I want to have genuine good friends. Can we be friends?

I am a 20-year-old technology enthusiast and self-described tech nerd, turning 21 this year. Technology is not merely an academic or professional interest for me; it is something I genuinely and truly enjoy exploring, understanding, experimenting with, and obsessing over. I tend to dive deep into technical subjects, often going beyond what is formally required and exploring how systems work internally, why they behave the way they do, and how they can be improved or broken. (Thanks to my ADHD)

My primary interests lie across cybersecurity, application security, artificial intelligence, machine learning, software engineering, AI research, and emerging technologies. I particularly enjoy security research and bug hunting. I adore understanding complex systems from first principles, identifying weaknesses, experimenting with different approaches, and turning those discoveries into something practically useful.

I am also strongly interested in artificial intelligence and academic research. I enjoy reading research papers, studying emerging architectures and methodologies, experimenting with models and frameworks, and thinking about how research can be translated into practical systems. I have an inclination toward independent research and enjoy working on ideas that sit at the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, automation, and intelligent systems.

Outside technical work, I adore books, manga, manhwa, anime, history, geography, politics, and learning about different cultures and Ideas. I enjoy intellectual conversations and discussions where there is something substantive to explore rather than merely exchanging small talk. I am particularly drawn toward people who are curious, ambitious, intellectually open-minded, and passionate about what they do.

Personally, I can be somewhat reserved around unfamiliar people. I experience anxiety and panic attacks, and I also have mixed-type ADHD, which can sometimes make social situations, attention regulation, emotional regulation, and maintaining consistent routines considerably more difficult. At the same time, these challenges do not define me or the extent of what I am capable of. I have learned to function alongside them and continue pursuing things that genuinely matter to me.

I tend to have an intense internal world. I think about things extensively, analyse situations from multiple perspectives, and can sometimes overthink details that other people might overlook. I care deeply about the things and people I become invested in, and I can be considerably more emotionally affected by certain experiences than I may initially show externally.

I am highly ambitious and have a strong desire to build something meaningful with my technical abilities. I do not want to simply follow a conventional path because it is considered safe or expected. I want to develop expertise, conduct meaningful research, discover difficult problems, build interesting systems, and eventually contribute something that exists beyond just my résumé or academic credentials.

At the same time, I am still figuring myself out. I am young, still learning how I want trajectory and life to develop, and still making mistakes along the way. I have a ton of ambition, but I also recognise that ambition comes with uncertainty, setbacks, periods of self-doubt, and an enormous amount of learning.

I would describe myself as curious, technically obsessive, ambitious, analytical, independent-minded, intellectually driven, and sometimes excessively introspective. I enjoy understanding difficult things, building things from scratch, questioning conventional approaches, and constantly trying to become better at whatever I choose to pursue.