Wadup, Steemians, I am here as the prophecy foretold!

This may sound a little weird but this is my second post on Steemit yet it is my introductory post. I realize I should have introduced myself in the first post itself but I will come back and explain why I didn't (or couldn't) a little later on in this post.

So let's get acquainted first.

I am Shikhar. I have a background in Computer Applications and Computer Science. I read an awful lot of books and these days I write a lot - both code and NOTcode.

Despite my background, I have dabbled in a ton of different interesting activities that I have found interesting at various stages in my life. I have been everything from a part time satirist to a sonneteer.

I started blogging in late 2005 (Don't judge me yet. I am not as old as you may think). Up until 2010 all I blogged about were personal experiences and interests. I treated my blogs as my public diaries instead of a means to make money. While I wrote some pretty weird stuff I thoroughly enjoyed this phase of my blogging life.

From 2011 onward I started blogging for various tech sites here in India. For a few years I juggled my time between full time jobs at companies like IBM, Microsoft, Prime Focus etc and my semi-pro-blogging career.

As it turned out I became a full time tech blogger towards the end of 2015 when I took up the role of Editor In Chief at one of India's leading price comparison brands. By then I had already served as the Editor in Chief of another popular IT Industry Analysis brand and contributed to some prominent technology blogs and brands from around the world.

Even though I enjoyed my time as a smartphone and game reviewer I always felt like something was missing.

After spending the whole of 2016 as a full time blogger I realized exactly what I was missing. I love science and cutting edge technology like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, distributed consensus, blockchains etc and I have a legit background in some of these fields having studied them in my graduation and post graduation degrees and having spent quite a bit of time as an independent researcher in Analysis and Design of Algorigthms (ADA). Yet here I was, spending my days writing fancy iPhone versus Galaxy posts. Duh!

As someone who understood the blogging industry pretty well and had a fair understanding of how algorithms work I realized I should be focusing on writing about stuff I love instead of stuff that gets more eyeballs (for some reason everyone loves smartphone reviews).

And then 2017 happened!

I am sure most Steemians are aware of what a spectacular year 2017 was for the crypto community. I got involved in crypto in 2013 when I attended my first Bitcoin meetup in Bangalore. But 2017 was just a brave new world.

By April-2017 I had decided I was going to finish my freelance associations with a few tech sites and by August I was busy writing smartcontracts in Solidity (Ethereum). In November I organised my first "gaming in blockchain" event which had a rather humble attendance. In December I joined Steemit. By January 2018 I had read 160+ crypto whitepapers and I knew that by February 2018 I was going to start posting content not just about AI and ML but also blockchains, crypto economics, the future of decentralized tech et cetera.

Now about that first post on Steemit.

Just as I was about to start posting content the media in India went berserk. The FUD after the Finance Minister's budget speech just a few days ago was one of the best examples of mediocre journalism I have seen in a while. I am the crypto guy in my circle of friends so all of my friends started pinging me and asking if "Bitcoin was dead" and the "crypto fad had come to an end". I know these questions can be frustrating for crypto traders and enthusiasts but as a technical person who understands the enormous impact that this space will have on our collective futures I find all this price based hysteria and FUD rather annoying.

I am really passionate about this space and at the same time I was angry at the media's mediocre reporting and decided to let my frustrations be known. It's amazing how writers feel a sense of relief by pouring their hearts out and expressing their feelings through words. I guess that's one of the main reasons why I love writing words even more than I love writing code. Though I am probably better at code.

That ended up being my first post on Steemit.

If we want the crypto space to continue to flourish then people need to come together and educate each other. That is the only way we can counter the FUD that the often clueless mainstream media engages in. I feel a kinship with people who are passionate about educating and helping other people learn more about tech that is changing our world. This Carl Sagan quote sums up my feelings:

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."

And here we are.

I have begun my steem blockchain journey and I will do my best to contribute informative, interesting, and useful content and introduce my friends and fellow global citizens to steem and the blockchain world in general.

It feels as if the universe has conspired to put the jigsaw pieces of my life together and even though I am not big on clairvoyance and dramatic endings, I am pretty confident that I am here as the prophecy foretold:

"You cannot change your fate. No man can." - The Old Man, Prince of Persia, Warrior Within.

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Here's the link to my first Steemit post:

How the Media and Authority are feeding you crypto and blockchain bullshit!

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If you like my work kindly upvote, resteem it to your friends, and follow me :)