A Life Engineered

Big tech taught me a lot of things that I'm struggling to unlearn.

I realize now how slow things were.

I thought "let's meet early next week" was being responsive.

The biggest shock is that I don't need to ask permission to make decisions.

It sounds dumb typing it out, but I'd internalized that big things required approval.

Want to change a process? Let’s have a meeting. New tool? Three stakeholder sign-offs to change the process.

Simple decisions? Let's schedule time to discuss.

I thought I had special skills that set me apart.

The reality is that many of these "big tech skills" when it comes to taking action aren't as transferable as I thought.

Navigating bureaucracy isn't the same as building solutions.

"Hi, my name is Steve and I'm a recovering big tech employee. I last worked there 18 months ago."

"Hi Steve."

I learned incredible things at Amazon, but I also learned some habits that don't serve me outside those walls.

The real world moves at a different speed entirely.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 262