Who am I?

I'm Vijit Dua. In case the two lines above weren't obvious enough, I like to think of myself as an entrepreneurial engineer who makes music on the side, among other side-quests across the internet.

I love building projects, but not because I'm a "business guy" – I build them because I'm an engineer who loves bringing cool shit to life. To me, a project or venture is just another system to be designed, and a company is usually the best machine to scale an idea.

Whether I'm shipping code, working on a cool project, producing music, or side-questing – documenting my thoughts on X/Twitter, my blog, YouTube, making cringe short-form content on Instagram/TikTok, or being chronically online elsewhere – I'm obsessed with 'engineering' cool things.

My philosophy? Collective Contribution – make positive impacts wherever you go and enjoy life.

My ultimate goal? To lead a fulfilling life, be happy, provide for my family, and live out my Collective Contribution philosophy by scaling up meaningful projects – either by leading my own startup or holding a significant position at a company that's working on something that aligns with my interests, so I can directly move the needle and give back to society.

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Why vijitdua.com? Why Coding?

Why'd I build vijitdua.com? I'm a Computer Science nerd student who initially wanted to make a portfolio page to larp on my resume and LinkedIn.

But clearly, as you can see, this page has evolved into way more than that. To explain why, I need to give some background on my childhood.

I grew up in a small, remote Indian city in the Himalayas – Shimla. The problem with Shimla? It's tiny. A ghost town with nothing to do.

This sucked for nine-year-old Vijit, who had nothing to keep himself occupied besides school and the occasional badminton games with friends. So, after months of begging his parents, he finally got his hands on a cheap $40 tablet from a company called "Micromax".

That tiny purchase sent me down a rabbit hole. I couldn't get a few games to run on the tablet, so I searched for tutorials on Google — and discovered internet forums. Now, ideally, the average nine-year-old probably shouldn't be on those. Back in 2014, the average internet forum was mostly slurs and curse words (and honestly, probably where I picked up my habit of cursing). But somehow, young me — not knowing what half of those things meant — was able to look past all that and just be amazed by how cool the internet was. No matter what you searched, you found an answer. Instead of being stuck in your own culture in your own corner of the world, you could communicate with anyone, anywhere.

This turned me into a chronically online tech geek. I made several Google+ (rip) accounts, stalked tech forums on Reddit, and became the family's designated Tech Geek 🤓. When I was ten (2015), I finally got upgraded to my older brother's second-hand Samsung Tab 2, and a 512mb RAM Windows XP laptop (HP Compaq nx6310)

Most of my childhood was this funny cycle: get scolded for spending too much time online + get my devices confiscated, get them back, and immediately go back to browsing forums and websites. By 14 I'd developed some self-control — but the internet always felt like a second home to me.

The more time I spent online, the more intrigued & fascinated I became. That fascination eventually led me into a new rabbit hole – instead of just consuming, I wanted to build what I consumed. After a few existential crises and a lot of reflection (more on that below), I landed on the idea of collective contribution– and decided that Computer Science was the best way to pursue it. With a laptop, an internet connection, and some coding skills, you can solve 99% of the everyday problems people face across almost any field.

Since I'm paying $20 a year for this domain, I figured I might as well put it to good use and finally make my childhood dream of having my own webpage real.

And that's why I decided to make it the gigantic website it is today :).

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When I'm not buried in work, you'll catch me:

Some of these are rare indulgences, but still traits that are a part of who I am :)

This section was last updated: February 2025

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My Core Belief

I believe in "collective contribution" — that each of us is a small cog in the machine of human progress. I don't believe in fate or religion, but I do believe in building meaning through impact, legacy, and family. Life's short — contribute meaningfully and pass the torch forward, both through your work and your children.

This is a snippet from a journal entry I wrote on my 20th birthday to collect my core philosophy in one place.

Atheism

I've been an atheist since I was ~8-10, I don't believe in God or religion*. Instead, I believe in understanding the universe through the scientific method. When you don't believe in an inherent purpose. You must search for / create one for yourself. What makes life matter if there's nothing after death? That's the challenge.

*I don't believe in a God in the traditional sense – the creator of the universe. However, if it were posed as a highly powerful creature that is a product of the said universe, I could see that. It is theoretically possible - not something I "believe" in, but possible. A good analogy to this is thinking of humans as Gods in contrast to ants. A similar creature could exist in contrast to humans.

Collective Contribution

To understand my purpose, I had to understand myself. What defines me? Who am I? Let's explain my perspective by diving into a fun thought process I built around cloning and teleportation:

Whilst not believing in a consciousness, what truly makes you - 'you' ? If I were to clone you identically, with the clone having identical memories as you, and neither of you knowing which of you is the clone — aren't you the same person? Both of you think the same way, act the same way, do the same action in the same scenarios, and have the same memories and experiences. The only thing possibly broken — is the continuity of your consciousness, but for the sake of this argument we say that consciousness is being ignored.

Besides, consciousness is a confusing topic. When I faint, when I sleep, am I starting a new life each time? Maybe the real "consciousness" is just continuity - but so is cloning a continuity, just branched.

Ok - cloning is clearly somewhat debatable for this argument. That's where teleportation jumps in. Let's talk teleportation - if it existed, you are being killed in one spot and reformed in another. It's essentially the same as being cloned with the real you being killed.

There may be several interpretations of this. My interpretation — perhaps just a coping mechanism shaped by evolution – is that I am my experiences, my actions, and my logical thinking/processes. Some of these are genetic, some shaped by experience — but if the clone is the same as me, then I am not defined physically, but by my way of thinking: my memories, principles, and thought processes.

My Initial Purpose

So I am my thoughts, principles, experiences, and my way of acting and decision making. What defines me are the ideals I exhibit in my life. So that is who "I am", but another interesting thing about me is that I am made up of a bunch of smaller components - my heart, my lungs, my brain, etc. all working together to power up my body and make me "me". Let's extend that idea even further, shall we?

Some people try to give their life meaning by immortalizing themselves in fame - and I'm selfish and want to do that too. But deep down inside me, I know fame is temporary. We all know who Newton was, we know Edison created the bulb. But do you know who discovered fire? Who made the first wheel? Eventually, even Newton will be forgotten when we have greater discoveries and the laws of physics become as fundamental to us as we see fire and "the wheel" now. Similarly, no fame will last me forever.

Throughout time, we humans have evolved. Evolution includes physical evolution but also the evolution of thought and knowledge. If my organs are what make me 'me', then we humans are what make the "human race" the "human race". We are also smaller cogs that are part of a bigger machine. And you know what? I might not know who found the "wheel," but that dude sure as hell contributed to our evolution of thought and knowledge — so while I still want to be famous cuz it's proof my contributions were more impactful than others, my main goal is still to just ensure I contribute to the development of people since fame will eventually die. Fame is cool, but not important; the most important thing is contribution.

I call this philosophy "collective contribution". Funny, huh? Such a deep philosophical story just to say "be a good person and help society". Even funnier when you realize religious people think the same, though due to different reasons. I am an atheist, but I hope I am one with a strong moral compass, with the only difference between theists and me being the lack of belief in a god, rather than a lack of belief in our innate duty to help further humanity.

There are still a few hurdles to this logic, such as the fact that evolution is probably the biasing factor in making me care about society. Would these things matter if evolutionary biases hadn't persuaded me into believing this way? Honestly - who knows.

Anywho, this has been my core philosophy since ~16-17.

Family

Even more important than the impact you have on civilization directly is your legacy.

If collective contribution is our purpose - leaving a legacy via our influence on others — then what's a greater influence than bringing in kids to society?

Having kids is important; they are an extension of you and they carry your legacy the strongest. They learn from your way of living. They take in the good, and remove the ideologies that are stale.

I am a result of the way my Mom, Dad, and my brother's influence shaped me — and I intend to pass that torch forth.

TLDR: Be a good person and contribute (collective contribution), and raise a family.

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Quotes

These are self-written principles I try to live my life by.

Complaining doesn't help, finding a solution does (even in unfair situations).

Hold yourself accountable for everything. Even if it's not your fault, you are the one who has to change the circumstances for yourself.

It is what it is. Look for the next best thing to do, learn, and move on — don't pointlessly dwell on what's out of your control. Or if it's in your control, find a solution.

Responses to scenarios matter more than the scenarios.

Hold your beliefs strongly while equally testing other schools of thought. More often than not, the more seemingly absurd things turn out true.

Honest conflict is more important than dishonest harmony.

Form your own postulates, & question everything. Go through pre-existing notions but test them instead of blind faith. We are humored by the progress we had millennia ago (witch burnings? Seriously?) who says our present situation won't be similarly hilarious in retrospect?

The direct/indirect results of your actions should be persuasive enough to convince you to continue if you truly desire it. Embrace discipline, not motivation.

Slow change isn't effective, fix the problems within yourself instantly. Step outside your comfort zones if you want to work on yourself.

Luck only favors you if you capitalize it.

Efforts ≠ Merits. You need to put effort into your work, but you also need to put efforts into analyzing your efforts.

Life is recursive. If you can't strategize how to approach a problem, strategize the strategizing. The solution is just out of your vision, not impossible.

No statement applies to every circumstance, but they may apply to the majority. Stop spotting exceptional situations where the statement fails. The fact you know the exceptional scenarios means you also know what the correct scenarios are. Apply the statements where they fit.

n e v e r – s e t t l e

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Thanks for taking the time to get to know me :)