 Hello, I'm your host Alex Freeberg, and this is the Alex the Analyst Show. Thank you so much for joining me today. We are going to be discussing the pros and cons of working remote. And I have been working remote for over two years. It's actually when I'm releasing this, it'll be close to almost exactly two years, a little bit over that. I remember the exact day when I went into work, my senior vice president of our department gathered everybody up all in our cubicle area and told us we were all going home, and they weren't sure when we were going to come back. It was pretty wild. And now I've been working remote for, you know, over two years. And so a lot has changed. And, you know, I think a lot of people are adjusting to working remote as well as a lot of people want to work remote. I know and I can tell you confidently. I don't want to go back to work in person anymore. It's just not something that not something I'm really interested in anymore. My priorities have changed. I don't know why I said it like that, but my priorities have changed. You know, my interactions with my family versus the people I work with have changed. And so we're going to get into a lot of different things in today's episode. If you haven't watched one of these episodes, this is my long form content. So, you know, there's really no breaks in the conversation. It's just me talking. So, you know, grab a coffee, grab something to drink and hang out for a little while. It's going to be fun. Before we jump into it, I do have a few announcements. If you have not already, check out my website, alexanalyst.com. It's pretty new. So I thought I'd throw a shout out there. Has a ton of resources, a ton of free stuff, you know, resume stuff, interview prep stuff, everything for data analytics. It's really cool. I'm really proud of it. Still making adjustments, but check it out. Also, follow me on Instagram. I'm really getting into Instagram. I post mostly stories of like my everyday life, but you get to see my dogs a lot, so it should be fun. With that being said, we're going to jump right into it. You know, there's this huge shift in people wanting to work remote. It's just it's overwhelming how many people are like, I don't want to go in person anymore, and there's a thousand reasons why there is still a large group of people who want to work in person. And I I totally get it. I totally get why they'd want to work in person because I used to be that way, but I've just completely shifted. And so I have a ton of things listed. These are from my perspective, but also my research. So, you know, I'm sharing a lot of my insight as somebody who's worked from home for a while, but I'm also sharing stuff that I found online for people who are like, no, I hate working remote, or like, I'll never go back to working in person again. So, you know, let's jump right into it. I know I already said that, but one of the biggest pros that I have found is that it is a very flexible schedule. And this one can be a pro and a con, and I'll explain that a little bit. But for myself, I have gotten to spend more time with my kids and more time with my wife than ever before. And that has been one of the biggest pros ever. Before I was working, I would get in at eight o'clock and I'd leave at four thirty. That was my schedule. And I would have to leave home by like seven fifteen. And then I would get home at around five to five fifteen. That was like typically my thing. And so I was gone for about ten hours out of the day during the week. So I mostly got to see my kids like really early in the morning, a little bit at night before putting them to bed and then on the weekends. That's about it. Now I am literally seeing them all day, every day, all the time. And for some people, that may be the biggest con in the world. I I I hope that's not the case when you're when you're talking about your children or your family. But, you know, I understand how that could be very frustrating. But to me, that that that flexible schedule of OK, I can work in the morning. I don't have a meeting then I can go out, get some groceries, come back work. I can work at night. It has been absolutely fantastic. I'll tell you my actual schedule. This is my actual schedule. I get up. I hang out with my kids. We get them out the door. We get breakfast, get them changed, get them out the door to go to daycare, which is at my grandmother's house and to go to school. And then I work from usually like nine to noon, so around three hours there. Then I take a break. Me and my wife got to lunch. We take the dogs out for a walk. We hang out. And then I usually start working again around like two, depending on if I have meetings, five meetings during that time, I'll take those meetings. But if I don't, I'll take it until about two. And then I'll work for another about two hours and then I stop. We go get my kids. We do the whole nightly nightly routine. And then at night, after, you know, all the kids are in bed, I'll work for another two hours, two, three hours, depending on how much work I have. Right. Super flexible. That is unheard of three years ago to have that flexibility for me. Just complete change in like lifestyle. So I've got to spend a lot of time with my kids because that. So I love that. That can also be really tricky for some people because having that that much flexibility can be extremely tough for some people who need that time, that space away from their like everyday routine. And they need to be able to focus. So they need that like separated space to work and focus because for some people, they don't have, you know, the ability to kind of go with the flow work when during these certain times, they need like eight hours to sit down, do their work and focus. And I totally get that. Let me see what I wrote down here. So there's no set schedule. And that can be hard for people who aren't as disciplined as what I'll say. And so some people might not like that. Not because they're like saying, hey, I'm not disciplined, I can't do this. But, you know, it does affect people who can't say, OK, I'm going to work during these hours this day and this time. It's not a regular, everyday schedule. It changes, it fluctuates. That can be very difficult for some people. So that's the pro and that's the con side of it. Again, huge, huge pro for me. Probably the number one reason why I don't want to go back into the office is the flexible schedule, because I have to go into the office and I'm missing 10 hours of the day every day. And I miss my I'm going to miss my kids, I'm going to miss my wife. I just don't get to spend a tenth as much time with them as I do today. So that's like one of the biggest things. Another huge pro is no commute. Good night. I have saved after these past two years, I've said like a month off my life in just a car. So it saves on money. It saves on having to get like road rage, which I don't get road rage, but, you know, people road rage at me for driving and just the daily grind of commuting to work. I used to live in Dallas when I was working in person. And if you know Dallas, it's a very, very busy metropolitan area. And so it was a tough commute. And so it was it was just a grind and I hated it. I hated going there, hated coming back. Sometimes it was a 30 minute drive. Sometimes it was an hour drive. It was just the worst. So for me, that was amazing because I didn't have to commute or I don't have to commute every day anymore. If I want to, I can go work at like Panera Bread, which I do every so often. And that's my commute. It's like five minutes down the road. It's fantastic. But, you know, I don't have that anymore. And so I don't think there's a huge. I don't think anyone's saying that the opposite of that. I don't think anyone's like, I really miss the commute. I miss driving to work. There's a handful of people, but you guys are like the outliers. You guys are the weird ones. I probably most people I think are like on my side on this one. That's my opinion. The next one that I have on here and this one is. I would say highly polarizing. Some people feel one way, some people feel the other way. Or not feel the other way, but they have the exact opposite circumstance. For some people, it is a very nice quiet space. And for others, it's going to be the exact opposite. So for me, I have three kids and a wife and two dogs and two cats. And it is hectic around my house almost all the time. It really is. And so for me, it's not a quiet space, but I have a I have a space to get away. So I have an office. I'm in my office right now. A lot of people don't have that. And so they're in their like living rooms or they're in their dining rooms. And they're trying to work and they have as many people or animals as I do. And it is almost impossible to focus. Kids trying to ask you a question. They need to go to the bathroom. They need a snack. They want to play with daddy. I mean, it's it could be absolutely terrible just to try to get anything done. I am very fortunate to have my own space. But even then, like the kids will open the door and come in. They're old enough now to open the door, walk in and be like, Daddy, you know, I want to do something. I'm in the middle of a meeting that can be very challenging. But for a lot of other people who don't have all the kids and all the animals, they have a quiet space, which is a huge pro for a lot of people. They don't have to be in an office or hustling and bustling all the time. People are coming to talk to you and chat with you and distract you. So for some is a quiet space away from all that hustle and bustle. It really is. And I wish sometimes some days I wish that's how my life was. But it is not the next pro that I talked about it. I kind of already mentioned it, but more time with loved ones. So if you're living with your parents or, you know, you you are living with siblings or something like that, you do get to see them a lot more, which can be a fantastic pro and can be the worst kind of your life, depending on your family situation. It really can, especially if like you don't get along with your family or you know each other. One thing and don't tell my wife I'm saying this, but one thing that was really tough for me and my wife first were working from home was that we were around each other all the time. Twenty four seven right when the pandemic hit. My oldest daughter was working or was doing class at home online. We had a newborn and we had a one year old and we were in a pretty a smaller house. And I'm telling you, we were getting on each other's last nerve for months on end. It was like being it was it was absolutely terrible. And I don't think she would say any different. It was very, very tough. It was like high stress, high pressure. The kids were getting on to us. We were getting on to each other. It was just terrible. And so it's not always amazing to spend that much time with loved ones. You need some space. But working remote does give you the flexibility to spend more time with them if you so choose. But also it can be a con if you're just like forced to be around them. So again, that's kind of a pro and a con. But for me, again, it's a big pro. I love you, Christine. And everyone out there, I love you guys as well. Next one is food. I don't think it is any shock to say that I didn't like packing a lunch or having to buy from the cafeteria at my work every day. It was. It just I didn't enjoy it. I don't like waking up an extra 15 minutes early to pack a lunch or have to make it the night before or forget it, which I often and buy it there, which my company is a big company. We had a nice cafeteria with pretty good, pretty decent food. It's just expensive. And so that wasn't my favorite, right? I would rather be at home where I can cook a panini, a grilled cheese, make I keep saying sandwiches, but I know a sandwich waffles. My wife is a fantastic cook. We always have leftovers so I can get stuff like that any time I want all the time. If you're, like I said, on my before, if you watch my Instagram, I post my food all the time. I work remote. I work from home. I post food on my, you know, my Instagram maybe once a day of like what I'm eating because that's part of my part of my day. And it's much, much better than when I was working. I would usually take like an orange peanut butter and jelly, like a string cheese or something like that. I mean, it was pretty sad, but that's what I lived with. And I had been doing that for years working in person because it was just easy. It was just easy to do that. But working from home, I can get a home cooked meal is going to be very good. And I can just clean up afterwards and then, you know, I'm good to go. So food, it is a big motivating factor, not having to pack a lunch every day. I love that. The next one is live wherever you want. You can get a job and live wherever you want, as well as accessibility to jobs anywhere in the world. You know, language barriers, visas, all that stuff, pending, but if I live in the United States, I can work anywhere in the United States. I currently work. I just moved and I'll tell you this a little bit. I just moved and I was able to do that because I work remote. I never thought I was going to be moving anytime soon until the pandemic hit. And I was like, why not? Why not move? We can. We've been living in Dallas, Texas for. Maybe six years, five years, six years. And we were like, hey, I'd love to move closer to our parents or my parents so that we should get a little bit more support with the kids. We're closer to the ocean. So we just decided we're going to move to South Carolina. There was nothing really not much holding us back. So now we're like 45 minutes on the beach. We're a little bit more in nature. We have a little bit more support with my parents. And so it's just a better situation all over. And a lot of people have said that. I've heard a lot of people say basically that same sentiment of I can move closer to my parents. I don't feel like I have to live in this metropolitan area, which is hustling and bustling and just expensive to live in these high priced areas. And so you can live wherever you want. And you can work for Fortune 500 companies. You can work for tech companies in the middle of Utah, in the middle of Illinois, where the prices of homes are extremely cheap in some areas. So you can you can move wherever you want. If you want to live in the mountains or you want to live near the beach, you can do that now. Whereas three years ago, that was much more difficult to live in those places and get a high paying job. So if you're a data analyst and you get a high paying job at some nice company, you can go live in a low income area. You can just be saving a ton of money. Like, I mean, the difference between owning like a six hundred thousand dollar house in a metropolitan area versus almost the same house that's like three hundred thousand, three hundred and fifty thousand in a different area. That's not as like a metropolitan. You can have the same exact thing just in a different location. And it just be as nice. And it's just it's changing the game. That's why the housing market is how it is because everyone feels this need to like go and do and buy and purchase because, you know, everyone can work remote, everyone can work anywhere. So prices are rising. That's not the only factor, but that is a big factor. The next thing is higher pay. You know, when you're working remote, again, you have accessibility to work anywhere for any company. You don't have to be on site anymore. And so that opens up a ton of possibilities to make a lot more money when I was working or, you know, if I had moved to where I'm living now, which is like in the Charleston area of South Carolina, there's not a lot of data analyst jobs over here. I've looked, there's not a lot. I was just curious and I there's far and few between and most likely they're not paying as much as I make now. That's my guess. Well, that's not my guess. I know that. Whereas now I can work wherever I want and make it a lot more. So you you have so much more potential to make money when you're working remote. That is a huge, huge, huge pro. Now I had another one. But if I come if it comes back to my head, I'm going to dress code. I didn't write this down for some reason, but I was just thinking about this. I don't have to dress up anymore. And I both love it and hate it. On one hand, I wear stuff like this, just like a T-shirt every day. And I can wear them in meetings with like my boss is a VP. I can go into meetings with him and just a T-shirt. He's just in a T-shirt, his cats in the background, my cats in the background. It's like all barriers of, you know, business casual or business appropriate attire have just gone out the window. And I love that. I think it's much more personal. You can show off who you are a little bit more. You don't have to dress a certain way. Well, within reason, my goodness, please don't like wear your pajamas. But I don't have to like dress business casual. I was wearing, you know, a nice pants, nice shoes, a nice button down. You know, I had to shave like every other day. I don't have to do that anymore. I can roll out of bed, go through almost the whole day. I can sometimes I'm on camera. Sometimes I'm not depending on if I'm presenting or the meeting. So I don't have to dress nice and I don't. And it feels amazing. And for I think a lot of people that's a really good thing. I don't have to invest in a lot of expensive clothes anymore or keep up with trends or whatever. I can just roll out of bed, put on a t-shirt and I'm going to go. It is genuinely it wasn't one that I put on my list because I wasn't really thinking about it. But honestly, that is a really big perk of working remote. Now, I kind of sprinkled in some cons in there. I don't want you to think that those are the only cons. There are other cons and some big ones. And not all these apply to me, but these are big ones for a lot of people. This first one is one that does not apply to me, but I know for a fact that I read it everywhere that this is a huge one. And it is not much social interaction. Let me turn down the brightness on my screen real quick so you guys can't see my reflection. So doing. That's not listening to me. Give me a second. Whatever. Social interaction is for a lot of people, super, super important. That where they work is where they get their social interaction. That's where they communicate with people and see each other and that makes them very happy and that kind of brings the brightness to their day. And when the pandemic started, like suicide rates were going up, depression was going up, you know, anxiety, all these medical conditions were just skyrocketing. And that makes perfect sense. It's a lot of isolation, a lot of loneliness and just separation. That causes a lot of issues. And at first it kind of affected me a little bit, but I'm like, I would consider myself quite an introvert. I could be alone by myself for like a week straight and then see somebody and just be like, cool, I could have gone another week. Genuinely, I can go a long time without social interaction and be very happy. So this has not impacted me as much as others like my wife. My wife, it killed my wife, not to be able to see friends and not to be able to see her family for a while like months. I mean, it was killing her. Me, I was just like, I get it. That's not a big deal for me, though. But for some, it can be extremely difficult. And so, you know, if you're one of those people, that can be really tough. If you're not getting social interaction, like at a gym or a church or a book club or something else. And that was your source of interaction every single day. A lot of people, you know, had issues with that. And so if you're somebody who wants to interact a lot and really get to know people and make friends and all this stuff, that would be a big con of working remote. You can you can make friends or like online friends. But I don't know, it's not the same as seeing somebody in person. And I think that's a pretty fair statement to make, excuse me. If I didn't mention this already, you can buy this mug in my shop, link in the description. Just a little plug for myself. The next con and this is can kind of be a positive for some, but not for me. It's a much slower pace of work. And not in every industry, not at every job, but I have found overall for myself and other people who I've talked to, it's a much slower pace. So, you know, if I have a small issue, I can no longer just walk over to Johnny's desk and say, hey, Johnny, there's this little issue. Can you fix it? Fixes it? Boom, done. Bada bing, bada boom. I can't do that anymore. I message him. He'll message me back like an hour later. I will email him. He'll email me the next day. It can sometimes something is easy, like a minute fix can take an entire day or two days or a week, depending on like how people respond and everything. It's just it makes everything go so much slower, so much slower. That's a huge con. I'm a I meet myself and I like to pile on my work and I like to always be doing something like go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Like project done next project. OK, I'm waiting on that from this project. Let's start working on this project while I wait for that project. I like juggling things. And so the bit that one of the toughest shifts for me was when we started working from home and things took forever. And I would I would be like, come on, I'll be like tweaking. I'm like, come on, like, where is it? Send it to me. Get it to me. I'm like, I want to work on this. I'm like, I feel like I'm not being productive. And so, you know, it's a slower pace, but you could also be less productive in your job. A lot of studies and polls and everything and companies doing, you know, metrics on on productivity have actually found that people are more productive, if not the same or more productive than if there are work for myself. I felt less, less productive at times because of how slow the pace was. I was getting my work done. I was doing a great job. I'm the best employee ever if you're watching for my work. I'm a great employee. I do my job, but I felt at times I was doing a crappy job because it just took too long. The next one is we actually discussed this. No set schedule so you can find yourself working more or at times you wouldn't normally. So you need to be more disciplined. So, you know, people who typically would just work that nine to five. Now they're working that nine to five and then somebody messaged them at six and they're, hey, they're at their computer. Why not message them back? So these boundaries of when you're in at work have really been blurred for a lot of people. And it happens to me. I mean, literally an hour ago, someone at my work messaged me, asked me for something and I got back to them because I could. And I am a manager, so it's a little bit different, but if I was just a data analyst, I still would have done the same thing. I'm available, I can. I could have just ignored it and waited until tomorrow and I would have been perfectly fine with that, but I was at my computer, so why not? So these boundaries and lines of when you're at work have really been blurred. And it can be an issue for a lot of people because they want to disconnect. They want to turn off that computer, turn off that phone and sometimes it's really tough to do that. And so, that can be a huge con for a lot of people. Another one, the next one I'm gonna talk about is a new one that we haven't talked about yet, but this one is one we kind of touched on, which was finding a home office. I said for most, that's a dinner table, which no one wants to sit at all day. Most people, a lot of people don't have a fantastic place to work. We talked about a little bit ago. Sometimes they have to work at their dinner table or on a couch and they got people running around and they don't have a separate office. That can be really tough. It just can't. I'm not gonna go and do it too much or we already talked about it, but it can be tough if you don't have an office or a separate place and you have people in your house. That can be really tough. The next one, the next con, and this is nearing my last one is decreased opportunity for promotions. You probably don't think about it this much. Think about it that much. And the landscape has changed quite a bit for promotions, but as a whole, people are getting not as noticed for their work and it's because of the lack of face-to-face time or the lack of one-on-one time that they're getting with their bosses or upper management in order to get those promotions. So back in the day, three years ago, when you were in person, I'd see my boss every day, I'd go talk to my coworkers, I'd talk to these people, they could see how hard I was working. They could tangibly see me walking around, see me at my desk, see me present that project in person and that was a very tangible thing that they could say, wow, Alex is working very hard, he deserves this promotion. Today it is very different because you're online all the time. You're just this guy who's online who's doing work. They can't see you doing the work for the most part. They don't see you how much effort you're putting in. It's really hard to quantify that and then say, hey, he deserves a promotion. I mean, you can do it by, hey, he's done this project and this project and this project had a big business impact, but it is harder to really sell yourself. It is harder to be like, I'm a huge team player, I'm a huge, I'm a big leader. It's harder to show that these days. It really is. And so you have to be a lot more strategic with how you basically sell yourself for that promotion, how you spin it. You have to be like, here are the exact projects that I worked on, here's how I've been working so tough, here's the business impact that it's had. Kind of the same thing as in person, but when you're in person, it's easier for them to be like, I know because I've seen you. I know because I saw you do all this work. Whereas now, they don't see it as much. And so for me, my boss, my old boss, they were able to give me a promotion pretty early on in my career because they were like, I can see Alex doing all this work, these projects stepping up during meetings, he's raised his hand, he's answering questions, like yada, yada, yada. Now, my boss that I have now who's a new boss, I mean, he has a lot of people that he has underneath him and I'm mostly unsupervised. I mostly do my own thing throughout the day. As long as I'm getting my work done, I'm meeting my goals, I'm getting my projects done from our team, getting our projects done. Then I don't talk to him that much. I usually come to him if there's an issue or something like that, but we don't like hang out at lunch and like talk to each other like you could him when you're in the office. Very different dynamic. So if I go to him for a promotion, let's say a year, two years, three years, I'm gonna really have to point at the exact things that I've done to make a difference. So that's the end of my list. You know, there are other ones that I read about that didn't really affect me and I don't think that were like big ones to mention. If there were any ones that I did not mention, put it in the comments. If they're really impacted you and there's a lot of people that agree with you, they'll, they read the comments. So, you know, you can post it in there and people will upvote it and I can see it and I'll be like, okay, maybe I should have added that one. My bad. But I think I hit a lot of the big ones. So, yeah, that's my, those are my pros and cons. Overall, how do I feel about working remote? Again, I've been working remote for two years. It's been to me and me specifically, it's been a huge blessing. I've got to see my kids grow up way more in depth and way more hands on than I would have not doing that. I have a three year old, he just turned three. I'm about to have a two year old. She's turning two in two weeks. And I feel so much more connected to them because I spent so much time with them. So, for me, it's been huge, especially with the kids, with my family. So, in every situation is different. That's my situation is I got lots of kids. So, I'm glad that I get to spend that time with them while they're young, because they're gonna go off to school in a year or two and I'll be at least, I'll at least say, hey, I was able to spend their whole childhood before they went to school with them and that'll make me really happy. And I'm gonna look back on that very fondly. Now we're getting to a time of the show and it goes a lot of different ways, but usually I have, I haven't done one of these in like a couple of weeks or a month. And so, whenever I, now whenever I do them, I used to do them every week but there's less topics to talk about. When I was doing them every week, you guys all knew what it was. But if you haven't seen this, I usually have a question of the day. I give a shout out to the sponsor of this video and they have a special of the week. And then I ramble out at the end, it's always a fun time. So, today we're gonna start with a question of the day. I don't remember what order I usually go in, but question of the day is really interesting today. It's by Pickle Rickerton. It says, is this really possible? He would post this on my video of how to become a data analyst in 2022. That's what this one is referring to. So, is this really possible? I have an English degree and want a good paying job but this stuff seems daunting. I envy the people who can pick this up so quickly. Any tips for a newbie? I looked job applications and all they want, and they all want computer science degrees, sad face. It really is possible. It really is possible. You have an English degree. I don't know if you're right out of college or you're teaching or what your situation is but it is absolutely possible. I, 100% am, I am basically the image of how it is possible. I did it. I have a hundred other examples of how other people have done it. And genuinely the biggest advice that I can give you is that you need to learn the technical skills and then you need to learn the business skills and I'll get into that in just a second. And you really need to be able to showcase to a hiring manager why they should hire you. Your resume better be fantastic, especially if you are an English major or an English, you have an English degree and you better make a really good portfolio so they can check you out and see what you're doing, what you know. All of these things can be done. I promise you it can be done. It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of determination and a lot of endurance to push through all that self-doubt that comes with someone with your background like me, it took a lot of endurance and a lot of just pushing through the uncertainty. So learning those technical skills, you gotta learn SQL, highly recommend it. You gotta learn Excel, some type of BI tool like Power BI Tableau. I've preached this stuff on my channel for years and I'll continue preaching on it until something changes and nothing has changed. And then if you wanna pick up a programming language like Python, absolutely do that but that is not the first thing that I'd recommend. You can get a job with just SQL, Excel and Tableau. I promise you because I got two jobs with just SQL, one job with just SQL and then another job with SQL and Tableau. So you don't need a programming language right away, you can build up to that as you get further along in your career. The next thing is the business side of things which if you have an English degree you may not have the most relevant degree but understanding how businesses use data, understanding the business side of things. It can be a big way to get your foot in the door. So if you're in an interview and you say, hey, I saw you guys have this kind of data on your website, you're doing that research of the company, I saw you guys have these products and you can cater your answers to their business side of things, that can be huge. That's what I do in interviews if I have a healthcare interview for a healthcare analyst job or something like that. I cater my answers knowing that business side of stuff and knowing what their issues may be. Because I have that knowledge, I'm able to cater my answers and that is just absolutely fantastic to do. So that's really important. And then the resume, I mean, a resume is a resume. You can't get a job these days without a resume. It's almost impossible, especially for someone who it doesn't come from a background, who comes from a background like yours. You're gonna need a fantastic resume. I have many videos on that. And then portfolio, again, I have videos on that look it up, look up what a portfolio is, a portfolio project, how to put them together, a website, all that good stuff, highly recommend. So that's my answer to Pickle Rickerson, Pickle Rickerton. And it's, a lot of people have asked me, is it really possible? And it's not gonna happen for everybody. Unfortunately, not everyone will succeed. And it's not always the people who are the most dedicated that make it. Some people are in different countries, some people are in areas that don't have as good of opportunities as others. And again, there will be people who just have the endurance to run that long marathon of trying to get a job. And some people don't have that. And so, you know, there's so many different variables and situations where some will be able to make it and some won't. And if you have the availability and you have the willpower and you have the time to make it happen, then I believe that you can make it happen. And if you take advice from people who have gone through it before and hone in on the things you need to hone in on and really make a concentrated effort in those areas, then you can do it even faster. So that's my take on it. I hope that helps. I usually do this, I think, earlier, but a huge shout out to the sponsor of this video, which is all of you. I don't do sponsors on these long videos. You guys are my sponsor. So if you wanna support the channel, head over to Patreon, you can do that. Or you can head over to my website now and donate to the channel. Everything that people have donated over the past several years, I put back towards things like camera and lights and software, because I have to buy software to do tutorials and stuff like that. That's how I pay for those things. And anything that's appreciated, you don't have to. I promise you, it's not gonna hurt my feelings. But if you do, I appreciate it. I also have a store where you can buy merch, things like t-shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, like this one. Some just cool stuff, and it's really fun. And I always like to give away that stuff for free too. So if I'm doing some sort of giveaway, my 200K giveaway is coming up soon. So if you send a story to me, I'll leave the information of that in the description. If you send a story soon, because I'm about to hit 200K, then you can be entered to win hoodies and t-shirts and coffee mugs all for free. If you send in the story and I read it on the live stream. The very last thing that we're gonna talk about is the vegetable of the week. And this one's an interesting one. I haven't eaten it in a while, but I do like it. It is bok choy. So if you watched this entire video, in the comments, put bok choy. And I will know that you watched the very end. I'm telling you, I have noticed a big trend in this. I am not joking when I say this. There's a high correlation of people who make a lot of progress and end up getting jobs and the people who end up watching every single one of my videos and implementing it. And so no joke, there was somebody who, this is maybe three months ago now, when they messaged me, but they said I went through every single one of your videos. I implemented everything. And they would comment on every single video. Hey, I'm still watching. Hey, I'm binging your videos. Hey, you know, jalapeno, this, that, every vegetable. And then at the very end, after about two months of them, three months of them doing that, I think it was, they told me that they got a job. And I felt like I knew that person by then. They had commented so much, I responded to a lot of their comments. I commented, they commented so much, I felt like I knew them. And I responded to almost all their comments because I could tell they were like really trying to push themselves. And it almost brought tears to my eyes. And it's bringing tears to my eyes now because I was like, this person put in so much work. They were really dedicated. And if you're not putting back joy in the comments now with these tears in my eyes, I don't know if you have it, man. I don't know if you have the endurance because that person did. That person genuinely, I was like, good night. This person is like giving it their all. Like that's all they were doing for months, literally three months straight. I, it was all about a three month span where they were commenting on it, commenting on every single video almost every day. Well, commenting on different videos almost every day saying, this is, this helped me this way, this helped me this way. It's beautiful, just beautiful. And bok choy is delicious by the way. If you haven't had bok choy, absolutely highly recommend. Really, really good stuff. I wish that, okay. This is not a long video, which has been good. I wasn't hoping for it to be like one of those 50 minute, 75 minute ones. This is a good length video. You know, I was hoping to bring up Rosie, who is our golden retriever. We got her about three months ago. I wanted to bring her up, but she is insane. And I have an office now, and so she's downstairs. And if I brought her up here, she'd like attack the cats and like ruin everything. When I brought on Max, when he was a puppy, he was very chill. And he laid next to me while I did my videos. Rosie's a nutcracker, man. She's like a firecracker. She's just like, wants to be running around, doing everything. I'll just post a picture of her somewhere in this area. So you guys can see her, but I wanted to include her in this. You guys can see her, because I did that with Max. Maybe I'll do it when she's bigger and more calm, but she's three and a half months old. She is, I mean, a three and a half month old puppy, golden retriever. Ain't happening. This is not happening. So yeah, that's the show. If you, this is your first show that you've ever watched. I appreciate you watching to the very end. That is incredible. I have like 20 some other videos in this long series format, which I thoroughly enjoy. I just get to ramble on and people watch it. It's insane to me. How many people are gonna put Bach join the comments? It makes me genuinely happy. Um, when I first started doing it, this was like a year, I feel like maybe like a year and a half ago, the channel was still very small. I had like 10,000 subscribers. And I would make these long form videos. And, you know, I saw a small semi-small following and I was like, or, you know, subscriber base. And I was like, you know, when like five people would comment, I was like, dang, those five people, five people watch all the way through my video. This is incredible. Now I have like hundreds or, you know, a hundred or so and I just, it tickles me every time, gets me every time. It really does. So, yeah, that's all I got for today. What's going on right now? There's a lot of things going on in my life as well as professionally, as well as in the world. I mean, is coronavirus even a thing anymore? I'm kidding. I'm just joking guys. It still is a thing, but, but, yeah. It's so funny, you know, when the stuff in Ukraine started happening with Russia, you know, there's a lot of memes online about like what happened to the coronavirus. I mean, it's funny, but it's not funny. I mean, there's not much, you don't hear about it as much. It's still out there. It's still doing its thing. Yeah. And the war in Ukraine, I mean, it's just terrible. I mean, I'm not a fan of wars in general, whether it's the Middle East, Africa, India, China, Taiwan. I'm not a fan of any wars, but I have people on my team and the people I work with at my place of work who live in right near Ukraine. And, you know, talking with them and hearing how things are going over there, it's frightening. It really is. I hate to see that for the people who I literally work with. It hits much closer to home than other encounters and wars that have gone on. It's really close to home. So you're like, that person lives like 50 miles away. Just crazy stuff. Crazy, crazy stuff that's going on in the world. And geez, in like six months time when somebody's watching this, I hope it hasn't gotten worse. I hope things have gotten better. However that happens, that's all I'll say. So yeah, that's my video. Yeah, pros and cons of working remote. Hard to make because I think a lot of those are pretty flip floppy. It could be a pro for you, it could be a con for you. It's, a lot of these things are pros for me. A lot of these things. I mean, even the one that was on the con, what was that one? Not much social interaction, that's a pro for me. Here guys, oh, come here, come here. All right, my cat. I almost grabbed my cat. Cindy is like, doesn't like anybody except my wife. So the fact that even she even came over to me and then I tried to pick her up, she won't talk to me for like a month. And I'm okay with that. Not my favorite cat. Actually, neither of those cats are my favorite cat because the other one is like obsessed with me and I hate that. This one doesn't like me around me at all and I don't like that. So yeah, I'm not a big fan of the cat situation we got going on over here. I was also thinking about for the 200K live stream or maybe even different videos in general, putting my 100K clock or play button up here. But I feel like that's pretty tacky. I feel like so many people do it. It's not even cool anymore, man. It's not even cool. Once I hit a million, once I hit a million, I'll do it because it's thinking goal play button. That is legit. I guess the silver play button is legit too. I worked hard for it, but I don't know. It's kind of tacky. When I hit the gold, when I hit the gold one though, which I plan on doing that. There's two people left watching. There's only two. I, there's only two people left and those people are laughing at me because they're like Alex, you're not getting two million. It ain't happening. What are you, Joma? You Joma tech? Which I think he used to be called Joma tech and now he's Joma. I can't remember. But I used to love his stuff. He actually came back after like a long hiatus and he's making some funny videos. But he's more of like a comedian. I don't know where he's working though. I thought he used to work at Facebook. I wanna say we've worked at Facebook. Funny stuff though. All right guys, enough of this. I have things to do. It's actually funny enough. This isn't an early recording for me. I usually record at like nine o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night. It's only 8.45. So I don't even know what I'm gonna do with my night. I guess work. My schedule is so flexible. I can work whenever. I am thinking about doing especially around the holidays. Christmas, Hanukkah, holidays, end of year, December, depending on what you celebrate. I am thinking about bringing Santa back. I didn't do it last year. I'm thinking about bringing him back a whole stream or video with Santa. That was a lot of fun back in 2020. I think it was when I last had him. So I'm thinking about bringing Santa back. Let me know what you think. If you remember that video, maybe I won't. I think it was pretty creepy. I was like, oh, it was all right. It was okay. I thought it was funny. Cool, all right. Well, thank you to everyone who's still listening. If you're whoever's still out there that one or two people. I hope you've drank your coffee by now. It's probably, it's been like 45 minutes. All right guys, take it easy. I'm signing off. I appreciate you. I really do. And I will say that the longer you watch, usually the more I like you. As a blanket statement. That's usually like 99.9% a sure thing. So if you're watching till now, if you're watching till now, just write something. If you're watching till now, just write I love you. All right. I will know. And you will know, because I'll comment back, I guarantee it, that I love you too. And I'm not saying that under any pretext. What am I saying? Is that even a word? I am saying it because I mean it. I'm saying it because you stayed with me this long. That means you're committed and that means that I'm committed. So I'm committed to you. You're committed to me. That's love. So I love you. Put it down in the comments. I will write back something heartfelt. Something about love. All right guys, no for real. It's time to go. Let me see what time it is. Oh boy. I just, I looked at my phone for a second and I saw a comment saying, come on bro. That's not real. I don't even know what video they're commenting on. But I'm gonna check that one out and be like, you don't know what to talk about. It's 100% real. No, I won't do that. I never respond to the bad comments. I really don't. I'm like, hey look, I have 99% of my comments are positive saying, hey, this is great stuff. Thank you. Then I have that one guy who's like, hey, this isn't how it is. This isn't real life. Come on, bro. And I'm just like, whatever. If you wanna, you live your truth. For real, live your truth. Don't take my advice. You don't have to take it. I throw it out there willingly. You don't have to take my advice. Do whatever you want. Become a data analyst slower. I don't care. So, I'm not even gonna respond to that guy. He's like, you don't know. You got lucky. You don't know what you're talking about. Come on. All right, that's fine. All right guys, I'm out of here. Have a good one. I love you. I know that you love me. Well, if you put it in the comments, I know that you love me. So I know I love you. So have a good one. Be safe. Be kind to others. Make somebody else happy today. Do something kind for someone else. I try to do that every day. I really do. I try to think, how can I be kind to my wife? Do something nice and thoughtful for her? Do something for one of my kids. Do something nice for somebody. Just pick someone in your family, a neighbor, someone at work. Do something kind for somebody else. Make the world a better place today. You do something. Make it happen. Don't wait for somebody to do something nice to you. Do something nice for somebody else. It'll feel better than somebody doing something nice for God's promise. All right, I'm out of here. Have a good one. Take it easy. And I will see you in the next video. Bye.