About

Job

Education

• 2016-2017: National Taiwan University

  I received one year of training in Mathematics and Physics at National Taiwan University. During my time at NTU, I completed a senior project in Modern Web Development and took several graduate courses, including General Relativity and Classical Electrodynamics. My academic performance ranked in the top three of the entire department.

  However, I discovered that my interests extended beyond Mathematics and Physics. I wanted more time for self-exploration and learning in other fields, and NTU's rigid course requirements couldn't satisfy my diverse learning needs and desires. As a result, I made the decision to voluntarily drop out after finishing my freshman year in 2017. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made in my life.

• 2019-2020: Minerva University

  After two years of self-exploration, extensive reading, and doing some software contract work, I attended Minerva University to learn how to apply cross-disciplinary mental models in a real-world setting. I majored in Computational Science, but decided to voluntarily drop out after finishing my freshman year (2020) to start my startup.

• 2022: Y Combinator

  After dedicating nearly a year to iterating on my product, Heptabase, in 2021, I applied to Y Combinator—a three-month startup accelerator program that funds and helps startups build better product, grow faster, and build leverage for fundraising. My startup was accepted into their Winter '22 batch (January–April 2022). Although YC is not a university, it has deeply shaped the way I think about many things in the world, and I consider it the most important educational experience I have had. I highly recommend anyone to take their free online course: How to Start a Startup.

Goal

• Current goal: Next 10 Years
  • To accelerate the speed of the human's intellectual and technological progress by unlocking the full potential of the computer as a medium and building a contextualized knowledge internet on top of a truly universal Open Hyperdocument System.
  • Recommended Reading
    • My Vision: The Roadmap
    • Interview with Alan Chan, co-founder of Heptabase • Ness Labs
• Medium-term goal: Next 30 Years
  • To understand the mind, intelligence, and life, and develop a humane way of integrating our mind and body with technology to help humanity reach a higher level of intelligence, capabilities, and life form.
• Long-term goal: Next 100 Years
  • To ensure that the order of the observable universe will not come to an end in the future because of Physics limitations and that the order will continue and evolve forever.

Strength

• I learn fast and deep.
  • I ranked 10th in the National Selection of the International Physics Olympiad after self-learning college-level physics from scratch during my first year of high school (2015).
  • I got my first job as a software engineer after self-learning web development for a semester of freshman year in college (2017).
  • I’m skilled at synthesizing my notes to write long essays and provide a comprehensive analysis of the topic I have chosen.
• I am consistent.
  • I have been consistently writing one article per month since 2013, with more than 1 million views on my Ghost + Blogger + Medium blogs.
• I am honest to myself.
  • When I recognize something truly valuable, I commit all my time and energy to building it—even if it means sacrificing a great deal and taking significant risks.

Link

• Blog: Sheracaolity (ghost) (new), Sheracaolity (blogger)(old)
• Medium: 詹雨安 Alan Chan – Medium
• Facebook: 詹雨安
• LinkedIn: Yu An Chan - LinkedIn
• Github: Scya597 (Yu-An Chan)