Welcome! 👋
Hey, I’m Yameen - a 15-year-old Activator at The Knowledge Society (TKS), Editor at students x students, TEDx Speaker, podcast host, STEAM Student, and Army Cadet.
I’m incredibly passionate about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Gene-Editing (GE). Currently working to leverage GE technologies to cure genetic problems (prev. LCA10).
My mission in life is to make an impact on the lives of others. There are so many underrepresented in our country (and globally), and I believe it’s up to us to take advantage of our opportunities to create a better world for them!
It’s been a wild ride, and I’m so glad to have you joining me! But, you didn’t come here to learn about my life goals; you came to learn about my month.
So, here you go!
January! 🎆
With the first month of the year coming to an end, it’s a good time to reevaluate my goals for 2022. And, with my semester wrapping up, I’m finally able to get some free time to work on the things that matter most to me! Although January flew by, a lot was learned and experienced.
From qualifying to a national business competition as a top performer, to producing new content, January was a month like no other!
I’ll have all that and more in this month’s episode of My Structurally Unstructured Life! Welcome to my January!
Diving Into GE and Re-Evaluating Ideas.
If you don’t know, for the past few months, I was started working on a project to create a non-invasive method of delivery for GE therapies (specifically, for LCA10). Now, to keep it short, I decided to kill the project.
Why?
There was such minimal validation for the idea and it simply wasn’t something I wanted to go into. The project completely skimmed over the concept of actual “gene-editing”; I wasn’t working to edit a gene anymore, it was just to improve delivery methods (important, but not something I wanted to work on). So, I ended the project.
At first, I felt really disappointed. To have invested so much time into a project just to end it seemed pointless. However, I came to realize that this failure was an opportunity to re-evaluate what I wanted to do.
So, for the past 2 weeks, I’ve been working to take another look at the problems I want to dive into. At the moment, I have a set of ~4 potential problems, so I am currently doing some research to understand the first principles + root causes and decide how they can be tackled.
Goal is to have an idea of a solution by the end of February.
Follow my Twitter, Medium, and LinkedIn for new content soon!
Accomplishments.
Alright, January was actually pretty awesome. I say that because there were a few valuable accomplishments this month:
Qualified for JOT’s National Competition as an Overall Top Performer!
Joined my school’s competitive Mock Trials team (we’re gonna be competing @OJEN in March!).
Entered a Case Study competition focusing on implementing policy changes to resolve Ontario's homelessness crisis (going to be pitching to Minister Mendicino, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness).
After many months off (~7), I have finally released a new podcast episode for the Reality Check (finally…)!
Monthly Wisdom.
“Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” — Nassim Taleb
🔑: The shortcut to success and self-improvement isn’t created by dodging life’s difficulties, instead, by defeating them.
There’s a difference between being resilient and anti-fragile.
Resilient = shoving off the difficulties.
Anti-fragile = shoving off the difficulties + learning from them.
Use the stressors in life to your advantage. Don’t perceive them as a challenge or a difficulty, but instead, as an opportunity to 10x yourself.
That’s it…for now!
January was a great month for growth + failure. I re-evaluated project goals, learned new things, and more. In the coming month of February, there’s a lot more to be excited about! From building new and better projects, to Activate’s upcoming PIE Challenge, I’m hyped for what’s next.
So until then, enjoy your February!
- Yameen ✌️