Engineering Manager at Datadog and creator David Xiang, discusses being one of the first tech youtubers (earning over 4 million views), his book Software Developer Life and reflections on staying technically relevant throughout his over 13 year career.
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Show Notes
00:45 Influence from parents and getting into engineering at CMU
02:30 Competitive breakdancing,
04:00 Inspiration for first few tech videos (technical explanations)
06:30 Pivoting from Qualcomm (C/C++ roles) into startups
09:13 Cold emailing rap genius and building a web project in a month
11:10 The transition into a manager position with a deeply technical background
14:45 Mentorship coaching moments for SWEs
17:30 Vulnerability and transparency - amazon rejection video
20:10 Compiling his thoughts into the book Software Developer Life
23:05 Staying relevant in tech, even as a manager
27:20 Key habits developed
30:55 What's the nicest thing someone's done for you?