Varun Murkar

Polymath touched by the 'tism. Exhausted dogfather. Unapologetic zionist.

For my entire career, I've had a hard time answering the question "What do you do?", when I don't neatly fit into any of the boxes. So here's the answer in bullet-list format (I love lists):

• I'm a builder. I left my full-time job in 2025 after a major autistic burnout. I build things that solve specific problems for businesses or myself. My autism makes me unemployable full-time, so now I do things at my own pace.

• I'm a designer. The strongest skill in my "stack" is UX design. I've spent years figuring out what makes certain experiences tick, obsessing over the Behavior Science behind it.

• I'm a developer. I started my career as a front-end developer but later expanded to become a full stack developer (I build apps using Ruby on Rails, mostly).

• I'm a teacher. Apart from mentoring young designers and developers under my wing, I enjoy the process of translating complex ideas to mental models others can adopt.

• I'm a writer. I love putting thoughts on paper. While I don't publish most of my writing, I occasionally get on my soapbox to talk about things I care about.