A Life Engineered
My name is Steve Huynh, I am a YouTuber, a Principal Engineer, a productivity junkie. I believe that if we take a structured and engineering approach to our lives and careers we can achieve anything we want. My mission is to help knowledge workers develop a growth mindset so they can live the lives they want, whether that’s getting promoted as quickly as possible, starting a business/startup, or finding financial independence.
I do this by creating YouTube videos, my weekly email newsletter, and connecting people with a community of like-minded individuals on my Discord, where I distill the lessons I've learned from nearly 20 years in the tech industry.
A Life Engineered
Most people chase money. The smartest people chase growth.
Growth leads to money but the opposite is not true.
Everyone wants:
- A fat salary
- A high status job title
- The feeling of being the top dog in the room
But the best careers aren’t built on chasing these things directly.
They’re built on compounding skills.
Nobody can take education, knowledge, and skills away from you.
If you
- Pick jobs based on the talented people you’ll work with
- Prioritizing on projects based on how much you’ll learn
- Constantly educate yourself with high-value skills
then you’ll get what you want by doing things you control.
Focus on what actually makes you better and the good things will come.
Focus on the outcomes and you’ll chase your tail.
What skill are you actively working on right now?
31 minutes ago | [YT] | 10
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A Life Engineered
The most underrated career skill is saying no.
When you say yes it feels good.
Others are happy.
It makes you feel important.
But you pay for it later when you don’t have enough time for what’s important to you.
You think that your job is the problem, when actually you did this to yourself.
When you say no it feels bad in the moment.
Others are unhappy.
You feel like you aren’t being a team player.
But you get a benefit later when you do have enough time to do important things.
Part of asking others to do things is to make them feel like it’s necessary work, or that they are being irresponsible if they say no.
But that’s other people telling you what’s important to them.
Your output is limited by what you’re willing to ignore.
What are some ways you’ve learned how to say no to others?
20 hours ago | [YT] | 96
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A Life Engineered
The real flex isn’t a fancy job title that pays a lot.
It’s having the freedom to walk away if you don’t want to be there anymore.
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 273
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A Life Engineered
Career progression expectations vs. reality:
Expectation:
- Graduate college
- Get entry-level job
- Work hard for 2-3 years
- Get promoted
- Repeat until executive level
- Retire wealthy at 55
Reality:
- Graduate college
- Apply to 200+ jobs
- Get entry-level job
- Company restructures
- Start over at new company
- Industry disrupted by technology
- Learn new skills
- Change careers
- Company acquired by PE
- Start over at new company
- Finally get promoted
- Wonder why you're still not happy
The linear career ladder exists only in career counselor PowerPoints.
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 324
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A Life Engineered
My relationship with productivity systems:
1. Discover new productivity system
2. Get extremely excited
3. Implement system perfectly for 3 days
4. Partially implement for 4 more days
5. Completely abandon system
6. Feel guilty
7. Discover new productivity system
Repeat forever.
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 165
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A Life Engineered
True fulfillment doesn’t come from accumulation. It's via curation.
It's having:
- Less FOMO
- Less comparison
- Less status anxiety
- Less future-focused regret
The most content people I know?
- They eliminate what doesn't align with their values.
- They say no to what others convince them they should want.
- They protect their attention like it's sacred.
Your best life isn't built by maximizing options.
It's built by optimizing for meaning.
Cut things out until all that's left is what truly matters to you.
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 174
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A Life Engineered
Most people could radically transform their life by reading one book per month for a year.
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 94
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A Life Engineered
Corporate lingo decoder ring:
"Let's circle back" = I want this conversation to end
"Just to play devil's advocate" = I disagree but don't want the accountability
"Per my last email" = Are you illiterate?
"We're like a family here" = We'll expect inappropriate sacrifices
"Do you have capacity?" = I'm about to ruin your day
"Let's take this offline" = You're making me look bad in front of others
4 weeks ago | [YT] | 229
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A Life Engineered
My 7 stages of problem-solving:
1. This will be easy
2. This is harder than I thought
3. I have no idea what I'm doing
4. Maybe if I stare at it longer...
5. I should've chosen a different career
6. Wait, I think I see it
7. I'm a genius and always was
Every. Single. Time.
4 weeks ago | [YT] | 381
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A Life Engineered
Meeting culture is insanely expensive. A 30-minute meeting with 8 people isn't just 30 minutes.
It's:
- 4 hours of organizational time from highly-compensated employees
- 15+ minutes of context switching per person
- Deep work time fragmented into unproductive chunks
And that's per week if it's recurring.
Meeting debt accrues faster than technical debt, costs more than financial debt, and nobody tracks it.
1 month ago | [YT] | 231
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