I went to the hospital for six days straight, and i thought there was something physically wrong with me. I couldn't breathe -- Nirant Kasliwal

On this episode of the Early Twenties podcast, where we are joined by our very own Bitsian senior, Nirant Kasliwal! For all of us Bitsians, this name shouldn't be new to the ears -- you might like him, you may not like him, but you can't ignore him!

A semi-celebrity on Quora, and quite a sensation in the Bitsian elections, Nirant has worked in three Machine Learning/AI jobs over the last couple of years -- and has quite a lot to share for folks looking to get into Artificial Intelligence. Over the last year, Nirant even wrote a book on Natural Language Processing, which is just crazy, to say the least! Being a very active reader, we talk about the books and authors he's been reading, and also geek out over Naval Ravikant!

Nirant also shares with us about the mentally tough times he faced during his college years and how his internship at Belong helped him counter that. We talk about his process of finding mentors, and taking decisions with contradictory pieces of advice and biases. That, and a lot of Pilani masala packed into this wide-ranging conversation with Nirant Kasliwal. Tune in!!!

You can find him almost everywhere on the socials, go say hi :)

- Twitter

- Quora

- Facebook

Shownotes

- For the first time on the show, a book written by our guest themselves -- Natural Language Processing with Python Quick Start Guide

- Keep your identity small:  http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html 

- Don't call yourself a programmer:  https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/ 

- A Powerful Mind: The Self-Education of George Washington:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24453966-a-powerful-mind 

- The courage to be disliked:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36622739-the-courage-to-be-disliked

- The Prophet:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2547.The_Prophet