MIT's Rizwan Virk Wants You to Follow Your Own Path

Entrepreneur, investor, bestselling author and Founder of Play Labs at MIT Rizwan Virk (US) is not only a household name around Hacker Noon's parts for his awesome thinking around the future of technology, startups, and the simulation hypothesis, and for his related contributions to a wide range of top tech tag categories on Hacker Noon, which have earned Rizwan not one but four 2020 Noonies award nominations.

Thank you to our 2020 Noonies partners: Sustany Capital, .TECH Domains, Grant for the Web, Skillsoft, Flipside Crypto, Udacity, and Beyondskills! The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what Rizwan had to share.

1. Which 2020 Noonie/s have you been nominated for?

1. Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - CORONAVIRUS,
2. Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - FACEBOOK,
3. Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - FUNDRAISING,
4. Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - VIRTUAL REALITY.

2. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am a successful entrepreneur, startup investor, bestselling author, video game pioneer and indie film producer. I co-created Tap Fish, one of the top games in the Apple App Store in the early years, which we sold to a public Japanese company. Since then, I've invested in a bunch of startups including Discord, Tapjoy, Telltale games and many others.

3. Tell us about the things you make / write / manage / build.

My most recent books are The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics Agree We Are In a Video Game, which got international attention, and Startup Myths & Models: What You Won't Learn In Business School, which was published by Columbia University Press.

4. What's the most useful advice you've ever given somebody?

Follow your own path rather than the paths laid out by others.

Their path to success isn't necessarily your path to success.

5. How has the pandemic changed your life and/or career?

Not too much - though I used to write in coffee shops and can't wait to get back to that!

6. If we gave you $10 million to invest in one thing right now, where would you put it?

The metaverse.

7. What's an opinion you have that most people don't agree with?

We live inside a virtual reality.

8. What are you currently learning?

More blockchains, quantum computing algorithms.

9. What or Who are you keeping an eye on in 2020?

Robotics and quantum computers.

VOTE for Rizwan Virk as:

1. Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - CORONAVIRUS,
2. Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - FACEBOOK,
3. Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - FUNDRAISING, or
4. Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - VIRTUAL REALITY

- before Noonies voting closes on 12 October, 2020! 🚀

With gratitude to Hacker Noon's 2020 Noonies Partners: Sustany Capital, .TECH Domains, Grant for the Web, Skillsoft, Flipside Crypto, Udacity, and Beyondskills!