Where creativity and code collide: Top Down with Adhish Thite

Adhish Thite’s tech journey has taken him from India to Silicon Valley, North Carolina, and back. Now based in one of India’s top IT hubs, Pune, Adhish values the global perspective he has gained over the years.

Adhish’s natural curiosity and passion for innovation led him to Elastic, where he’s the lead AI engineer managing an equally passionate team while finding time to work on his personal passions, too.

Very early on, Adhish played the role of his family’s personal tech support. Growing up, he found himself dismantling the electronic gadgets his father often brought home, trying to understand how they worked. Picture a young Adhish, surrounded by wires and parts, wearing a giant grin.

"My dad was a connoisseur of all good electronic items," Adhish recalls. "I used to break them apart, and I got scolded a lot, but that was how my curiosity [started] ticking. Over time, this translated into expertise … I got to know how things work at a very young age." His fascination with technology earned him the nickname “Tech-nificent Adhish.”

Though he is still guided by his childhood curiosity and bolstered by his creativity, Adhish's workspace mirrors his organized and methodical approach to work. He’s not the type to work with his laptop alone. "I cannot work without my setup," he insists.

His desk, equipped with a MacBook Pro M3 with 64GB of RAM hooked up to an Apple Studio Display, has been specifically selected to meet his needs. Acknowledging that this might be a hot take to some, he notes, "I just don't know any other system, because I've been using [a MacBook] for a decade now. I think it's the best for any developer to get started, because [it has] everything that a developer needs. You don't need anything else if you have a Mac." 

Adhish went through at least five monitors before finding the one that met all his criteria. The 27-inch Apple Studio Display is the centerpiece of his workspace, allowing him to focus on coding for hours in 5K resolution. His secret to avoiding eye strain? The anti-reflective, nano-texture glass overlay. 

But it's not always about having the latest technology. “Nothing beats pen and paper,” he says while holding up a small journal he keeps on his desk. Every day, he journals three wins: a physical win (today it was working out), a spiritual win (he meditates or plays the piano every day), and a mental win (15 minutes learning German). “I need to get those in to mark it as a complete day.”

To accomplish the day's goals, Adhish employs the Pomodoro Technique to enhance his productivity. One of the most cherished items on his desk is a timer he uses to track his working time. "I work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break," he explains. This method not only helps him maintain focus but also helps to prevent burnout, a lesson he learned during the pandemic.

In contrast to his strict work schedule, music gives Adhish a creative outlet that feeds his intellectual curiosity. "I play five instruments, all self-taught," he shares. From the piano to the Indian bamboo flute and the tabla, Adhish occasionally shares his musical endeavors on YouTube. However, most of his performances remain private. "Music is deeply personal to me," he says, so he treats it like meditation. During the pandemic, he even picked up the ukulele.

But even music takes a backseat when he works. “When I'm locked in coding or developing, I just prefer silence,” he says. All the elaborate tricks and tools fall away and it’s just Adhish and his code. “I need the doors closed, the windows closed. I need just one focus light and myself. That's all I need.”

As the lead AI engineer at Elastic, Adhish’s responsibilities include ElasticGPT, an internal, secure, and private generative AI solution designed specifically for Elasticians by Elasticians. "My boss Jay had this vision. Because we are at the forefront of analytics and RAG, why not build something of our own?" he explains. "Like drinking our own champagne. So that’s how the idea was born." The positive feedback from users has been a source of pride for Adhish and his team. "It makes us proud of what we are doing," he shares. To date, ElasticGPT has facilitated over 80,000 conversations with a 98% employee satisfaction rate.

An active member of the developer community, Adhish cultivates his curiosity by sharing it with others. He engages with fellow developers through various platforms, including the Elastic Developer Community, GitHub, LinkedIn, and X. He also participates in the "build in public" movement, where developers build and deploy a project on day one and then collect continuous feedback from the community to help polish their products.

This collaborative spirit blends his expertise and his creativity. The result? A leader who knows how to ask for help. "When I'm working on side projects, I often reach out to the community for help," he explains. "The responses are pretty great, and it's a valuable resource."

Even after all his years in tech, Adhish is still that boy, surrounded by wire parts, curious and excited about the possibilities of tech."There has never been a better time to get started with Elasticsearch," he asserts. With advancements in AI and machine learning, the possibilities are endless. "If you're serious about using GenAI and turning data into actionable insights, Elasticsearch is the way to go."