feruza.dev

1701 page mill road. Former headquarters of defunct Theranos. Now houses Stanford Medicine research labs. wsj article on Theranos scandal.

It's been two months in the Bay Area. One observation among many is that people are on a mission to optimize every fiber of their existence. The premise of artificial intelligence was that we'd win back time and gain our freedom, but now we're busier than ever. We can't afford to lose a minute. Frankly, I find it hard to believe that societies are built to live that way. If anything, I know for a fact that the human brain can only focus for about four hours a day according to some science podcast I was listening to on my train ride, because I felt guilty simply doing nothing. Now that I'm out in the real world, I've been paying more and more attention to it. Thumbs constantly scrolling, eyes moving rapidly to catch a glimpse of one thing before another arrives. Hands -- with no mobility left in them, I imagine -- typing away, postures that look painful to hold. I have yet to see a friend group or a family talk to each other straight for even thirty minutes without stealing a glance at their latest iPhone with its ridiculously large camera lens. It's an undeniable reality. And at this point, it's practically a requirement. If you're not automating your existence by building agentic loops and graphs while maximizing your Claude session, then what are you doing? If you're between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two and are not yet a founder who has raised a five-million-dollar seed round, or haven't just joined a frontier lab, seriously, what are you really doing? It surely is exhausting to be present in the Bay Area in an era like this. But I've realized that focus and discipline are the single greatest things you can learn. How to withstand the persuasion imposed by the greater, outer world and still see clearly what you're here for and what you really want. To know whether that dream is really yours. The ability to listen to your gut and prioritize. Because everyone will have an opinion on how to live your life for you. Believe me when I say this: everyone. Even the neighbor you didn't know existed, two blocks down the street. There's nothing wrong with listening to the more experienced, but taking it to heart is another story. Now, don't get me wrong. I am very much for having aspirations and goals. It's one of the reasons I'm here. But who defines how that is measured? To some, making the most of it might mean winning a Nobel; for another, it's simply building a family. But again, how do you truly know when a goal is your very own? We all find meaning and purpose in different ways, but one thing is certain: the current trend of making it a requirement to optimize for the best of the best seems to be taking our focus away from the things that would genuinely make us happy. The constant need to optimize every moment steals the real happiness you'd feel in ordinary ones. Perhaps we're in the "good old days" at this very moment. Maybe it's the human condition. To strive to optimize, to always want to achieve more and more. But who's to say? Lately, I've been giving myself space to simply do nothing. To be bored. To find joy in the most mundane parts of life. Most of my Caltrain rides to San Francisco are spent in silence, looking out the window, observing the busy lives of every city that starts with San and the nature that comes in between, observing my thoughts as they dance around. In my mind, you can't compare the spark of happiness you get from spotting a group of cows, who sometimes seem to be spotting humans right back, staying behind without breaking eye contact, to anything else. It's a particular kind.

Yasin Ehsan, San Franciscodagi Powell St Hacker House asoschisi, hozir Toshkentda. Ertaga, 15-iyul soat 20:30 da “Getting into Y Combinator and a16z Speedrun” mavzusida meetup o‘tkazamiz. Unda dunyoning eng nufuzli akseleratorlariga qanday kirish mumkinligi, ariza topshirish jarayoni va amaliy tavsiyalar haqida suhbatlashamiz. Meetup homiysi — Numeo. Shoshiling, joylar soni cheklangan! Tadbirda qatnashish bepul, meetup ingliz tilida bo‘ladi. Meetup language: English. Manzil: IMPACT.T Technology Hub / Bogibo’ston st. 186 Ro’yhatdan o’tish: https://forms.gle/Nz8fAnfuBbYHkxn39 @paiziev24

Brother Ehsan is sharing his wisdom in tashkent tomorrow. pull up.

A homeless lady stopped me asking for change, saying she hadn't eaten for days. I didn't have cash (haven't held any in years), so I felt bad and offered to buy her something nearby instead. I was in a rush, and the closest place was McDonald's. She responded with, "I'd rather starve than eat processed McDonald's." Earlier, I bought a homeless guy pizza and a small dessert from Whole Foods, only for him to tell me he doesn't eat meat, dairy, gluten or sugar. perhaps, he had genuine health reasons. But still. This is the Bay Area for you. @feruza_dev

🔥 Завтра заканчивается прием заявок сразу в две международные программы для стартапов. Если вы строите продукт с глобальными амбициями, это один из тех случаев, когда несколько часов, потраченных на заявку, могут открыть доступ к инвесторам, клиентам и рынку США. 1. Alchemist Silkroad – Silicon Valley Residency Program Программа для B2B-стартапов, которые хотят выйти на рынок США. Реализуется совместно с Alchemist Accelerator, одним из сильнейших мировых акселераторов для enterprise-стартапов. Участники получают: • 3 месяца в Кремниевой долине • проживание и рабочее пространство • 10-недельную акселерационную программу • доступ к инвесторам, менторам и потенциальным клиентам • помощь с регистрацией компании в США и выходом на американский рынок 🔗 https://alchemistsvr.com/ 2. Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026 Возможность пройти отбор на TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 и представить свой стартап на одной из самых известных технологических сцен мира. Что получают участники: • до $100 000 инвестиций для трех финалистов • полностью оплачиваемую поездку в Сан-Франциско • участие в TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 • OpenAI for Startups Credits • международную медийную поддержку • доступ к инвесторам Кремниевой долины • сильное международное комьюнити 🔗 https://road2battlefield.com/ ⏰ Дедлайн подачи заявок: 30 июня 2026 года. Даже если не уверены, что пройдете, подайте заявку. Для многих международных стартапов именно одна такая возможность становилась отправной точкой для выхода на глобальный рынок. @umedschannel

I've also started posting on twitter for a broader audience. If you'd like to tag along: https://x.com/Feruza_mkva

I write this sitting at San Francisco International Airport, waiting for my two checked bags to appear on the carousel. 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, 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

Defended thesis. @feruza_dev

anyone attending from here? @feruza_dev

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 never hear of. If someone did in fact go abroad to study, it meant that they come 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 abundance to give, in fact he was navigating unfamiliar, independent, difficult life abroad, 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

I’m moving to the next stage of my research on improving LLMs for low-resource languages. We are currently building a parallel sentence-level corpus for training, and I’m looking for annotators to help ensure high-quality translations. I'm looking for both native speakers and language professionals/academics who are skilled in both Uzbek and English. If you know someone who would be a great fit, I would really appreciate it if you could share this with them! If you're interested, please fill out this form (I won’t be replying to DMs) and I will get back to you if it's a good fit: LINK: https://forms.gle/Jx8ikikjJT9bbvWJA @feruza_dev

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 that he talks a lot about in his essays. I would definitely recommend going through them all: https://paulgraham.com/articles.html @feruza_dev

hubert gets it @feruza_dev

I don’t feel 'home' The not so often talked about part of moving abroad at a young age is that you will never feel home again. The first couple of years, you are still exploring and excited to be out there, making friends and seeing places. You’re naive and innocent. You trust everyone and see the best in people. But sooner or later, that feeling of thrill fades. You simply get used to being a foreigner. You visit home once or twice a year, but you won’t feel at home. Everything is the same in a relative way, but you’ve aged in ways that are hard to explain. You feel it in every conversation you have. Would you stay if you knew this would happen? Probably not. Because at the end of the day, you chose this to create a better life for yourself and the people you love. Soon you lose the idea of what a better life even means for you. It is certainly not the unease of never belonging. But you will keep going so that you can provide that promised better life for others. It comes at a cost of losing what could’ve been a better life for you. The loss of moments in the hopes of giving back. Moments of washing the dishes in the kitchen with your siblings. Experimenting with a new recipe with your mom. Discussing worldly affairs with your uncles around the big family table. Listening to your father’s stories from when he was in the army as he grilled kebabs. You would give a lot just to have back one of those plain afternoons when you didn’t know what to do and ended up wandering around the house for hours. Early spring, when the apricot trees would bloom and fill the whole backyard with their scent. Watching С лёгким паром ever new year’s, over and over again, and every time find the capacity to criticize Женяʻs character. Sitting around the messy table to debrief over freshly brewed green tea once the guests leave. Eating оливье and Шуба for days after the 31st, every time putting all your faith into not getting food poisoning. You desperately search for this sense of home in everyone you meet. You trust, and try to see the best in them, with the innocence of a child. Because this is what we used to do at home, no? But you soon realize that it is not how life works. You grow more and more skeptical, a version of yourself you donʻt quite recognize. You desperately try to hold on to who you were once. I often yearn for that older, innocent self whose entire goal for the day would be to carve sculptures from yesterday’s snow or to somehow successfully ration the bus money to feed the dog I’d pass every day on my way home form school. It is a sacrifice that will last a century. If you were to ask me what my favorite sound is, it would probably be the engine sound of VAZ-2017. Because it would mean dad is home. The only sound that could make me run. And how much I would give to hear it now. And yet, the beautiful thing about being human is that no feeling is final. There is always a glimpse of hope that maybe one day you will feel home again. Maybe not in the same way, but it will feel okay. That there will surely be someone or someplace that will make it alright. @feruza_dev

Looking for volunteers: Highly skilled in both Uzbek and English and experienced in Uzbek <—> English translation tasks. This is for a research project with potential publication. If interested, please reach out: @feruza_mkva