Blog
Uncapping Luck
It is impossible to be the beneficiary of outsized luck with a big corporate job. Your pay is capped. Any variable rewards based on performance are capped. Your promotions are capped. Capped at least by some time at level and often by other factors too. However, unfortunately, it is possible
Assets & Liabilities
(This essay was first featured on the 51st edition of my newsletter) Growing up in the hood, you saw people buy a lot of liabilities and very few assets. In one part of The Bronx, New York, which was full of Albanian immigrants, there were more Mercedes Benzes in a
Inspiration and Passion
Everybody thinks hard work is hard. But hard work isn't hard if you are passionate about it and inspired to do it. On the flip side of that, even easy work is hard when you hate what you are doing. How do I know? Just a few months ago, I
Ukraine
Many of us born in Eastern Europe feel like our worst fears are coming true in Ukraine. I have been following the situation there nonstop. Eastern Europe used to be almost all communist. I was born in Communism, it collapsed when I was the age of seven, and by ten,
When to Seek Feedback?
Feedback is a big reason I did well in my career. These days, I love hearing how I am doing, even when it's bad news. I seek it out. And I am open to completely changing my mind, especially, if those I trust say something contrary to what I am
Procrastination is signal
In a heated debate inside the Small Bets community, I recently realized that working at a big company has turned me into a task monkey. And that has dulled many of my instincts. Big Company world disproportionately rewards people that get shit done. You might be asking what's wrong with
Serious Jokes
A big reason I landed on the name Memes and Motivation for my weekly newsletter is because, at some point, it became painfully clear to me that the internet was full of big jokes but also deadly serious at the same time. Not too different from what's spilled over into
One on Ones for Engineers
The One on One is the most important meeting of your career. Treat it as such. Until recently, I managed multiple engineering teams, and I've managed and helped hire hundreds of Software Engineers throughout my career. Also, before moving into management, I came up the ladder as an Individual Contributor
From Big Tech to Big Debt
TLDR: This is my story of how I used my big tech salary to set up an income stream before quitting to start something of my own and take big risk. I recently quit my cushy, high-paying job in big tech to do a startup. Before I quit, I took
Lessons growing on Twitter with a dormant account.
Despite having a dormant account for a decade, I got my first thousand followers on Twitter last month. In the eyes of the Twitter algorithm, a dormant account is WORSE than a brand new account. But, I turned it around; and I wanted to capture that while it's still fresh.
