanese language. I think this time was relatively formative as it helped me understand the direction I wished to enter in terms of a career and I met a lot of interesting people in the process.
Later on, after working professionally for a couple of years, I decided to attend the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands for my Master’s in Computer Science. I think what was unique about this experience was the fact that it was in another country and the exposure I gained to machine learning, statistics, science, and academia. It was my first time conducting scientific research as well as publishing that research after peer review.
Career
I have held internships and full-time positions in many different countries (India, Japan, U.S.) in addition to being the CTO of a Dutch startup at one point, and I currently work as a Senior Software Engineer in the United States. I have worked for companies big and small with different cultures and industries. Overall, I’d say I have 5–6 years of experience in software engineering and within that period of time, I’d argue that I’ve seen much of what the industry has to offer while sharpening my skills to the point that if I don’t know how to do something, I can probably figure out how.
Places I Visited
I have been to the U.S. (duh), Canada, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy. My travels have shaped my experiences and the chance to work and study in other countries has enabled me to have a perspective that I think is quite unique when compared to my peers. Personally, the places I liked the most had a decent train system, mountains, and great food. It’s always nice when you can get some perspective on the world by looking down on it from a high place.
What I Write About
My reason for being on Medium is to express myself and to meet people with similar interests, and ideas. If something I write about resonates with you, feel free to leave a comment or ask questions. As part of my New Year's plans, I would like to be more active with the community and interact more with those who read my output.
I write about anything that interests me at a bi-weekly and sometimes weekly rate. Often, I write about technology or the space industry. Sometimes, I write about writing. Since I am in the process of publishing my first novel (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BT4ZYKTF), I may write some articles about that and what I learned through the process. If I feel that I have something unique to bring, be it certain expertise or a particular opinion, I am highly likely to write about it. If you take a look at my current list of stories, you may notice that I cover a lot. From Chat-GPT to lighting in movies to spaceships and the 80s, I’ve been everywhere with my body of work.
My Philosophy
First and foremost, I like acquiring knowledge and skills and that is part of the reason why I wear so many hats. In addition to this, I try to live my life deliberately which means that I can cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. Generally speaking, it is good to live with purpose regardless of how young you are. If I manage to get through everything on my bucket list in my 20s, then that means I have the rest of my life to do other things. Not to mention, by doing many different things, you get a better idea of what you like, what you are good at, and what you want to do more of. Your interests become refined, and you develop as a person in the process. What this means is not only do I try to be focused, but I also make sure that I am budgeting my time wisely.
Where You Can Find Me
I try to keep a balanced presence on the internet where I can interact with other people while maintaining a certain level of privacy.
With that said, if you want to reach out to me, here are some avenues:
Medium: https://medium.com/@asarav
Website: https://asarav.github.io/
Github: https://github.com/asarav
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avinash-saravanan-profile/
As Part of My Novel Writing, I have recently started a Substack newsletter under my penname that I will be using for updating any readers of my novels or other works about upcoming deals, status updates on in-progress works, or related topics.
Substack: https://asmori.substack.com/
