feruza.dev
I've also started posting on twitter for a broader audience. If you'd like to tag along:
https://x.com/Feruza_mkva
@feruza_dev
I write this sitting at San Francisco International Airport, waiting for my two checked bags to appear on carousel 6. My entire life, packed into two suitcases. Joan Baez's
500 Miles
is playing in my headphones. It feels fitting.
School ended a week ago, and it still doesn't feel real. It's as if I'll surely be back on campus in September, right? As if a week of graduation festivities never happened. The thought of starting all over again is genuinely terrifying. I always entertained the idea of taking gap years, or dropping out to start a company -- sometimes out of existential crisis, sometimes just to annoy my friends. Now that it's actually over, I realize how much I took that experience for granted.
Just a bunch of twenty-somethings, living together on a beautiful campus full of castles that most people travel to photograph their most important days. Princeton was a generous, caring mother that was cruel at times, though of course in a loving way. Deadline after deadline came with our rigorous curriculum, and we could do nothing but whine. A perfectly cooked range of meals, with dessert always waiting, was somehow never quite up to our expectations. We would gather to drink and philosophize, briefly turn into little Marxists to debate how a seventy-year-old professor, who probably has a dozen Nobel Prizes, was doing it all wrong. It was one of the more effective procrastination methods, because at least you wouldn’t feel too bad about taking that extra late day to submit an assignment when you'd just had an extremely intellectual discussion. (Perhaps I should speak for myself on that one.)
Some days were filled with doubt. Others, you felt like you could change the world in the blink of an eye. I think it was a great success. Not because I got perfect grades or met every deadline, but because I was lucky enough to surround myself with incredibly kind, smart, and ambitious people who genuinely cared. And because I had the space and the time to be bold, to be unconventional, to take risks. It was a privilege.
It was all worth it. Every conversation -- be it fun, tearful, full of laughter, or full of discomfort -- I would do it all over again.
Four years flew by. College ended on a random Tuesday afternoon, followed by exhausted seniors scavenging for extra boxes to pack up for the next big thing. It was time to say goodbye to my second home. It'll be alright -- I’ve done this once before.
If you're in the Bay Area, let's connect and have a heart to heart, because I need new friends.
@feruza_dev
Calling undergraduate students from Central Eurasia in the US!
We're lauching
Silkroad Fellows
. Applications are open and you can apply until
June 15th
through our website –
silkroadfellows.com
What is
Silkroad Fellows
?
it's a fully-funded summer fellowship for US-based university students from Central Eurasia. you spend the summer in Silicon Valley working on a real project inside the Silkroad Innovation Hub — and walk out with mentorship, a network, and real experience.
What is included
:
→ 6-week fellowship in Silicon Valley
→ housing, weekday lunch, mentorship in Silicon Valley, all covered
Who are we?
we are Silkroad Innovation Hub – a Silicon Valley-based organization based a few minutes from Stanford and Sand Hill Road. Learn more at
silkroadinnovationhub.com
🎓
Eligibility
Undergraduate university students based in the United States from Central Eurasian countries:
🇦🇿
Azerbaijan,
🇬🇪
Georgia,
🇰🇿
Kazakhstan,
🇰🇬
Kyrgyzstan,
🇲🇳
Mongolia,
🇹🇯
Tajikistan,
🇹🇲
Turkmenistan,
🇹🇷
Türkiye,
🇺🇿
Uzbekistan
🗓️
Key dates
- june 15 — application deadline
- june 30 — decisions
- july 15 — program begins
- august 30 — program ends
🌐
apply now / learn more:
silkroadfellows.com
❓
questions:
nilufar@silkroadinnovationhub.com
I’ll be speaking at the ivybek admissions marathon this sunday at 7 PM Tashkent time (10 am Eastern Time). I’ll be covering college admissions, life at college, and everything I’ve learned over the past four years.
There are two sessions each day: 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM (Tashkent time).
Join here:
@ivybek_marathonbot
@feruza_dev
My brother,
Nur
, got into Stanford.
His path has been truly an unpredictable one. Coming from Kokand, education abroad was something we had never heard of. If someone did in fact go abroad to study, it meant that they came from a family of power and wealth. Instead of following our father’s footsteps and going to транспортный in Tashkent like many sons would in an Uzbek traditional household, Nur was quite intentional and determined in his decision to go abroad. He graduated from a public high school and lyceum, where rigorous courses like IB or AP were never a concept; in fact most Uzbek schools still don’t offer them. I remember how WiFi was also something privileged families had access to. I’d watch him sleep for a couple of hours before midnight, so he could stay up to use the unlimited night internet service offered by Beeline, called “Do It,” for about 8 cents. He spent two relentless years learning the ins and outs of building a life beyond borders. I remember the days when the electricity would be cut off for two hours for every two it was on, and how we would share candles at the kitchen table to do homework.
He eventually landed on Georgetown’s campus in Qatar. Pursuing international relations, he always kept his entrepreneurial spirit alive. He won multiple grants to fund our non profit school back home, where we taught local kids English and coding free of charge. He’s one of the most caring, generous and giving people I know, whether for his family, friends or even strangers. He never stopped helping everyone around him, not because he had an abundance to give, but because he has the ability to truly care about others. He never failed to show up, not once, not even when he was quietly carrying his own weight, far from home, figuring things out with no safety net. Frankly, I would not be where I am today if it was not for him. He’s the giant whose shoulders I continue to stand on. Stanford is lucky to have him.
From building legos to building unicorns together!
Cheers
🥂
@feruza_dev
Looking for volunteers: - Highly skilled in both Uzbek and English - Experienced in uzb-eng and eng-uzb translation tasks This is for a LLM research project with potential publication. If interested, please reach out:
I'm just glad it didn't autocorrect to uzpakistan
@feruza_dev
Just met Paul Graham.
Co-creator of Y Combinator, computer scientist, essayist - among many other things.
It's crazy how things work out. One moment you're religiously reading his essays, the next you randomly get to talk to him.
He's quite different from what I expected. Super down to earth and jolly. Nothing like many of the investors and founders you meet in SF.
A couple of things he said that I think are relevant:
- Don't let AI do all your work. Especially writing, because writing is what helps you think. Write well to think well. (One of the reasons I started this blog, I was terrified of forgetting how to write proper Uzbek.)
- CS students, you didn't make a mistake. Even if AI writes all the code, you'll still end up as the engineering manager. And to be a good manager, you have to know how to do what your people do.
- To get into building companies, relax the constraint that your first project needs to make money. Just do it because it's cool and fun.
- Don't drop out. College is valuable because you can do things for no reason. When you drop out to build a startup, there's only one thing you have to think about, all the time.
and many more thoughts he writes about at length in his essays. Definitely worth reading through all of them:
https://paulgraham.com/articles.html
@feruza_dev