I met @_gongy the very first week of MIT.
Years later, one of the most formative things I ever watched was him turn down crazy quant trading offers to join Modal extremely early.
For all of MIT, we were both in Traders@MIT, both headed toward quant trading. I had done two summers in trading and had already signed full-time.
Gongy was a year ahead of me, and I remember watching him walk away from a top quant offer, and a stack of other very legible, very prestigious options to become one of the first people at Modal.
It was an extremely Gongy move.
He has always been one of the most intentional people I know: thoughtful, principled, and willing to make the hard decision before it looks obvious to everyone else.
In many chapters of my life, I’ve felt like I was following in his footsteps because he showed me what it looks like to choose conviction over the default life trajectory.
Happy birthday Gongy!! Grateful for your friendship always.