During some down time this evening, I watched the below YouTube video clip filmed and produced by Veritasium and I absolutely loved hearing about his journey, especially about how becoming a father has fundamentally changed the way he views his time. Because I’m in a similar boat: My life looks nothing like it did a little less than a year ago, when my daughter (Elliott) was born. She’s a handful but worth all the sleep the deprivation.  I’m so thankful to have such a wonderful wife who thrives as a mother (seriously: mother of the year award) and has more patience than a meditating monk.

Anyways, the video “My Life Story” spoke to me and here are some quotes that really resonated:

 I was looking for that well defined path toward a creative career

I’ve searched for that linear path towards a rewarding and meaningful career and I think to some degree, I’m still searching. Ideally, I could blend my work as a software developer (my dream job just a few years ago) with creative writing.

“I reached a breaking point .. I was 28 years old and I had spent my whole life up until then building up back up plans, and doing the things that were most likely to succeed …”

I love learning and love challenging myself and love learning more about the craft of computer science: these are all things that motivate me to pursue my master’s in computer science. But on some level, I know deep down that I want to write and read and teach and mentor: the things that spark joy in my life.

“Sometimes I think its a blessing not to know how bad you are. If I had known I would have quit. But I didn’t. So I kept working at it

Working at Amazon for the last 4.5 years, I now realize what it feels like to work side by side with top talent. And had I been fully aware of the gaping holes in my skills and knowledge, I don’t think I would’ve applied to work where I do now.

I’m all too aware of the survivor bias, that is if you look at the subset of people who are successful at a particular thing, well your kinda ignoring all the experience of the many more people who did not manage to succeed

Yes yes yes. We often look at all the people who “succeed” and listen to their sage advice of “follow your passion”, overlooking the fact that many many people “follow their passion” and fail to see their dreams manifest.

Having kids has also made me reevaluate the types of videos I want to be making .. and what I want to be doing with my time

Although I don’t make videos but as a father, I’m constantly evaluating how I spend my time because I know, deep down, what’s going to matter 10 years or 20 years or 30 years is this: my friends and family. Not fortune or fame (although those things are nice as well).