Last Thursday was my last day at Twitch. It’s definitely bittersweet.

As much as people love to hate on Big Tech, I had a great time working at Twitch the last four years. My team was awesome, I learned a ton, and I was able to grow significantly in my career. I really had no complaints about my role.

So, why am I leaving?!

If you’re guessing it’s to focus on content creation, that’s only partially correct.
Making a weekly YouTube video was totally manageable alongside a full-time job. Of course, I am going to continue working on YouTube, and I am excited to have more time to hopefully continue improving the quality.

But really, it’s more that I just want to learn something new. In no way do I think I’ve learned everything in AI/ML, but the learning has slowed as I’ve been in the field for 8 years, and at Twitch for 4.

At the same time, there’s so much I want to learn about running a business, writing books, public speaking, leading a team…. So while I don’t know exactly what I’m doing from here, I do know it will be new.

In the immediate term, I’m working on my book on ML careers, continuing with coaching, and starting my new build-your-own-project program. I’ve also started taking speaking gigs.

I feel grateful, and nervous, and curious to see what happens.

Check out the video for a little more on my reasoning, and what’s coming next.

I had a realization yesterday: I think the last truly unique thought I had was…two years ago?

Now don’t get me wrong, I have ideas, I get inspired, and I certainly feel creative fairly often. But the vast majority of that is directly related to some external input (books, podcasts, courses, YouTube….)

I was listening to a philosophy podcast when this occurred to me (the irony here is not lost on me). I was trying to put myself in the shoes of the philosophers whose ideas I was passively consuming, wondering how they came up with these theories, and considering how rare it is for me to have those insights myself these days.

I think there’s simply too much external noise for my internal voice to get a word in.

We’re living in a world where every moment needs to be optimized in service to some future state. The noise in my life is largely positive: Tech or business podcasts, business books, tech courses, YouTube for inspiration or to learn. But it’s still noise.

I read somewhere that the average person spends less than 10 minutes a day in silence. I probably get more than that, since I do meditate, and deliberately take walks without headphones, things like that. But to create something truly unique, deeply yours, or innovative, I think it takes a lot more time deeply sitting with and wrestling with your own thoughts.

This is all the more pronounced in the era of AI, where even the tiniest bit of cognitive strain is now optional.

I’m not sure exactly what to do with this from here. Some ideas:

If you have other ideas, let me know. I’d love to learn.

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