Why I Finally Started This Blog

I’ve had a personal website for a while. It was a single-page resume — the kind you build once in college and never touch again. Dark theme, terminal-inspired design, sections for experience, education, skills. It did its job. But it never really felt like me. It felt like a job application someone accidentally published.

So I tore it down and started over.

Who I am

I’m Yihan. I’m an ML engineer at StackAdapt in Toronto, where I just started in January. My background is a bit all over the place, which I think makes it interesting.

I spent over a year at Qualcomm working on graphics drivers for Snapdragon chips — low-level C and C++ work, optimizing how frames get rendered in automotive infotainment systems. It taught me a lot about how hardware and software actually meet.

After that, I worked at Zafin building cloud infrastructure and data pipelines for core banking systems — Kubernetes, Terraform, Go. Learned what it means to build things that can’t go down.

On the side, I co-founded SnowOverflow — an app for finding people to ride with, planning trips, and carpooling across ski resorts. It grew into a foundation focused on making winter sports more accessible. That was never the plan, but kind of how the best things happen.

I studied electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto — both my undergrad and my master’s, where I focused on data analytics and machine learning.

Outside of work, I’m usually on the mountain, at the gym, or on a basketball court. I like staying moving — and when I’m not, I’m probably gaming, tinkering with my homelab, or 3D printing something I’ll convince myself I needed. Lately I’ve been trying to read and write more too, which is partly why this blog exists.

Why I rebuilt my site

The old site said what I did but nothing about how I think.

I wanted something simpler and more honest. A short intro, a place to write, and nothing else. I rebuilt the whole thing in a day, went from 500+ lines of resume content to about 50 lines of actual writing, and I’m happier with this version.

Why I’m writing now

I’ve been meaning to start writing for years. The usual excuses — too busy, nothing interesting to say, who’s going to read it anyway. But I’ve come to realize that writing isn’t really about having an audience. It’s about organizing your own thoughts. Every time I try to explain something in writing, I understand it a little better than I did before.

So this is me starting. I’ll write about what I’m learning — at work, in side projects, in life. Some posts will be technical, some won’t. No schedule, no pressure. Just slowing down and putting thoughts into words.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading — stay tuned for more.