 So today is Saturday and we have a special guest Our friend from college Danny is visiting us Danny. How are you? I'm great. I'm admiring your skyline We're so happy to have you here today. This is weird for me like vlogging like this cuz I don't I don't put people on a Spot like that. So I'm sorry, but I have to have the memories of it. I gotta have the memories of it All right, so we're on our way to to get some boba tea We're gonna get boba tea at the food hall But Danny implied that the rule is you can only get boba tea at a place that only sells tea Can't get it at a food hall. So we're walking in this like 40 degree weather. I'm not even dressed, but hey When you're in New York I've been thinking about doing a new format to my YouTube videos So I've been thinking about making my video shorter because if I make my videos six to eight minutes opposed to 10 minutes plus I can upload in my opinion higher quality videos at a more consistent clip I've been trying to upload YouTube videos consistently the past year I feel like I haven't been successful with it at all One of the reasons why is because I just really need to get my life together the other reason is I started a new role and I can't necessarily say this job is more demanding But it's like ebbs and flows like last week was crazy There was no way I could post a video Whereas when I was a software engineer my weeks were pretty steady and pretty Consistent just like some life updates. I've been feeling extremely blessed the past month or so. I've been working with my dream Brands. I've been working with Uniqlo Amazon and I recently just did a campaign with Sono some of you all are probably like what are you talking about? I haven't seen any of those videos. That's because they're on Instagram and TikTok So be sure to check out some of those campaigns. I posted the past month I'm just so grateful like all thanks to God and I'm so grateful and thankful for you all because I wouldn't be here If it wasn't for your support. So when it comes to getting my life together one thing that I could do is Read more consistently. I find that when I read more consistently. I feel like there's less clutter in my brain I get a chance to kind of step away from the world and Read a book that is only gonna help me be more creative be more thoughtful in my approach to life Also less time comparing myself to other people in social media a couple books that have been instrumental in my life The past year or so are atomic habits show your work and the defining decade Also picked up this book this weekend called what can a body do and how we built the world by Sarah hindren and this is a design book I've been a designer and developer for most of my career and one thing I've noticed is feel like I have natural ability to Design nice websites create cool logos and etc But I never actually got into the nitty gritty of what design is and how it's incorporated in our life Take it away. Take it away feeling too good to me Cooking at home more often and eating less takeout food I live really close to this incredible food hall here in Brooklyn And it's so tempting to go to the food hall and have like 40 different options of cuisine But it's much better that I cook from home one I know what's in my food to the food is gonna be more healthy three when I cook I for sure have to make sure the kitchen's clean So that allows us to be more clean and organized with the less cluttered space and also it's much easier to hit My macros when I cook at home So I miss coding full-time well the answers yes and no it might be straightforward Depending on how you take what I'm about to say I definitely do miss being on the product side as a developer evangelist I spend most of my time helping people figure out SDKs APIs and libraries to use for them to build whatever product that they're trying to build I miss solving technical problems more frequently Honestly feel like I'm not being as creative professionally as I like I have noticed though with this new job that I have to be way more organized than when I was a developer And one of the reasons is because I have to one be more Communitive so when I go into meetings I actually have to have a agenda doc where I go through what I want to talk about or Take down notes for the meeting also have to be more accountable for other teams Customers that rely on me and I definitely have to flex project management skill sets So I'm working cross-functionally a lot organizing events with other teams and our customers and Ultimately making people do things that don't report to me, which is really difficult So I'm reading this book the defining decade and one of the chapters it talks about that when you're in your 20s You can feel like you're in the ocean and you have all these opportunities And you don't know which way to go and if you go the wrong way, especially for too long of a time You hope that someone reels you in and takes you the right way Ultimately, if you're in your 20s, you have infinite amount of opportunities and that can be quite Overwhelming but the reality is that's not actually true. You do have a lot of opportunities But in order to maximize your amount of opportunities, you have to build identity capital You have to build work experience so you could say I'm doing that with this new job Not that being a software engineer didn't build identity capital But if I ever want to pursue a different career path The only way that I'm gonna be able to do that is by gaining experience in a role That allows me to gain skill sets that I wouldn't be able to gain as a software engineer And when I notice as a software engineer, especially earlier in your career It can be kind of difficult to take on other roles and responsibilities I definitely don't regret the role that I'm in right now. I'm so glad I made this career choice I'm gaining so much and viable experience that I didn't gain at all my last four or five years as a software engineer If you enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up subscribe for more content like this Comment down below some of your goals for 2023. I love interacting with you on a comment section And as always have a blessed rest of your week. I'll see you all soon. Peace