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

<p>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.<br><br>• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/<br>• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done<br><br>Podcast links:<br><br>• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMo04pSSiao<br>• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835<br>• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/openai-and-meta-distinguished-eng<br><br>Thank you to this episode&#39;s sponsors for supporting my work:<br><br>• 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/<br>• Jira by Atlassian: Get more work done with your favorite agents and models all in one place, check them out at https://jira.dev/<br><br>Timestamps:<br><br>(00:00) Intro<br>(00:37) Growth past IC9<br>(05:39) Motivation changes over his career<br>(11:36) Asking to not be promoted<br>(17:33) What made it hard to sustain IC9 performance<br>(22:22) What motivated him outside of promos<br>(26:21) Is career advice useless<br>(29:34) Motivation after you&#39;ve hit FIRE<br>(36:08) Meaning and fulfillment<br>(38:17) Top book recommendation<br>(40:14) What he would change<br>(43:24) Outro<br><br>Where to find Philip:<br><br>• Substack newsletter: https://molochinations.substack.com/<br>• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphilip/<br>• X/Twitter: https://x.com/philipsu<br><br>Where to find Ryan:<br><br>• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/<br>• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman<br>• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/<br>• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman<br>• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman<br>• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman<br><br>Referenced in this episode:<br><br>• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374715243/fourthousandweeks/</p>