This summer, I decided to close a chapter in a period of my life when I valued professional independence the most.

I enjoyed being "the outside contractor," who came only on specific occasions and left as fast as one could. At that time, this path looked like the most fun path possible. By changing one "weird" production job after the next and hitting the ground running with an exciting experimental project, I hoped to gain fun experiences and a unique perspective that can't easily be replicated. It was my way of writing a story that can be leveraged later. And indeed, it worked well. I enjoyed my most recent job interview simply because it was easy and refreshing to reminisce about my past projects and explain in detail why I did what I did.

With this particular interview, I finally admitted (to myself, first and foremost) that I'm tired of working solo with no clear attachment to a team or a project.

Never bonding with anyone or getting involved deep enough to disturb my sense of self and the team's boundaries were the necessary prerequisites at the beginning of my production path. Looking back, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do during that time, so I grabbed whatever came into my hands. This work ethic brought me one or two huge professional wins, but the downside got to me only after I could stop and reevaluate what matters to me long-term. That was the moment I found out that, professionally, I've accumulated almost nothing – and even more, I found myself trapped in a career path I no longer wanted to be a part of.

Tom Morgan writes about it in his How To Be Lucky piece, “Single-minded pursuit of narrow goals blinds us to unintended negative consequences and superior alternatives.” This tunnel vision in entertainment production got me started, and I'm forever grateful for these experiences. But it still feels like I've been compounding the wrong things this whole time. Now came a moment when I felt the need to change direction: towards bonding and staying close to people, spending lots of time with the things I value the most, and fully immersing myself in subjects that will radically change our lives for good.

I'm now a job interview runner, talking to people and teams across the intersection of AI, Web3, EdTech, and digital media. My core approach revolves around finding the right team with the right set of values and long-term vision. Whether the product they're building is successful or comes second to my attention, all things go if the team's heart is in the right place. I want to find a team and product I could grow and push to the limits. To surround myself with challenging goals and commit to the fullest.

I guess the point of this writing comes back to a simple idea: once you've worked for a few years in your specific path, you can reevaluate and pivot as needed – it's not as scary as it may seem. In Beal, Infinite Loops, and Asymmetry in Work and Life, Frederik Gieschen writes**, “**Some pushing of rocks may be required, but don't let that define your life. Keep looking for opportunities to form a snowball, for fertile soil, or for beaches with promising waves. Pay attention.”

There aren't any rules to this process. Choose a course of action, take a risk, and adjust as needed. Just make sure you keep doing what you want to be doing.

This was heavily inspired by this excellent recent talk by Graham Weaver.

This summer, I decided to close a chapter in a period of my life when I valued professional independence the most.

I enjoyed being "the outside contractor," who came only on specific occasions and left as fast as one could. At that time, this path looked like the most fun path possible. By changing one "weird" production job after the next and hitting the ground running with an exciting experimental project, I hoped to gain fun experiences and a unique perspective that can't easily be replicated. It was my way of writing a story that can be leveraged later. And indeed, it worked well. I enjoyed my most recent job interview simply because it was easy and refreshing to reminisce about my past projects and explain in detail why I did what I did.

With this particular interview, I finally admitted (to myself, first and foremost) that I'm tired of working solo with no clear attachment to a team or a project.

Never bonding with anyone or getting involved deep enough to disturb my sense of self and the team's boundaries were the necessary prerequisites at the beginning of my production path. Looking back, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do during that time, so I grabbed whatever came into my hands. This work ethic brought me one or two huge professional wins, but the downside got to me only after I could stop and reevaluate what matters to me long-term. That was the moment I found out that, professionally, I've accumulated almost nothing – and even more, I found myself trapped in a career path I no longer wanted to be a part of.

Tom Morgan writes about it in his How To Be Lucky piece, “Single-minded pursuit of narrow goals blinds us to unintended negative consequences and superior alternatives.” This tunnel vision in entertainment production got me started, and I'm forever grateful for these experiences. But it still feels like I've been compounding the wrong things this whole time. Now came a moment when I felt the need to change direction: towards bonding and staying close to people, spending lots of time with the things I value the most, and fully immersing myself in subjects that will radically change our lives for good.

I'm now a job interview runner, talking to people and teams across the intersection of AI, Web3, EdTech, and digital media. My core approach revolves around finding the right team with the right set of values and long-term vision. Whether the product they're building is successful or comes second to my attention, all things go if the team's heart is in the right place. I want to find a team and product I could grow and push to the limits. To surround myself with challenging goals and commit to the fullest.

I guess the point of this writing comes back to a simple idea: once you've worked for a few years in your specific path, you can reevaluate and pivot as needed – it's not as scary as it may seem. In Beal, Infinite Loops, and Asymmetry in Work and Life, Frederik Gieschen writes**, “**Some pushing of rocks may be required, but don't let that define your life. Keep looking for opportunities to form a snowball, for fertile soil, or for beaches with promising waves. Pay attention.”

There aren't any rules to this process. Choose a course of action, take a risk, and adjust as needed. Just make sure you keep doing what you want to be doing.

This was heavily inspired by this excellent recent talk by Graham Weaver.