Finding Your Curiosity Through Others
What I'm Up To (Thinking), What I Reflected On (Finding Curiosity), and What's Occupying My Mind (Microwaves!) - all part of Allen's Friday Flights
Welcome back to my Friday Flights and wtf it’s June?
These are a flight of personal updates from me and it’ll be centered around what I’m up to, what I reflected on, and what book (or even thing) occupies my mind. Makes sense why I’d have a different selection of topics since I often choose samplers and flights when I go out to eat and drink.
Ciao!
Allen
Inside:
What I’m up to
What I reflected on
What thing occupies my mind
What I’m Up To
TL;DR: Thinking, tbh.
The Things:
I’ve declined two full-time offers in May. Both were at $150k base.
I started another Web3 project with this group.
Podcast Rec (you can also just read it): Discussing mental health in Asian American Community.
Thinking about how others can go from Public Accounting into Web3
Thinking about more ways on helping people approach career breaks
Product Launch! Kinda. More like Product Signup! See below.
I made this!
Do you need help figuring out describing who you are and what you like doing? I’m building an offering, and you can join the whitelist to get access.
What I Reflected On
TL;DR: Go talk to someone, whether you are stuck, or excited, or bored.
Finding Your Curiosity through Others
In the beginning of my career break, as I was decompressing and recovering, I had difficulty finding things to keep my brain stimulated. You can only stay at home and play video games for so long before you need to get out of your own shell.
So, I started to meet friends I haven’t talked to in a long time, and colleagues who left EY but I didn’t have the time to engage them.
Slowly but surely, at rate of 1 person per week, I started connecting with people.
I’d hear what they were up to. I’d hear the challenges. I’d ask them what is vying for their attention everyday, and they would share with me their excitement.
From two, I’d learned way too much about bitcoin
Another, I’d learn about Amazon Shipping Business
And from another, I’d learn an entire hidden industry in healthcare
I came to a realization that I was actually…getting my curiosity through others.
And the more I talked to people, the more my curiosity engine was getting refueled.
You see, I was burned out when I left my corporate job. I didn’t have anything there to recharge me, and the lifestyle I had created wasn’t supporting me in a way I needed it to.
But slowly, I realized that by talking to people, without any business agenda, I would find that their excitement, learnings, and aspirations would be the very essence of what would recharge me.
For everyone out there who is finding out that they have a lot of time on their hands, don’t really like their job, or are on a career break, here are my recommendations:
Do reach out and connect and reconnect with people.
Don’t over do it and schedule too many. Manage your energy.
Do come with curiosity, and make sure that sometime in the conversation, a lot of spotlight is place on them and what they are proud of.
Don’t come with an agenda, besides hearing stories and “shootin’ the shit”.
Do let the conversion run wild. That’s the point. If you want it to be linear, go read a book.
Don’t let the expectations that others may impose, or you think would impose, define you.
Virtual? Make a free calendly like mine and casually DM it to people
And to get you going, here are my dumb questions to ask:
What’s the most delightfully boring thing you did last, and why?
Mayo or mustard?
What is considered “Random” for you?
If there’s any takeaway I can give you, it’s this:
We are often stuck in our heads, by default, all the time. We see the world through our own context. You need many outsiders to help you rediscover the many colors, many worlds, and ultimately the many possibilities that could be. But you won’t know until you talk to somebody else about it.
Good luck, and I hope you find the energy to power your curiousity.
Do you like these reflective pieces? Check out the past Friday Flights!
What thing occupies my mind
TL;DR: Microwaves are great.
Microwaves are on my mind. I’ve recently upped my relationship with the microwave. What was a fantastic college tool used to hack together top-ramen, has now evolved to be a kitchen powerhouse staple.
In the past two weeks, I’ve made several dishes that were 90% to 100% all Microwave prepared. They were god damn delicious, and they were all one bowl prep.
Interestingly enough, I discovered that all microwaves have “power levels”. Use this guide to figure out how to navigate it.
Since mastering the microwave, I’ve been able to take all my assorted frozen vegetables that sit in a variety of soup containers, frozen boneless chicken thigh and frozen fish fillets, and even rice and potatoes - and gone and made many easy weeknight meals.
Here are three videos to get you going.
Improve Your Relationship with Your Microwave
Manufacturing: All microwaves sold in the United States are the same. They just have a different skin on it. It’s really weird.
Engineering: Microwaves are engineering marvels and they really did change the food preparation game. Geek out at this tear down.
Cooking techniques: I use microwaves to make weeknight lazy meals in 10 minutes. Don’t take my word for it, take Dave Chang from Momofuku. The TL;DW: Use a microwave like a steamer, but not a finisher, and you’ll make easy, delicious food.
Word of Caution
Microwaves are only dangerous if it starts beeping because you let the timer run out. I don’t make the rules here, that’s just the way it goes.
Could you post your recipes every week? I need more inspiration. Instead of copy trading I'm going to copy cook you! 😂