Show notes
In episode 3, I chat with Andy C. Ng, a child of modest immigrant parents who went on to accomplish a lot for himself—NYU, Google, Harvard—just to paint a picture.But instead of focusing on this accomplishments, we talk instead about how coming from a low-income background makes opportunities feel precious and fragile, how it creates the habit of overextending ourselves, and the tendency to always opt-in.We discuss how we try to explain our jobs to our parents (A+ for effort?), imposter syndrome, learning to slowww down, and embracing, openly, that we’re all just making sh*t up as we go.💭 POCKETS OF THOUGHT 💭“I think a lot of children of immigrants have this experience.. I’m living a life that my parents will never really understand, but it’s also the life that would not be possible without all of their work. It creates a lot of dissonance.” -Andy C. Ng“We’re just trying to take in the information that we’re presented with at the time, maybe meet it with a little bit of wisdom that we’ve built up, but otherwise we’re just trying our best.” -Andy C. NgFollow on Instagram: @firstgenerasianpod⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 00:00 - Welcome!01:35 - Intro'ing Andy04:47 - Difficulty explaining life and career choices to immigrant parents and the dissonance it creates11:00 - Zigzagging & processing things in real time13:50 - Opportunities feeling precious, maximizing experiences & doing too much16:20 - Figuring things out at Google & deciding to go to grad school20:40 - We're all just making sh*t up23:00 - Guarding your time31:44 - Class differences, feeling like an imposter, and finding people in your corner42:15 - Tell your story, but to those who can hold it48:20 - Words to younger self: slow down
