About Me — Hirad

From Childhood Daydreams to Real-World Creations

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Hello World

In January 1997 I was born in the city of Shiraz located in Iran. My mother used to love assigning rare names to her children. But she had to be careful because, for some names, the governmental offices could refuse issuing a birth certificate just because of the choice of first name. At that time, these offices usually forced parents to assign religious names to their children if the name originated from another country, culture or even certain tribes. I was lucky from day one since apparently my name was guaranteed to be Persian. Hi! My name is Hirad, pronounced as “He-raad” which for some reason is difficult for some accents (e.g. “ee-rade” in French which basically means “flaw” in Persian). I always have thanked my mother simply because of choosing my name which means “Happy” or “A person who is always smiling”. This always pushed me to pursue happiness and try as much as possible to stay optimistic.

Childhood

During my childhood I was obsessed with living in my imaginary world. Friends, environments, scenarios or even imaginary objects. It was a constant training of my mind to make a perfect imaginary universe (obviously I did not know it is happening in my brain). Sometimes it concerned my parents. For instance, I started developing memories which never happened but until today I still believe they were true or being able to see scary entities around myself every day and night. I have even attended psychology sessions at early ages to learn to control my imagination. Learning to draw a boundary between imagination and illusion.

However, this became the core characteristic of my personality. An endless thirst for imagination and trying to create those visions with anything possible to present it to the real world.

Invention of The Wheel

Camera, the first real world tool which made it possible to showcase some parts of my visions. At the age of 10 my parents bought me a Canon digital compact camera. I was taking photos or making videos almost every day. I still remember forming scenes with my Lego toys and started taking photos and moving them around, in the end opening the images in Windows photo viewer and tapping the right arrow key to create a sense of animated movies. I would involve my cousins to create contents (well nonsense content, as one would say) every time we met. Music videos, role playing interviews, family impressions or open-ended plots. Most of the time we were creating video clips for events like new year or even family reunions. The thirst grew deeper and deeper.

In high school I started self teaching professional video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects which opened a new gate of the imaginary realm in my life. I would spend time filming stuff to test Youtube’s tutorial techniques on different footages. I continued making humorous funny videos (with no budget) and in the end, in the university I was the main video editor/director for many events like TEDx. Good times!

The Realm of Computers

Since there were no doctors in my family I was firstly motivated by my dad to become a dentist. My major in high school was “Math” so I had to study Biology on my own. I marched down this miserable path till the third year of high school, once we had a new course call Fundamentals of Computers which everyone hated it. I understand why — the book presenting this field of science is an absolute failure of Iran’s educational system.

However, for some reason I got interested in it. I would sneak into other classes’ lab sessions to investigate the magical realm of computers. Even the instructor got to know me and would let me in without informing the headmaster. I still remember one time he pointed at me and said:

If anyone between you guys could ever become an engineer, it is this boy!

I know! It felt so good for me as well. But following the next sentence:

Shame on you guys that this kid is your engineer!

Well fortunately I was used to this sort of plot twists during my life. Maybe after all life difficulties would teach you something. But it is fine. He just became a part of my story.

And one day, I created an application with visual basic which it only had a blue plain background, one button with the label “Click Me” and when you clicked on it a text appeared saying “You clicked the button”. That moment everything changed, I quit studying Biology and tossed that imaginary nightmare in the trash can of my diaries. I figured, this is the only way I am able to create whatever I want. So I aimed for becoming a Software Engineer. Exactly as everyone in my family, but with one difference. I actually wanted to be a Software Engineer.

The Real Life

By the end of the dark era of Iran’s University Entrance exam, I got admitted for Bachelor’s of Software Engineering degree in Shiraz University. I was excited about it and learned a lot there. Every course, every book drove me to another dimension of the infinite aspects of imaginary ones and zeros. Of course, I am ambitious, so I wanted to know everything (quite impossible as I am thinking of it right now). Good thing about Internet is that you learn a lot. So I started hopping branch to branch field to field to find what I would really want. I was mainly specialized in Data Science but I was thirsty for more knowledge. I did, change a lot of career goals during my studies ranging from Game Development to Artificial Intelligence which AI was the resulting winner of all my explorations.

After successfully completing my degree , with lots of internet difficulties, I was finally admitted to Concordia University in Montreal, Canada for a Masters degree. At the age of 24 I came to Canada and enhanced my skills — this time with the difficulty of living on my own. I was depressed and desperate for a job. It was the post COVID era and the chance of getting a job was as low as possible. Eventually, I got a job as a junior Quality Assurance Engineer. Yes, I did not know much about it and the only benefit I had on my resume was my skills on Python programming.

After a year of working as a QA, doubting myself, questioning every aspect of my life, disappointed of becoming a data scientist I had always dreamt about. The one who creates artificial entities which would make the world a better place. However just like a movie, one day things changed.

I was shy but suddenly I felt the need to talk to someone. Someone that I normally just saw every Wednesday at the office which I had no relative task with. We talked and all of a sudden we brought an idea for an AI based system. An internal application that would bring AI to the company for the first time.

That day was the goal changer of my life. I started building the system on my own. Although my position was different I had to work overtime to make time for it. Days and nights were dedicated to build the system. Achieve the wish. Finally a change! As a result, today I finally become a data scientist lead of my company and met my dream of having the power of creating systems/entities that are not world changing but still created out of the imagination.

Why Medium?

I always wanted to have the courage of sharing knowledge and, most importantly, to learn from other people as well. I always loved telling stories and teaching. I even used to teach different bachelors and masters courses as a teaching assistant during my studies. Today that I am writing this article, is the day I decided to get out of my comfort zone and aim to start writing on Medium as much as I can to help the community and to help people like me who are seeking adventure.

So this is me! Hi, I am Hirad and I am here for another imaginary adventure.