Someone recently commented on one of my LinkedIn posts and asked:
“What’s one thing you wish every new hire already understood about building scalable systems?”
That question made me reflect deeply—not just on the technical nuances of scale, but on what I’ve learned through doing, not just knowing. And to truly answer it, I want to start not with code or architecture, but with something older—something timeless: ancient Indian wisdom.
The Three Levels of Gnan(means knowledge in Sanskrit) — Why You Can’t Shortcut Experience
In Vedic philosophy, the concept of learning or Gnan is structured into three levels:
Pratyaksha Gnan – Knowledge gained through direct, personal experience
Anumana Gnan – Knowledge gained through inference and observation
Shabda Gnan – Knowledge gained through listening, reading, or watching
This framework is especially relevant in today’s engineering world. In fact, I’ve lived it across three major chapters of my life—in Microsoft, in a startup like Visible, and now at Property Finder.
Most People Start with Shabda Gnan — But It’s Not Enough
At the start of my own engineering career, I was no different. I absorbed whitepapers, conference talks, and big tech postmortems. I watched, I read, and I listened. This helped me pass interviews, sound confident in meetings, and understand the terminology of scale.
But the first time I was actually responsible for a real system going down under load—no talk, no video, no dashboard prepared me for that.
Watching doesn’t teach judgment. It teaches syntax, not scale.
Learning by Inference — Anumana Gnan Has Its Place
When I joined Microsoft, I was lucky to be around seasoned engineers. I listened to why they made certain choices, sat in on postmortems, and began to see the difference between a good system and a brittle one.
Later, at Amazon, I started to lead teams that supported critical business lines. During this time, I didn’t just observe—I began to connect dots, ask deeper questions, and anticipate failure patterns.
Inference sharpened my instincts. But I still hadn’t internalized scale.
The Shift to Pratyaksha Gnan — Learning by Doing
Then came Visible, the digital telco startup I helped scale under Verizon. There, I had the chance—and responsibility—to implement AI systems that dramatically reduced customer service load. One of our key AI initiatives brought down customer service costs by 73%, while increasing overall efficiency.
But getting there wasn’t easy. We were under intense pressure, the pandemic was raging, and engineering culture was still forming. I had to learn—quickly—how to structure teams, how to inject clarity into chaos, and how to prescribe direction without micromanaging.
That’s when the doing transformed me. I moved from consuming information to creating systems.
Today at Property Finder, I see something very similar. It’s a rare kind of scale-up—still small enough for one engineer to own a full feature, but big enough to have impact across an entire region. And unlike big tech companies, where infra is mostly in place and roles are narrow, here we build both the foundation and the feature layer.
That level of ownership—that’s where Pratyaksha Gnan lives.
Why This Matters for You
In today’s world, it’s easy to mistake confidence for competence. A few AI demos, a flashy portfolio, or good storytelling can create the illusion of depth. But systems don’t lie. When your design goes live—and fails—that’s where your real learning begins.
At every company I’ve been part of, whether it’s Microsoft, Amazon, Visible, or now Property Finder, the engineers who grow fastest are the ones who embrace discomfort, stay curious, and build from first principles.
I’ve seen what happens when promotions are based on PowerPoint, not production logs. They don’t last. They fade in the next reorg.
The Career Ladder Is Built With Grit, Not Glamour
Building scalable systems is not a hackathon. It’s a craft.
You don’t master it with a tweet thread or a certification. You master it the day your architecture fails under pressure, and you take responsibility not just to fix it—but to understand it.
And that takes time. That’s why senior engineers are not defined by speed, but by stability. Not by flair, but by follow-through.
A Message to New Hires
If you're joining any company, know this:
You will be given autonomy, but also responsibility.
You will be asked to ship, not just speak.
You will learn by doing—not by watching from a safe distance.
And you’ll grow faster than you ever thought possible—if you commit to doing the work.
So don’t rush the process. Don’t seek shortcuts. The most scalable thing you can build is yourself—layer by layer, from knowledge to insight to wisdom.