I watched a scene from Anger Management recently that stayed with me.
Jack Nicholson asks Adam Sandler’s character:
“Who are you?”
He starts answering with his job.
Nicholson stops him.
He doesn’t want to know what he does. He wants to know who he is.
And somehow, that simple question got stuck in my head.
So I asked myself the same thing.
My instinct answer was immediate:
Vatsal is a builder at heart, an engineer, designer, problem-solver, and curious explorer who likes turning ideas into real products.
With 9+ years in software engineering, he works across the full spectrum: frontend, backend, cloud, data, AI/LLM orchestration, integrations, and product architecture. He’s particularly drawn to agentic AI, developer tools, SaaS, and making complex systems feel simple.
Beyond code, Vatsal has a strong creative side: photography, graphics, animation, visual design, travel, and storytelling. He tends to think visually and likes building things that are not only technically solid but also polished and intuitive.
That was my first answer.
It was also a very good answer to a different question.
What do you do?
Easy.
Who are you?
Not so much.
I think that’s because most of us have become very good at describing the work version of ourselves. The headline, the job title, the company, the things we’re good at, the things people come to us for. We repeat those things often enough that they become almost automatic.
Take them away and the answer gets harder.
So I tried again.
My second answer was this:
Vatsal is someone who is deeply curious about life. He likes exploring ideas, places, people, and possibilities. He notices details, thinks visually, and is naturally drawn to creating things rather than simply consuming them.
He values freedom, curiosity, experiences, and meaningful relationships. He can be analytical one moment and creative the next. He questions things instead of accepting them at face value, and he enjoys figuring out why something works, how it could be better, or what else is possible.
He is still figuring himself out, and perhaps that’s part of who he is: someone who doesn’t want to be defined by one thing. A curious mind trying to experience, understand, create, and enjoy as much of life as possible.
That feels closer.
Although, reading it back, it still sounds a little like a profile someone else wrote about me.
Maybe that’s unavoidable.
Work gives us an easy vocabulary for talking about ourselves. Outside of work, the vocabulary is less obvious.
You have to think about the things you care about, the people you choose to spend time with, the things that make you curious, the experiences you keep coming back to, and what you are like when nobody needs anything from you.
I don’t think I have a final answer.
Maybe I shouldn’t.
For now, I’m Vatsal.
The first answer is what I do.
The second one is my attempt at answering who I am.
I’ll probably answer it differently again a few years from now.