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OpenAI & Meta Distinguished Eng (IC9): The Psychology Behind Tech Career Peaks | Philip Su

Ryan Peterman

69,986 views

Philip Su grew quickly to a Distinguished Engineer at Facebook and OpenAI. We talked about the psychology behind peaking in a tech career and the pressure at the highest levels.

• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/
• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3UfH...
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/openai-a...

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲'𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸:

• WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/
• Jira by Atlassian: Get more work done with your favorite agents and models all in one place, check them out at https://jira.dev/

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:

00:00 Intro
00:37 Growth past IC9
05:39 Motivation changes over his career
11:36 Asking to not be promoted
17:33 What made it hard to sustain IC9 performance
22:22 What motivated him outside of promos
26:21 Is career advice useless
29:34 Motivation after you've hit FIRE
36:08 Meaning and fulfillment
38:17 Top book recommendation
40:14 What he would change
43:24 Outro

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗽:

• Substack newsletter: https://molochinations.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn: suphilip
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/philipsu

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn: ryanlpeterman
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: Instagram: ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: TikTok: ryanlpeterman

𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲:

• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals: https://us.macmillan.com/books/978037...

20 Comments

@iamthe0ne23 11 days ago

You could do 10 episodes with Philip su and I'd watch every single one and still ask for more. Great show, great dude.

@marc-hg 11 days ago

The part about finding happiness on interacting with others was very insightful

@luxlucetq 10 days ago (edited)

These sorts of career retro- and introspections with experienced engineers is by far my favourite content on this channel. I think being away from it has rusted your interview flow skills a little (hahaha :winking_face:) but such a great watch nonetheless! Well done :)

@The.BlackJackal 8 days ago

I could listen to an episode with Phil every week.

@nathan61032 11 days ago

I like this new intro format, feels less intense

@susrealm10 11 days ago

Honest content with thumbnails that aren’t stupid ❤ ryan da goat

@ajmack1096 11 days ago

“Decisions were often hard for me because my values weren’t clear”

I resonate with this a lot.

@nedhop8284 11 days ago

Missed this type of content. Very good watch!

@csoutreach-h6y 9 days ago

Last 10 ish minutes were excellent. Thank you for the interview.

@apschhokar 11 days ago

A very wise person indeed! going level down and accepting that shows lot of maturity.

@slkchao 8 days ago

Love listening to Philip’s thoughts and approaches to life👍

@acommoncommenter9364 10 days ago

Thank you Ryan. Glad we got to see Philip again!

@stevelee4958 9 days ago

Love this conversation. I'd add that the E9 skillset is completely different than E5 skillset. So by moving up he fast Philip had to work hard to understand and succeed at the new role.

If he took longer to try and get to the next level - but his acceptance of level of risk and his ability to adapt gave him the insight.

In my observation - the people that hit the highest levels are people that constantly furiously learning, growing and taking the biggest/riskiest projects - These are projects that have not been solved yet etc. Therefore, a big difference from a builder and a maintainer.

Once you become a maintainer - People lose the muscle as a builder therefore a slow growth is almost impossible for these types of people.

The Question is can you be a builder and also have had better boundaries along the way. I think the answer Phil mentioned was... He probably could have taken some more days off along the way.

@tangiblelogic 11 days ago (edited)

I think i've followed this channel from the very first video, keep it up 👍 I like these career oriented videos the most. Not only about how to progress, but also how to handle difficult situations at work, how to be a good leader, different archetypes etc. Not even for the career advice but more to get some insights. Great content!