AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast

14:55

This Conflict Could End the AI Bubble Overnight

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/03/18

The other day, I was standing at a gas pump, watching the numbers climb beside my aging Honda CR-V, when something felt… off.Gas prices had jumped nearly 40% in a single week.That kind of movement doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s not random. It’s not seasonal. It’s a signal.And right now, that signal is pointing straight at a rapidly escalating conflict in the Persian Gulf.War as a Terrible InvestmentWar is often discussed in terms of strategy, power, or necessity. But strip all that away, and it

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6:57

Day in the Life of a Laid Off Big Tech Engineer

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/03/17

Hello world.Not long ago, I was a senior software engineer in Big Tech, part of an industry that once felt like the unstoppable engine of the modern economy. For more than 25 years, my days were structured around product launches, sprint cycles, code reviews, and the comforting illusion that there would always be another project waiting on Monday morning.Then came an unexpected change in employment status.These days I describe myself, with only mild irony, as an involuntary early retiree.And like

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14:43

“Why Even Try?” — What My Son Told Me About Gen Z’s...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/03/07

Hello world.I’m an unemployed former Big Tech software engineer with 25 years in the technology industry. These days I joke that I’m in “involuntary early retirement.”One unexpected side effect of that situation is time, a lot more time with my kids.Recently, that time turned into a long and surprisingly heavy conversation with my teenage son.It started casually.It ended with a question that kept me awake most of the night.My son and his friends believe the future is going to be bad no matter what

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12:12

Mid-Level Engineers Are in Trouble (Here’s the Escape...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/03/01

Many years ago, I was a mid-level developer at a consulting company. I remember staring up at the org chart and wondering how people became architects, then senior architects, then technical directors. It felt mysterious. Political. Reserved for the chosen few.And yet, over roughly six years, I climbed that ladder:Developer → Architect → Senior Architect → Tech Director.At the time, it felt brutal.In hindsight, it was almost straightforward.The uncomfortable truth? The path that worked for me may no

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14:20

AI Will Replace White Collar Jobs in 12 Months? The...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/02/24

Hello world.I’m an unemployed ex–Big Tech software engineer with 25+ years in the trenches of the software industry. I’ve ridden the dot-com bubble, offshoring waves, mobile revolutions, cloud migrations, and whatever we’re calling the post-pandemic tech reckoning.And now? I’m watching the AI gold rush from the outside.Depending on which headline you read this morning, artificial intelligence is either:* An economically unsustainable hype machine* A glorified autocomplete that can’t boost

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6:46

I Let AI Start a Side Hustle for Me… and It Actually...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/02/20

Hello world.After more than 25 years in the software industry, and an unexpected exit from Big Tech, I found myself in an unfamiliar situation: time. Lots of it. The kind of time engineers rarely have, the kind that invites curiosity, experimentation, and occasionally, questionable ideas.This is the story of one such idea.A Simple (and Slightly Dangerous) Thought ExperimentWhat if you could build a system that:* Discovered profitable market niches automatically* Generated digital wall art tailored

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13:17

AI Isn’t Creating the Future… It’s Rebuilding the...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/02/17

Hello world.After more than twenty-five years in the software industry, I now find myself in an unfamiliar position: an ex–Big Tech engineer with time to think. And when you suddenly have time, real, unstructured time, you start asking questions that never quite fit into sprint planning or quarterly OKRs. Questions about where all of this is going. About what kind of civilization we may be constructing, almost accidentally, through code, platforms, and incentives.One possible answer is something

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26:54

Tech Is Collapsing. My Investments Paid My Bills Anyway.

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/02/11

Hello, World.I’m an unemployed, ex–Big Tech software engineer with 25 years in the industry.That sentence would have terrified me a decade ago. Today, it feels strangely calm.We’re living through another brutal cycle of tech layoffs. Thousands of engineers: smart, capable people are refreshing LinkedIn feeds and grinding through interviews that feel increasingly like Squid Game with better lighting. Many are hurting. Some are in real financial distress.By a combination of discipline, luck, and a few

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20:05

The Truth About Offshoring: Why Tech Jobs Are...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/02/06

Hello world.I’m an unemployed, ex–Big Tech engineer with twenty-five years in the software and technology industry. That sentence alone would have felt impossible not long ago. And yet here we are, living through another wave of mass layoffs across American tech an era where résumés pile up, inboxes stay silent, and explanations are reduced to slogans.One of the most common refrains I hear is simple: it’s offshoring.Now that I have time, an abundance of it, I’ve been sitting with that claim, turning

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10:45

Mass Layoffs in Tech: I Survived Them for 25...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/02/02

Hello world.I’m an unemployed, ex–Big Tech software engineer with 25 years in the technology industry. And like many of you, over the past week I’ve been watching yet another wave of mass layoffs sweep across tech, tens of thousands of engineers, designers, and product leaders suddenly finding themselves on the outside.Every layoff cycle brings back a memory I can’t quite shake: my first.My First Layoff, 2008In 2008, during the Great Recession, I was a mid-level developer at a digital consulting

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13:42

Surviving the 2009 Tech Layoffs: All-Nighters, Broken...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/01/30

Lamb Saag, Layoffs, and the Bug That Broke MeHello, world.I’m an unemployed ex–Big Tech software engineer with 25 years of experience, which in today’s economy apparently qualifies me for involuntary early retirement. One unexpected perk of this phase of life is that I now do a lot more cooking for my family. Today’s menu: Indian lamb saag. Slow, deliberate, and unforgiving if you miss a step, much like enterprise software.As the lamb simmers, let me tell you a story from a darker, stranger

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17:24

Laid Off After 25 Years in Tech: How a 50% Savings...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/01/30

Hello, world.A few months ago, I became what feels like a new tech archetype: an unemployed ex–Big Tech engineer with over 25 years in the industry. In today’s climate, that sentence alone is enough to spike blood pressure. Yet, strangely, my recent layoff hasn’t felt like a crisis. It’s felt more like a quiet pause, a semi–early retirement, or at least a transition into the next chapter of life.That perspective didn’t come from optimism or denial. It came from math.For more than a decade, my family

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14:50

When the AI Bubble Pops: Layoffs, AI Winter, and What...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/01/30

Hello world.Until recently, I was a senior engineer at a Big Tech company, with 25 years in the technology industry behind me. Today, I’m unemployed, watching the industry I grew up in sprint headlong into what feels like the largest speculative bet of its lifetime.Not long before I was laid off, my former employer held a company-wide AI hackathon. By that point, the company had already invested billions of dollars into training frontier models and building out the infrastructure to support them

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11:36

Big Tech Paychecks, Broke Engineers, and the Money...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/01/30

Hello world—and welcome to the uncomfortable side of tech.I’m a recently laid-off ex–Big Tech software engineer with 25 years in the industry. In the middle of what feels like an endless wave of tech layoffs, I keep hearing the same question from people outside the industry and from junior engineers just starting out:“With those salaries, shouldn’t senior software engineers all be rich and financially independent?”On paper, it’s a perfectly reasonable assumption. Tech compensation, especially in Big

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12:50

25 Years in Tech, Now Laid Off: Honest Advice for...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/01/30

Hello, world.I’m a software engineer who was recently laid off from Big Tech after more than 25 years in the industry. Over the past few weeks, I’ve received a steady stream of questions from college students studying computer science, mostly young guys asking some version of the same thing:“Is it still worth it?”“Should I even keep pursuing tech?”Those questions have taken me back to my own early days as a junior engineer, fresh out of college, stepping into a world that feels almost unrecognizable

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17:17

Laid Off After 25 Years in Tech: The Anxiety,...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/01/30

Hello, world.Two weeks ago, I was laid off from Big Tech. After twenty-five years in the technology industry, it was my first layoff and it landed with a strange mix of confusion, disorientation, and, unexpectedly, a flicker of excitement. When you’ve spent most of your adult life on a clearly marked path, being pushed off it feels less like failure and more like suddenly waking up in unfamiliar terrain.Learning the CraftMy relationship with technology began early. In high school, I was already

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15:40

Big Tech, AI Everywhere, and Fewer Engineers: A...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/01/30

Hello, world.After 25 years in the tech industry, I recently found myself laid off from Big Tech, an experience that has become increasingly common over the last couple of years. With some unexpected time on my hands, I’ve been doing what engineers do best: thinking deeply about systems, incentives, and failure modes.This time, the system in question is AI and more specifically, what the current AI boom means for software engineers.The AI Gold Rush Nobody Asked ForIf you’ve worked in Big Tech

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10:55

After the Big Tech Layoff: Brutal Interviews, Early...

AsianDadEnergy"s Podcast ·

2026/01/30

Hello, world.A little over a week ago, I shared a vlog about being laid off from Big Tech after twenty-five years in the industry. I didn’t expect what happened next. The response was overwhelming, in the best possible way. Messages of encouragement, thoughtful advice, shared stories, and hard-earned wisdom poured in. I want to start by saying thank you. Truly.I also want to acknowledge something important: this is an extraordinarily difficult moment for laid-off engineers everywhere. I know I’m one

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