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The Sponge

Why soak?

I take in knowledge like a sponge takes in water — then squeeze it out by building, until I'm satisfied.

My name is Soumik Chatterjee. Online I go by mik. I'm a builder of AI business systems — the kind that quietly run a company's repetitive work in the background so the team can do the parts that actually need a human.

But the systems are just the output. The real thing I do is learn fast and make it stick — pick a hard thing, go deep, build with it, ship a result. Everything I've ever been good at is a version of that one move.

Every good stretch of my life happened in flow.
Every hard stretch happened when I lost it.

The pattern, with 25 years of data

When I obsess over a clear, structured goal, I enter flow and good things follow. When that container disappears, things slip. Knowing this is the whole map.

Class 1–8 "First boy." Ranked first for eight straight years. 100/100 in Computer Science at the boards. Flow through a clear scoreboard.
2022 → Quizzing & teaching. Quiz clubs cracked open the introversion. The Teach For India classroom gave structure and stakes. Flow came back.
2026 → Building in public. The same move, pointed at AI systems. Concrete projects, real stakes, visible feedback at every step. This is the next chapter — and it's why this site exists.

I learned this about myself the hard way: I can't learn from tutorials. Years of trying to "study coding" went nowhere. Then I built one real automation with actual stakes and disappeared into it for hours without noticing. That's the difference — I don't learn to build, I learn by building.

2015–2019
AccentureSoftware engineering analyst. Python automation for Bank of America and a hospital system. Where the systems instinct started.
2020–2023
CampK12Recruitment & operations manager. Full-cycle technical hiring across the US, UAE, and India. 90%+ retention.
2024–2026
Teach For IndiaFellow. Math and CS, grades 5–10. Two years in a classroom — the best structure-and-stakes container I've had.
2026
Founder's-office operatorChief-of-staff and ops work for early-stage founders. Nine B2B pipelines, 2,300+ CRM contacts, SOPs, a microsite shipped solo.
Now
@soakmikBuilding AI business-ops systems for founders, and documenting the learning in public.
Off the screen
A 90-minute walk every day, non-negotiable. It's where the thinking actually happens.
For the mind
Active quizzer and chess player. Chess.com: soumikcodes.
With a pen
I write under the name Harrycane.
The aim
Founder-type, not follower. Building toward companies of my own.
See what I've shipped → Work with me