About Me
Peace be upon you! I'm Tahir (pronounced "taa-her") Aziz, a Muslim-American regular ole person living in Dallas, Texas. I'm a huge fan of basketball (Kawhi is my favorite player right now), and also love hanging out and eating with friends and relatives.
If you'd like to know, here are a few other things I really appreciate:
- The small things that hit at the right time, for example: that hearty Kashmiri chai ☕️ on a cold night when you're chillin with friends
- Staying with the tea theme, I also make my own thai tea and masala chai occasionally.
- My midrange game 🏀 (sorry, had to do it to yall hoopers)
- Saying yall 🤠
- The excitement of researching and deciding on something I want to get ‼️
- Settlers of Catan and Codenames. 11/10 would recommend
- The foresty mountain vibes 🏞
I got sucked into making things for people by suggesting to make something I didn't know how to
I got into design by accident at the end of high school when I wanted to improve the operations of a student club I was in. I threw out the idea of making a website without knowing what that entailed. One of my best friends Bilal Ayub, at the time almost 7 years ago (and still is today), actually knew web design, and that's where it all started.
Making things for people extends beyond the thing
Over time as I learned about UX and product design, I saw that there were other things not directly in the product, but part of our work that ultimately impacted its outcome. Influences such as product development processes, how teams work and trust each other, design systems, and the recruiting/candidate experience all affect the end product and ultimately the impact it has in the lives of our customers. I started to see the importance of this as I helped lead the ACM UTD.
Thanks yall
These are the people, friends, and mentors that really impacted the way I think about and do design:
- My father (encouraged me to take CS in high school and to join ACM where I met Izuchukwu)
- Bilal Ayub (got me started and one of my best friends)
- Izuchukwu Elechi (lead/designed/grew ACM UTD together)
- Omar Hamid (probably the most visionary and thoughtful person I know)
هَلْ جَزَاءُ الْإِحْسَانِ إِلَّا الْإِحْسَانُ
"Is the reward for good [anything] but good?" - Al-Qur'aan, 55:60
There's a concept called Sadaqah Jaariyah, which is charity that has an infinite rippling impact. For example, if you donate $10 to build a school, your reward is in the students, the people they impacted, who those people impacted, and so on.
That rippling impact extends to the way we work and the things we do, especially in enterprise and social contexts. If we start with good intentions, good values, good people, etc., then what can be the result except good? Good that is infinite in its reach, that came from us, and will undoubtedly return to us.