Q&A #4: Passion, Day in the Life, YouTube and Patrick’s NYC trip & More with Patrick Akil

Them. Hopefully, the mic doesn't pick that up. All right, so here's the deal. I'm going to Portugal on Monday and I should have had a guest in front of me, but they canceled on me. Last minute, couldn't find a different guest. So here we are with am a number four. I'm counting these now, it's not going to be q&a's. It's going to be amas and I still had a lot of questions which I hadn't answered yet. Luckily for me. So we can do this episode. So you know the drill gets

seated, get comfy. I'll do the same. And we'll kick it off. But what do you look for in a

guest? And how do you pick them? I look for passion. That is usually the only thing obviously other than having a good, my good camera and a speaker, a bit of English is passionate about a certain subject because I feel like I have an innate sense of curiosity. And when someone is really passionate about that, I like listening to that learning about that also for myself. And I think that makes for a

good episode. So I think the biggest factor in finding a guest is passion and usually I reach out to a lot of people and then we have a discussion and I asked, what are you passionate about? Some people give me a certain set of topics. They've talked about on a conference and that's not really the same as what I want for the

podcast because that's more. So I feel like pre cached content might have to do with their passion but it's different than having actual conversation about that, right? That's more so presenting. So then I'm like, no, no, no, that is maybe what you've talked about before, but I want to know what you're really passionate about. Might not be what you talked about, but it might be something completely different and that's then where the conversation

usually lands. For me, that's enough topic. Wise, to have this conversation, some people are kind of get how do you say that? May be put off by that a little bit? They want questions and they want me to send them in advance and I don't do that. I've done that in the past, have made a mistake with that. So we're not Doing that again. Some people are like, well if I don't have the questions, then we can't do it. And then I have to be like, okay then we can't do it.

Well, sad face, I guess. But that's how we roll. So, that's how I find guests mostly on LinkedIn. Nobody replies to me on Twitter. Maybe it's because of the whole blue checkmark thing or because I'm not really on Twitter but no replies on Twitter on LinkedIn. Everyone replies. Very friendly people. I like people on - how do you

keep your technical skills up to date? That's an interesting one. I keep them up-to-date. Just will do my day-to-day job. I feel like I'm in a lot of subreddits and that guy that browsers a lot on Reddit and currently, I'm programming on Google Cloud platform in go in an iot domain. So, then, technical wise, I try to be up to date on whatever needs to be done. And that's kind of hard because something you have to do, sometimes you have to do something new.

Can't really go into a lot of things, but we have had to deal with metrics, for example. So I had to figure that out but I don't think that's a technical skill. Maybe it's you have to have a certain sense of analytical prowess. I feel like to figure things out. So then how do I keep up to date? I think it's more so doing things on a day-to-day basis, right? I make sure I just by virtue of programming every day.

I feel like I stay up to date, especially on the programming language that I like in go sometimes we do some JavaScript, Sometimes, some react, but that varies basically. Another sense I give trainings as well, specifically on go. So in that sense, I feel like whenever I find an interesting problem that we've solved in an interesting way, through a certain programming language concept.

I feel like I could fit that in the training so I make little notes and when we have to give that training again, I try and update the material. So it's also up to date. So not really a few, like a cookie cutter answer. I don't think there's a mold for everyone or that fits everyone, rather just your own kind of spin on things. Things I read not so much, just read it. I don't really listen to programming language podcasts

and only thing that makes sense. I ask a lot of questions, I talked to, a lot of people, try and figure out how they've solved certain problems, and I collaborate a lot. I feel like, that's my default mode. Like I had to do like a psychological assessment recently, and one of the things that came out is I am a team player, I'm a collaborator. When I'm stuck, I ask for help and I like working together, and Problems together rather than tackling it alone doesn't mean I can't do it.

I just feel like I'm more productive. If we do this thing together I think a team is more productive as a team rather than a group of individuals. So maybe that's how I keep my skills up to date as well. That's more. So on the technical stuff on the soft skill stuff, how do I keep up to date? I like to follow a lot of like we have a study, budget, training budget, and I haven't spent any money on more, so the technical stuff more. So on the Soft skill related

stuff. Like I did a training on inside in influence and that was like a five-day training. Also role-playing different communication Styles. I was very fond of that earlier in my career I did a lot of trainings on more. Saw the scrum methodology or the framework rather. So I did a project on a training scrum, Master training, at it like an analytics engineer training more. So based on curiosity and also a more understanding of how the process should work or how a

team can function optimally. Of the within that process. So I think that's it. What programming languages do

you use? Currently? It's a lot of go just go very fond of go did some vanilla JavaScript in US previous project summary act for a few years actually in previous projects as well. Other than that it's actually just go and I'd like to keep it that way. I'm not a guy that tries to do everything programming language related, we had an innovation day and I fiddled around with rust and I was like, man Things

Are really complex. I feel like there's a big hurdle in getting started knowledge wise. And with go I like the simplicity. So I'd like to keep it that way. I like to be practical. I'm feel like I'm results-oriented and when I have to figure out how language works when I want to get stuff done I feel like that's more so my way of getting the actual thing done. So yeah, that's the stuff I use.

How do you find time for both your job and creating the podcast? Do you have any productivity tips? I like my job. I like doing the podcast, I found a way to combine them so the company Stevia that I work with, they sponsor the podcast. So I get a few hours here and there and we try to keep it in balance with the input that I have to do outside of work.

So I get a few hours like out of my 40 hour work week and then the other stuff I do with my own time and productivity wise, I've tried to make this whole podcast process because that's the Smallest slice like in my week mostly still consultancy. I've tried to make it as easy as possible because I feel like if it's not easy, it's not going to be sustainable, right?

I want to try and put out a week by week episode, which means every week I need to have at least one guest, or I need to have stuff prepared, so that I can are things we need to edit, I need to have the marketing process, the text, the description, the thumbnails, the whole shebang, basically. And before them, I need to find the guests and scheduler, According and do the actual conversation. It's weird because in the beginning I got a lot of help with it. Then I more.

So everything went on my own plate and I think I've streamlined the process in such a way that it's sustainable Marcel in the long run, right? I find people we have a certain short conversation. I try to keep it as short as possible, the conversation part, the actual recording I've gotten better and better at I'm still improving obviously I'm not there. What I wanted to be but I feel like that's more so streamlined. So then the content creation

part is pretty good. The editing I used to do myself. What all does it now? Hopefully you can do that more in the future. We have to figure out how that is going to work but that's going to be a conversation. We can have soon and then the actual release process. I think I've got it down to a tee. I used to be. How do you say that very stressed out? And it would take me a really long time to figure out a title and a description, the most

simplistic things. Well now, I think of they should be simplistic but it used to take me a lot of time and energy. Because I felt like, okay, I have this episode content solid everything around it, like if you have a gift then it, this is your gift wrapping, right? This is what people see, the thumbnail, the title and the description basically. And I would spend, I think a lot more time trying to figure out the perfect phrases and stuff

like that. And now I feel like the title comes more naturally, but the description I just put my thoughts on there, and I accept that it's not perfect because it saves me a lot of time saves him. A lot of stress and it's never going to be perfect. Anyway, I don't think I get judged for a description. I just put my thoughts on there. I think that's final. I've tried playing around with GPT but chat gbt talks like I do

not talk. So then it gives me like a whole description and I'm like, this is just not me like I can't use almost any of this. I fed it. My description. And I was like, okay, what do you think of this? And it roast me to the ground? It was like, there's no structure you go from A to B 2z all of a sudden. Make any sense. And then it preface that with, I'm an AI to, I don't have an opinion and then it continued to roast me. I did the same with the title, and then it said, the same

thing. A I too. Don't have an opinion and then it was like, but it looks pretty good. Like it looks like stuff people would search and click on. So yeah. Where was I? What was the question? Yeah, I found a way to balance it by virtue of making the process as simple as possible. I think that's basically it. There's no at sauce, right? Try and streamline everything try and automate as much as possible. I kept figuring out things, I wanted to add on top of things

which I did. But again, those needed to be as simple and as durable as possible. I only did, for example, subtitle generation or subtitles on shorts when they were auto-generated, when I couldn't auto-generate them way back when maybe a year back, maybe two years back, those shorts or a little Clips too.

Subtitles because there was no tool for me to auto-generate subtitles auto-generated subtitles are not perfect anyway, so we still have to go in and correct them, but I wasn't gonna basically write everything down by myself. I don't, I didn't think that was worth it, so we didn't do it now, it's more streamlined. It's more simple, so we can do it. So we do it. I feel like that process, you have to find a balance for yourself. You can do everything from the

start. You have to get better at the Small Things, the bigger chunks, and then streamline the process, so you can do more. Things. And the more streamlined it is, the more sustainable it's going to be, oh, man, I am starving. I don't think I've ever been this hungry sing in front of the camera.

How did you make your holiday? A part of your job? I think I've told the story on how we started this podcast. I think during episodes and maybe even during a Q&A, but there was an opportunity for me to start the podcast and it wasn't a hobby. Hmm. Maybe it was a hobby. I used to listen to a lot of podcasts. Now, a lot less because I travel less. But I think it's something I want to pick up regardless of that, so I had always listen to podcasts and I got the opportunity to create one.

Put my vision on something, but I wouldn't have labeled it as a hobby looking back. Now, maybe maybe it was but the thing is, so then you come into this flow of, okay? All of a sudden you own this thing, you want to do this thing, you acknowledge, it's a hobby and you need time from work, all of a sudden because I didn't get time at the beginning. So then basically I went to my manager. I said the only way we Do this is anytime basic. Otherwise, it's not sustainable.

It's not realistic for me to do this everything in my own time, and then we came to kind of a balanced agreement of. Okay, you get x amount of time per episode, and that's what I needed because I was facilitated through other means there was a co-creator involved in the early stages. So that's how we started. I think if you find something, whether it's content creation, or I think it's like, it's mostly content creation, but it can be something else as well.

I think go to the people that can make it happen. And have that dialogue with them, there's nothing to lose. I feel like I think there's only things to gain right? If there's a super cool project that's in a domain, which is coincidentally in line with your hobby there, why would you put yourself in that position that you might be able to work on that, right? I feel like it'll give you more fulfillment. At the end of the day, it has definitely given me for more fulfillment in my job.

Because to be honest, there was a lot of things during covid. And I wasn't really as happy in my job, as I am now I wasn't doing the podcast. I actually looked outside as well. I like looking outside picking my head out of this hole and seeing what's out there opportunity-wise. But the reason I never switch this because all of a sudden like here I can be entrepreneurial, I could start this podcast and I can still do things that give me a certain sense of fulfillment.

So why don't you like a reach out and seek those opportunities for yourself? I think it's possible to combine your hobby in your work. You just have to really figure out how to do it and Reach out to the people that can make it happen advocate for yourself and it'll end up. Alright, hopefully, this one is funny, what is it?

Common misconception about working as a software engineer, the misconception is that we program 100% of the day that people are just like hoodie on and typing away. Like when you see a lot of movies that just do that and that everyone's honored that I know that it has a negative connotation nerd. And I definitely I also don't like Put techies, I don't know. It just, it just hits me wrong

and people love using that. For example, I just zone out when some of use that, in any case, that we program 100% of the time. I don't think that's true. We always work with people. It's a lot of people aspects, and I think I mentioned this before in a previous episode, it is not what I expected coming into this field. I thought just by virtue of all the media that's out there. The movies, the series, everything that I would be programming more so than I am doing now.

It's because I'm A bigger team now but we have to align a lot of processes. A lot of solution, directions. And then the execution part of things that's just a slice of the work. And it varies from Project to project how big that slice is. But it is always a slice. It is not the full cake, it's always a part of the cake man. I made a cake analogy really hungry, still. However, comma, it's a lot of people work.

I didn't expect that. I think that's still a misconception coming out of uni or maybe even earlier especially Creon media out there that we do that 100% of the time. That is a misconception. What is the most unexpected or

surprising thing? You've learned about yourself since starting the podcast the most unexpected or surprising thing is I like doing this thing a lot. A lot more than I thought. Initially, I start things and sometimes I don't think long-term what that's going to entail. And I started this podcast, I didn't think about a year down the line where it now More than two years down the line, and I'm still enjoying this.

And the most surprising thing is, I feel like I started pretty good and I've gotten even better and I look back on previous episodes. And I'm like, man, that was horrible. I look back on recent episodes and I like it more. I still think there's a lot to gain, but I'm actually more comfortable on camera. Like, you know, when you put a camera in front of someone and they just blank out that I Global especially when someone

says be funny. I don't know if I can do that, but sitting now in front of the camera with a microphone in front of me, I'm a lot more comfortable. Just be naturally myself. I can just talk to the audience. I feel like in a more easy way. I can structure my thoughts that arms and stuff. In the pauses come more naturally, I cut out the arms. That's what I was trying to say. My brain. Just still Trails on randomly, but I feel like I've gotten better in structuring my

thoughts. It also translates to what I do, more on a day-to-day. They work consultancy wise software, engineering wise, I think it's better. I got more comfortable in vocalizing. My opinion. If I disagree with something, I used to vocalize that already, but now it's gotten more powerful because I think I could structure my thoughts better and I can persuade people or convey a certain argument in a better

way. I think that's been most surprising is how much I can learn and how much I have learned throughout doing this. I'm still horrible at keeping kind of connections. I feel like maintaining those still a challenge for me. I'm bad at planning. I'm trying to work on that but I've always been bad at

planning. I feel like I've gotten better at planning and structure and things just by virtue of having to do that more and more still not where I wanted to be horrible at planning, but the biggest surprise is getting better at actually having a conversation. I got more comfortable in front of a camera, more comfortable standing in front of an audience on stage. And I think that's, that's going to help me along my career, by law, actually, anything else of surprising another thing that's,

most surprising is how easily people say yes to doing a podcast. Initially, I thought I had to pay people maybe, and that's where you weird. But that's the thought I had that people wouldn't want to come on to something that has not established and I would maybe be like a good son slip, slip them some money. No one has ever asked me to. Pay for them to be on this

podcast at all. Which is I think an amazing thing that people like doing this podcast, like having conversation, see value in there and enjoy it, genuinely enjoy it. At the end of a conversation, I usually ask like to the guests. Now, that you've done this podcast, how different has it been from doing other podcasts. And when they give me a compliment, like this was very well structured, you're a great host, it was a great conversation, it felt very natural.

Like those are all the Takes in boxes that I want to go for, right? That was really my vision for the episodes that were doing that. So that gives like a real sense of fulfillment and happiness when people give that as feedback, so I'm really happy with that. Don't have to pay people saves my budget. What is the typical day?

Like, for, when you record a podcast episode, I'm going to take this in two ways because we have episodes where people dialing in remotely and people were and episodes where people are here, physically in person, People are remote, I come into the office and I share them. Two, links one for the video feed and one for the audio recording. And honestly we set everything up.

I have a TV in front of me behind the camera, so I can see the guests and it's, like a waiting game because some people don't confirm. I get that because I've, if I send you an agenda, invite, you don't have to confirm. We agreed upon it. And it's just a waiting game to see if they arrive. And luckily, I think it maybe has happened once or twice in the past hundred episodes.

We've done that. Someone didn't actually show up, but then I don't even have a way for me to reach out to them because, yeah, everything is asynchronous. It's all email or like a message or something. In any case, it's a waiting game to see if they show up. Luckily they do, then we do some framing audio wise and video wise, and we record the actual episode. It's not that much work. I feel like I tell the current project that I'm on that. I have a recording, they know.

I do it's not a secret. Don't want to keep it a secret. I like being transparent and clear about things so that I have the recording. I'll be back online, X, Y, and Z, and everything's fine with that. Now the thing is, one of my favorite things is when people

come in to the office in person, I don't own anything here. None of the studio, none of the office, but when people come in, already through the front doors, they're like, what is this? Because the office, honestly, I might put some pictures on the screen here. The office looks Incredible. There's a lot of graffiti art. I mean, you see it when you look in the studio that's the same Vibe, the office hands.

And I've been to a lot of officers, I used to have a job that required me to go to certain offices and do stuff there. But those officers don't look like ours. And I feel like it's very arrogant to say, my office is the best one. It's not my office anyway, but I like being in the office. It's a very inspirational environment. I like the graffiti food's free, I've had guests where I was like, okay, let's have lunch. No, luckily, I got a bunch of stuff. Where do I pee?

And I'm like, everything is free. They're like, yay. And I'm like, yeah, because I feel like when people come in that first kind of experience, coming to the office, experiencing all the things that probably I take for granted now because it's so natural. It reminds me that things are pretty cool and pretty awesome. So some of my favorite things, introducing people to something awesome. Obviously, makes me happy as well. That's the in-person experience.

Audience. They come into the front door, I guide them to the studio. Sometimes we have a pretty conversation which is way longer than it should be where we like, okay we should have recorded a big chunk of this, then we sit down. I think a lot of the later people that I've had on are very comfortable in front of a camera. It's more natural. All the cameras are kind of obvious skated sometimes maybe now not as much because we got some bigger bigger things.

Looking at you sometimes people are nervous and I used to 3 2 1, start, welcome to the episode and blah, blah, blah. Thanks for coming on and yeah, that especially makes people nervous also makes me nervous. And then we talk over each other. You know, it's a bit awkward and start. So what we do now is all the cameras are rolling. Also remote everything, recording related, brooded. Everything recording related is already rolling. We have a conversation.

Honestly, I ask. What do you do on a day-to-day? What are you going to do after this? And then you don't see it, but you just Jump in kind of 10%, maybe into that conversation. Because then at the end when we were editing and we don't really do anything, we just put the video feed in the audio feed underneath there, we're like, okay, this is a good point to start the actual episode because here's where the conversation is rolling, everyone's comfortable.

And I feel like we're nailing that more and more where you come into the episode conversations, good topics are being hit and it's just a good time, that's what we're aiming for. So, that's the typical day. To this recording, we usually, but everything will wait. And honestly, I go back to work and it's a is hard to contact switch sometimes but I feel like I've made it work or so my favor where I'm not gonna quit. I give myself a little bit of lead time. Sometimes I do something episode

related. I schedule some things maybe here and there and yeah then it's time to get back into things or just go home. Sometimes it's the end of the day. Sometimes I have two conversations on the same day and to is Doable. But three is a Max like three, I'm fried. Apparently again, I think I said this, I did like a psychological assessment and it came out that I'm more introverted than

extrovert and I know that. And then the person in front of me was like, okay, but I see you do this podcast and you're more, so, like outward, facing at least on socials. Doesn't that require a lot of energy? And I was like, well, I hadn't really thought of that, but I think it does. Maybe it does more so unnaturally, because I am a little bit more.

Shredded. And apparently, if you're more introverted and you do more things that are people facing, or you interact with more groups of people, it takes more energy and I was thinking back and I was like, yeah, maybe that might be true. But yeah, with my, we've made it work. Oh, this one is really cool.

What is the most memorable or heartwarming? Message you've received, since starting the podcast, I think the most memorable ones. Memorable is really hard because I don't remember the exact words people use. There were YouTube comments. Were it was just man after I read that, it makes my whole day when people reach out when they take the time to reach out on LinkedIn specifically because

maybe that's more personable. I like that as well and I think I'm just going to cheat and I'll put some stuff on the screen. I'll go back to the YouTube comments because I don't remember the exact words people used. But when they say something has made a profound impact Act when they say they've really enjoy a certain episode with someone or certain conversation when they're saying I'm doing a great

job. Basically not a lot of people say that, but when they do all man, it just makes my day like I could be having a bad day. And when I see a comment like that, when they're saying, keep it up, keep up the great work. I don't really require that, but that doesn't mean. It doesn't feel me. Like, I get really happy getting that feedback. Seeing how much people enjoy it when I Someone has a criticism of critique.

I take that to heart and I'm like, okay, we can improve on their or I ask where that comes from. Usually because I want to understand where it comes from, as well before I change things, but when someone gives me positive feedback in that way, it's amazing. Honestly, it's like one of the best feelings. I can have because can you imagine?

I put a lot of my time into creating these episodes and I have done that week after week month after month and this is now the third year, we're going into probably And when someone acknowledges that the work that you put in, like I again, I don't need it. I don't think I'm a person that needs it, but when it happens makes me happy. So please keep doing that. Give us the feedback.

It also allows me to improve on anything that we do when it comes to branding, maybe even thumbnails and titles and descriptions or anything else, episode related topic related how the conversation flows? I like getting the feedback and trying to improve on that. And when someone says good, I'm like, thank you very much because I appreciate that

anything specific. I like, when people, so people have also reached out to me and said, listen, I'm trying to get into the same domain that you're in. So, I liked the episode because of that, but also English is not my native language. So I enjoy listening to the conversation and learning English. That's a very memorable, one that someone had sent me and I'm like, I get that. Because when I used to listen to podcasts, I feel like my understanding of the Language

more. So the ease of having a conversation got better just by virtue of listening in listening how to how people talk how they share their perspectives, what they say, what they don't say. It probably has influenced Mike communication style but I can't really pinpoint. What exactly has influenced, what? Because it all kind of anchors in your brain and it's on but you get better at things that you can't really be like. Okay, it's because of this. So, I acknowledge that, I think

it's happened to me as well. And I'm happy, I could do that for someone else's. Well, I'll tell you I guess in

your career, what personal goals are you trying to achieve now? This actually varies a lot because again I have a broad set of interests. And what I did two years ago last year isn't really what I'm doing now. I feel like sometimes right now. I'm trying to get better at bouldering like my hands are awful. I don't think you can see that on camera but my hands are

awful. It's because I'm trying to Boulder a lot bouldering for people that don't know is climbing without a rope and you climb about 4 or 5 meters high. Don't know how much It's that is in feet. Maybe like 10, I'll go with 10. In any case, not that high. You follow a certain set of colors which also for me cuz I'm partially, colorblind is going to challenging but you have a distinct start and a distinct end.

And flexibility is a big thing. Strength is a big thing and kind of keeping your balance and closeness to the walls. A big thing as well and I really enjoy. It's like a puzzle with your body and my body is not flexible at all, which makes it very challenging. But I feel like I'm pretty strong strength-wise for my weight ratio so I can fly up maybe a bit more and I can do things that other people cannot which also exhausts me to a tee.

But in any case I can do those routes then but getting more technical at those. I feel like it's good for my body, which means it's also good for my mental health in some way because I can just free flow. They're usually, when I'm in the color bouldering Jim, I'm there for like two or three hours and I just climb and I don't think of anything I go. With friends. It's a social thing as well. So that is one of my goals that I want to get better at that.

Like not on a competitive level because there are ranks and stuff. I just want to get better and I'm competing with me. I'm not completing with others. Like I can see them, they're way better at that than I am. I don't really care. I just want to get better at my own routes and more comfortable and things so I would say that's more. So, my personal goal I used to have a lot of goals having to do with calisthenics, like doing a being able to do a handstand or leveraging myself.

Into a handstand position. Like from a push-up standpoint, I like doing more Physical challenges, I feel like but again it's more so to try and figure out how my body reacts I used to do a lot of fasting. I still do like, intermittent fasting, I've done that for years also to see how my body reacts. I'm very experimenting. Now that I'm talking about it. I like experimenting a lot.

I did the thing where you drink like four liters of water a day and it made me feel better, but what it also made me do is like go to the bathroom a lot and I slept better but then I woke up More. So that kind of counteract that each other. I think more so personal goal, wise, it's right now bouldering on a professional level. That still related to my career. I'd like to stand more on stage. I'm going to get the opportunity throughout summer to do that a

bit more. So I'm trying to pursue that. And other than that, it's all podcast related, or career related, personal wise, I want to travel more. I feel like I'm going to Portugal actually, in a few days when this airs, I'm already there because this is going to be one of the last ones. I'm gonna have saved up, and I feel like it's going to broaden my perspective. Having experienced more cultures meeting new people in their own culture as well just by virtue of doing the podcast.

I already meet a lot of people but it being in that environment and experiencing that, I feel like it fulfills me and makes me a better human being if that makes sense. So trying to do that and other than that, I don't really have long-term goals, personal goals, like I want to buy a house, but is that a goal, maybe it's ago? Other than that, I don't really

set myself goals, I'm very sure. Maybe short-term side, I can have a long-term Vision but I'm still more short-term sided because I like pivoting to what I think is interesting. I'd really like to try surfing when I'm in Portugal. I'm going to set that as a goal, and I'm going to do that. Anything else I used to be really big into skateboarding but yeah, that personal goals. Well, we'll leave it to that.

Are there any non-coding related podcasts or YouTube channels that you enjoy or find inspiration from? There's a lot actually I've been on YouTube I think maybe very early on when YouTube looked absolute like shit. It's gotten a lot better throughout the years but one of the things I really listen to podcast voice. I think I've mentioned this in previous Load is a podcast called pain killer already. They have about 600 episodes. They have a spin-off through patreon second podcast, which

has like 400 episodes. It's more than I'm ever going to create probably because combined thousand episodes is insane, but I used to play a lot of video games, Call of Duty throughout high school and they were in the scene, like, I would research how to get better at things. I would see their videos and I would see, they also have a podcast and I really enjoyed just listening to their Stories. It started out more video game

related and then it was more. So about them as a person, what they do, what they find interesting, they're taught their certain thoughts on certain topics and I don't know why it clicked but it really clicked and I would listen to that while playing my own video games, and I would do that while playing Call of Duty. When I wasn't playing with other people. While playing Hearthstone, I got really big into hard Stone when it started on a competitive

level. But yeah, I can't like What I'm focused on something, at some point you get so good at that, that it's more. So routine, you're more so an auto mode and then I would still need something to stimulate my brain because for some reason, I'm such a person that needs to multitask to get certain sense of fulfillment. Otherwise I would just feel like I'm wasting my time.

I'm still enjoying this thing but I could be enjoying it more if I'm doing something else on the side now that's something else on the side has always been listening to podcast episodes and thinking back to especially that kind of Era throughout my life, I listen to the pain, killer already episodes some of them twice, some of them even five times because they were my

favorite episodes. But I would just listen to them over and over and over again, or trying to play and get better at a certain video game or something like that. Or even when I'm working out or walking or I used to run a lot like I would always listen and try to stimulate my brain

through podcasts. Like, I'm not a person that listens to a lot of music I try and and I don't know if that's a But I associate music with like a certain thing I used to do, which is why a lot of, I like a lot of Japanese music, because it thinks it makes me think back of a certain anime in that anime was in a certain period throughout my life and it makes me happy to listen back to those vocals.

Like, it doesn't even have to be something that someone says, it can also be an instrumental, but that's more. So, my musical tastes and then Park s is just to learn from to enjoy and I like stories. And I remember those stories even now, not going to be tell them because I'm I'm awful apparently at storytelling trying to get better, but in any case, I think that's one of the biggest podcast Inspirations

they always kept referencing Joe Rogan. So, at some point and that was more, so, like four or five years ago, because pink here already was a long long time ago. I got into Joe Rogan as well. Then he got off of YouTube and into Spotify. And honestly, I didn't have a Spotify subscription, probably, because of the whole music relationship I had and I've just laid out. So only when someone read Interesting would come on the show. I would still listen to that episode, but it is just, it is

just faded away, actually. I used to listen to so much Joe Rogan. Now it's just gone and I think honestly, it's pretty sad, but YouTube channel related. What do I watch used to watch a lot of Casey neistat because I

wanted to live in New York City so badly. And I think that feeling is still there. Like, when I joined before, I joined this job, I had the chance to actually I could have started this job. Earlier than I did in like 20 19 January. But my manager was like, okay you can join and we won't have a project for you so you can it's better if you join in fehb like a few months, a few weeks later, maybe you have a vacation or maybe you always wanted to do something.

I was like, well you know what, I will plan a vacation I had never gone out of Europe. I'm not a person that goes on vacations, a lot, especially back then now a lot more. But I did a thing, I booked the trip to New York City all by myself. First time abroad, first time traveling alone Like I'm going to do this because I've always said, I wanted to see the u.s. especially that City because media and just kind of thoughts and praise in my head.

I feel like so I went there and that experience was so cool that

obviously I searched YouTube and try to figure out how to live there. Basically, those that was all face and it came up on Casey neistat. Basically, he's a vlogger blogger vlogger. It's not a blogger but he shared daily. Like his life in NYC. He was also very intrapreneurial trying to build up his own startup out of that psychological assessment. Planning entrepreneurship is a big thing for me as well. So that was very much in alignment there. So I really enjoyed his stuff.

He's videography the way he sets up a video. His stories from start to end with the music in there. The things he says the Cubs in the edits, very inspirational. Like, I really enjoy the craftsmanship of those videos, not even the content, I could just listen, Maybe not even, listen, I can probably put it on mute and just look at the video. Look at the cuts, the Transitions and I would still enjoy just because of that craftsmanship.

That is that he's put in there. He's not doing it as much anymore. It's quite sad actually, but I think he's trying to pick it back up. I think YouTube channel. Why's that might have been one of the biggest Inspirations now lately. Obviously the biggest YouTubers out there mr. Beast, like his videos. They're a bit more action packed in a bit more. Yeah. From the start that I would, That would be my preference I feel like but obviously hits his viewer scores is audience

retention and stuff like that. So Nigga, he go way back when,

yeah, for sure, I watched a lot of his stuff. They had like a whole was it like, like a So You Think You Can Dance? But for YouTubers, I watch that stuff as well. What else do they had? Like a YouTuber, you know, MTV has like stuff. Like how do I, how do I even explain this stuff? And I need a second for this, it was like a show and YouTubers would come on up and coming YouTubers and they would get judged on the videos. They create, I don't know what

it was. Cold. But they would create these videos in a week time frame and it would be on a certain topic. For example, you would open up an envelope and it was like, okay, we have to create a videos. You have to use all these objects, you have to use a banana and it needs to be a prop in your video. And then, at the end of the day, you would see these content creators create a video in like a certain time frame and they will get judged based on the

videos. And then obviously is there's an elimination rounds. There's drama Man, that was a good time. I should maybe look back at those videos. If they're still out there, the eagle was one of the jurists. That's where I was going with that. You might have been like many took, a raw and then I try to bring it back. But yeah, YouTube Nostalgia. I like that a lot reminiscing,

but what did you like most about going to NYC what I like most about NYC? I think just the whole experience of it man. I booked the ticket II was still living with my parents. I came back down I was like I'm going to NYC. Like I was so proud. I didn't think I booked the ticket. I'd never booked the ticket in my life. I booked a hotel. It was a super Shady Hotel super cheap and I found the cheapest tickets like the whole trip. It didn't cost me a lot because it was in January.

And when I went there, I froze my ass off. I still remember I have pictures, maybe I'll put it on the screen. There's a frozen fountain at a certain. I forget the park but I'll put it out there. It was just frozen. I just walked by. I had never seen fountains. There's not a lot of fountains here in And that stuff was Frozen as I am and it's called didn't even have gloves. Tried to buy gloves? No, gloves. The biggest thing I remember from that is just the experience

meeting people. I tried to be more social. I tried to strike up a conversation with strangers. They would be like, aww your accents interesting where you from I was like I'm from the Netherlands. Maybe that was my accent back today, not really. But in any case everyone was really nice. People say people from New York City are really rude. No one was rude to me. Everyone was so nice.

I was like, this is wonderful. They have amazing sets of parks like you can do a lot of things in that City, went to the Empire State Building like I did touristy stuff. I went to a play, I went to Chicago on the collar Broadway. Thing is a brother. Yes they do. Exactly Broadway went to Chicago on Broadway. The sad thing is a lot of those things were really cool experience, but reminiscing now and even thinking back then, like the Chicago broad play, you couldn't use your phone, you

couldn't film stuff. At all. So then I was like it's really sad that I'm not experiencing this with someone else basically but in any case especially back then I would have the big headphones on because they were cold and they were keeping my ears. Warm. I went to all the museums and I was listening to Joe Rogan every single day. Just listening, walking doing, whatever the hell I wanted to do that day, wake up, look at my phone, I'm gonna go there.

I'm going to go there, I'm going to go there and that whole experience just Freedom, my Own thoughts. I learned a lot about myself. What I like, what? I don't like, I got to be one of those people and I'm I have a real hard time doing that even now that goes to a restaurant by themselves and I would just eat my stuff and honestly I would watch my anime as well. I'd be like leave me alone. This is my personal private moment. I'm enjoying my restaurant while watching the things I love.

Hell yeah, hell yeah. That was. Those are some good times. All right.

That's been it. Everyone a minute before I am. I'm going to number these and I will keep numbering these. So this is number four as Rod said, I'm going to put out a playlist so be on the lookout for that. Not that you might be but there will be a playlist in the future. Hope you've enjoyed it, I always enjoy doing these episodes. Please leave me some feedback in the comments below, I never say that, but I have said it now. So thank you for listening. We'll see you in the next one. Yeah.