Meet the Writer: Hacker Noon's Contributor Thomas Cherickal, Independent Theoretical Researcher

Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

My name is Thomas Mathew Cherickal. I was born in Kottayam, Kerala, but have stayed in Chennai, India for most of my life and all of my college years.

I have a PG degree in Computer Science but I opted for writing technical content about my favorite research interests. I absolutely had to do it, my muse would not allow me to stay in a standard job. There was ever only one job I was enthusiastic about in my life other than my violin and singing in acapella choirs and that was independent, self-guided, self-taught research and coding discoveries.

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

My aim for a long time was to study the non-linear dynamics of machine learning systems. When LLMs burst onto the scene, they intrigued me even more because they were mysterious. Using the principle that all neural networks can act as universal function approximations, I was able to explain in a logical textual narrative how the LLM was able to generate coherent human speech. Call it textual proof, if you so will.

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

Most of my writing is about my research, I also have to live in this world, so I also did content writing for over ten years now. I worked with Dimensionless Technologies, Rejolut Technologies, and numerous other freelance projects including CareerVira. I also found that I enjoy writing science fiction.

Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)

Well, unless I write, I can’t be content and I can’t be at rest, the urge to be creative is so high that it actually stopped my lucrative software engineering and content writing careers. I was freelancing for the last ten years, always desperate to find the next problem to write or solve. I find rest only in God or music.

Writing research papers to solve common problems is something that is a part of me, despite my schedule, and the fact that I passed out of college 15 years ago. I kept myself up to date by reading Feedly every day and buying books about subjects that I was interested to work in. My latest purchase is Thinking In Systems by Donella Meadows.

I’ve read Code Complete cover to cover at least twice, I learn about PyTorch from Deep Learning for Coders, Python from Fluent Python, Scikit-learn and TensorFlow from the famous book by A. Geron, Algorithms from CLRS, Design Patterns from Head-First Design Patterns, F# from Mastering F# by Nunez et al, Quantum Mechanics from Nouredine Zettili (I adore that book!), and Quantum Computation from Nielsen and Chuang. There is much more, but I’ll just refer you to my profile website. And yes, I’ve read the whole New Jerusalem Bible cover to cover at least seven times if not more.

Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?

I never have! Ideas pop in and out all the time. I think the biggest challenge I face is to make enough time to investigate and create theoretical science about what I’m thinking about at the moment now. For e.g. right now I was reading about some of the strange attractors of some machine learning models. I automatically started to think about doing the same for LLMs, despite the incredibly high computational cost. Making enough time for everything I want to do is my biggest challenge.

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

A collaboration with a few scientists from anywhere in the world about the smallest possible LLM model - the critical emergent point at which the LLM becomes articulate. I would love to work on that. And of course, Quantum AI.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

Singing and 4-part violin quartets. I call it guilty because I’m not up to the mark of a pro and it’s just for rest and actualization. God and Christian Music are my only two greater passions than problem formulation and ideating solutions. My mind is active non-stop.

Do you have other hobbies? If yes, what are they?

I love badminton, cricket, table tennis, and swimming. Especially swimming.

What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next?

Definitely more about the fundamentals of complexity theory and how they apply to LLMs. I also want to be on the frontiers of AGI, so I will be writing about the Spatial Web a lot (Google it). Then we have Quantum AI changing the status quo in many areas of Machine Learning, so that as well. With source code.

What’s your opinion on HackerNoon as a platform for writers?

It’s amazing. This is the most popular writing platform on tech worldwide. I’m honored to be a part of it. The visibility you get worldwide is awesome.

Thanks for taking the time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

Never give up. I’ve been on this for years. Recently an uncle of mine called Mathew Jacob called me to account for my life. That was the catalyst for an immense amount of activity over the next few years. Never give up on your dreams - fight for them - make sure they serve the people around you and your family. I’ve had my share of tough times, but I’ve always come out stronger. And with Jesus Christ in my life as a living transcendental reality, I now have confidence that I always will - regardless of the situation. Thank you for this opportunity!