Max Zheng Mixed.mp3

Max Zheng: [00:00:00] First of all, what  is like really important things, like just don't ever give up. You cannot give up because if you give up and there's nothing else, I mean, like, it is tough, definitely. But, you know, just to keep on trying. That's the best you can do. And you can keep a spirit up as well.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:00:40] What's up, everybody? Welcome to the artists of Data Science podcast, the only self development podcast for Data scientists. You're going to learn from and be inspired by the people, ideas and conversations that'll encourage creativity and innovation in yourself so that you can do the same for others. I also host open office hours. You can register to attend by going to bitterly dot com forward, slash a d. S o h. I look forward to seeing you all there. Let's ride this beat out into another awesome episode. And don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a five star review.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:01:34] Our guest today is a highly experienced software engineer who has worked at companies such as Confluent, LinkedIn and Ariba.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:01:44] Despite this outward success, he spent much of his life unmotivated and depressed, struggling with bouts of frustrations, conflicts with others, relationship and career failures. He felt so unhappy he was contemplating suicide. He's since taken on a journey of personal growth and development, acquiring a brand new mindset and changing his relationship with himself and those around him. Most importantly, he's changed his relationship with happiness. And now he's made his life's goal to save others from years of suffering before living their dreams. He's chosen to dedicate his life to enable everyone to be happy and productive. So please help me in welcoming our guest today, founder and CEO of Human Prosperity, Inc. Max. Zain. Max, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to come on to the show today. I really appreciate you being here.

Max Zheng: [00:02:43] Thank you for having me, Harpreet. And that intro was amazing.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:02:47] I mean, it's my pleasure, man. I'm really excited to dig into your background, talk about the work you've done as a Data engineer, and then talk about this amazing transformation that you've had your stories super inspiring. And I'm really excited to get into it, man. So talk to us about your background. How did you get to where you are today in your career?

Max Zheng: [00:03:08] So I started out as a technical support in one the company in Florida and from that company after working for a few years to transition to doing stuff.

Max Zheng: [00:03:21] And then the company got acquired after a few years by a company that's based in Atlanta called Pocari. And that's when I moved to Atlanta. And I sent that transition to a different role as well to doing technical analyst, which is that they are doing Data integrations and things like that. So I'm there the work there for a couple of years and then a few years later you kinda acquire again by another company. So it's like a big fish eating a lot of smaller fish. And that's how has it got to the Bay Area. So that company that was Ariba, so they acquired a POCARI and then I moved to the Bay Area Sunnyville from there.

Max Zheng: [00:04:00] Eventually Ariba also got acquired again by SAP. But I didn't go to Germany.

Max Zheng: [00:04:07] I think Germany the headquarter for SAP, but they started to go to a different company instead. So I ended up going to LinkedIn and worked there for about four years before transferring to my current company at the Confluent. And yeah, it's been great working at a startup. So that's what I wanted and that's really exciting. At some point I enter as a software engineer, but then after a while I kind of transition to a Data engineer because I have been working as a sub engineer for the past decade. And it was kind of like, OK, it's time to transition to something out doing something out of something new and LinkedIn with the exciting new field. So that's the I want to get in there. And I had the opportunity to be a founding engineer for a team to build anything from the ground up. So that was a big opportunity right there in front of me. And so I just had to take that. And yeah, that's being really fun, learning about Data engineering from scratch and that to the way where I am right now.

Max Zheng: [00:05:05] I was at some point I got promoted to be a Data engineer manager and yeah, but now I'm back to an I.T. since we had decided to dissolve after the engineering team. So and of course, you know, at some point in about a month ago, I formed a new company and human prosperity, after all the struggle with I went through and finally had a epiphany or some turning point where I realized that, hey, I can do and provide much more value to society, the entire world, by teaching what I have learned in the past year, year or two based on what I have for my life.

Max Zheng: [00:05:43] And so, yeah, I am right.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:05:45] I thank you for sharing that. And I'm really excited to get into the work that you're doing rather currently for human prosperity. But I just want to pick your brain a little bit since, you know, you said you had ten years experience working in software engineering during that time. Like was Data science something you heard of? Was Data engineering something you heard of, or is it something that's just become really hyped in the last couple of years?

Max Zheng: [00:06:07] Yeah, I think it's really just a hype in the last couple years. So and before then, I didn't really wasn't into oh, I haven't heard much about it, but it's kind of my guess before, a year ago or so or even a few months ago, like my head was always in the ground, like I don't care too much about anything because I was unmotivated about my life, like I just didn't care too much. And a lot of times I just. Do what I need to do, and sometimes I do - so while even though I say that but I am actually very passionate about software engineering - so I do actually do a really good job. In terms of my performance and things like that, as long as I'm happy. So when I'm not happy, then my productivity does go down a little bit. Thankfully, that didn't happen too often. So overall, my performance is always above average.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:07:01] So what is the key difference since you've been on both sides of the field? What is the key difference between software engineering and Data engineering?

Max Zheng: [00:07:09] I think you a bit hands on with spectrum of the engineering that you want to look at from so intimidating doing. There's a very wide spectrum, I think in terms of all the way from the left side.

Max Zheng: [00:07:20] You have to improve the infrastructure that you actually to on top and then from whatever of if you're going to have that the integration engineer that kind of integrate with different systems and writing scripts.

Max Zheng: [00:07:31] And if I want to be a right, you actually have a data warehouse engineer that would focus on building Data models and things like that. So depending on where you are comparing to you, that's very different. So in terms of like the Data engineer to a top engineer, there's almost no difference except that your domain is in Data. So in terms of building software, building infrastructure for the Data domain, otherwise, like in terms of practice, in terms of what you do, writing code and things like that is essentially the same. So and that's where I started out within the engineering sense. I'm already familiar with that field and I'm just kind of getting into a different domain. And sometimes I will get into Data integration where I work with different systems and copying Data in so inviting some of the more complex scripts at the same time as I am. I also feel some sort of framework in terms of how you can actually extract the integration so that you don't have to do the same thing over and over again. So and that's for me, that's the fun part of it. And of course, and on the right side, where you have to do the Data modeling, I do some of that, but it's not something that I like that much. So I definitely always try not to do it, but I will do it if I have to do it.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:08:46] It's really interesting to hear that Data engineering really is kind of a spectrum. There's so many different pieces involved and I think a lot of times people who are breaking into the field just think that is the ETL part, which I think is just that data warehousing part. But there's a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes. So for people out there who are maybe transitioning from software engineering into Data engineering and they're trying to make that kind of same leap, that same transition that you have. What advice would you share with them or what tips would you share with them?

Max Zheng: [00:09:13] Yeah, it really depends on whether you actually want to be like in terms of what they actually wanted to work on the infra versus the data warehouse side. So on the infra side, I mean, you just hit the ground running and just kind of start reading about the Data domain in terms of like what are the existing Data infrastructure that's out there, such as BigQuery and airflow and things like that. And once you get into those systems, that basically makes up a lot of the infrastructure that you will be using and then you'll be building abstractions on top of that in terms of making sure that some of the integrations built in the library so that you can use some of the code. So that's one. And aside from that, like you still have to do all of the different kind of software engineering practice and you are testing your code and making sure that you have unit test, integration test, and things like that. And so that's software engineering practice. And then, of course, like if you actually want to move towards more of the data warehouse side where you actually build the model and things like that, and that's when you actually would you have to push yourself a little bit and make sure that you do like data modeling.

Max Zheng: [00:10:20] So if you really enjoy data modeling. Building different models from ERD diagrams, relationship diagrams and things like that. Like definitely, read some books in terms of like the dimensional modeling. So that is like that. That is that quite a lot of books out there about dimensional modeling that you can learn how to build good models. There's another aspect of the model, and he's not quite dimensional, but its more of a traditional Data modeling technique. I've forgot the name of it now, but it's more of a enterprise Data model kind of way. By Bill Inmon. Yeah. So in that one, yeah. It's kind of old top and it's in time like when I initially started I thought like everything is gonna be dimensional modeling, but it's not, you're not quite that way. It's not in black and white where you actually to enterprise versus dimensional modeling. It seems like it's a mix of the two. You just kind of have to try to find the right balance that what works for your projects.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:11:21] So for people out there who are maybe wanting to break in to the Data engineering and Data domain from software engineering, but maybe they aren't sure how to get some hands on experience, do you have any tips or ideas for projects that they can probably take on?

Max Zheng: [00:11:38] Yeah, I mean, there's definitely a lot of open source projects like airflow. So I'm you just gonna get started and kind of look at existing airflow documentation. That's a great place to kind of get your hands wet, to learn about how to write ETL code and things like that. And because it is very popular. So there are tons of examples out there and people posting like how did they do ETL using airflow and things like that. So, yeah, it's just whenever you try to do just tag airflow on top and then you have a solution there.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:12:11] So it's a tough situation out there for a lot of people to do the covid. Do you have any tips that you can share or words of encouragement to share with people who are currently going through this job search? And this really strange time in history is definitely very tough.

Max Zheng: [00:12:26] I mean, like with so many people out of jobs right now and so many companies actually start reducing their headcount, hiring and things like that, so and so did a lot more people looking for jobs.

Max Zheng: [00:12:40] So many millions more jobs is decreasing over time. So that's a very difficult situation. So, yeah, to that end, I have written a guide on how you can have a couple of tips that you can use to help you along the way. So first of all, it's like really important things, like it's just never give up. You cannot give up because if you give up and there's nothing else, I mean, like, it is tough, definitely. But I think I just keep on trying. That's the best you can do. And you want to keep a spirit up as well. So you don't just throw yourself out trying to look for a job in a couple of days and then give up again. So it's just kind of pace yourself. It's going to be could be a potential to be a long ride. So get some snacks, you know, make it fun to look for jobs as you as you go so that you can actually go as long as you need and. Yeah. And, you know, just keep doing that. And of course, know there's some things you want to do to make sure that you increase the odds of getting a job. And one way would be like, you know, increasing the of connections you have. So and connections just keep on connecting on LinkedIn. That's a great platform to connecting to people and connecting making relationships because you never know, like your next job could be just one connection away. So make as many connections as you can. And of course, know you can also write some articles like showing your expertize and Data interviews. People have to see that you are awesome at doing what you do and sharing your expertize they can well reach out to you.

Max Zheng: [00:14:16] So that's even better. And yeah. So if you do get to a point where you can interview definite brush up your interview skills, I see a lot of people doing interviews and they come unprepared because the company will send out information about, hey, these are some of the specific modules that you will be interviewing on and, you know, some recommendations. But some of them, some people don't to read it like, you know, we're testing you are SQL, but then you come on the interview, it's like, oh, I didn't know this is going to be testing SQL. I didn't brush up on that. And that's that's not a very good thing. And we told you basically this is going to be like a testing your python and your SQL skill. So it's really important that you brush up and making sure that you're fluent in those things and yeah, because it is really hard to get an interview, so you don't want to waste that chance once you do get one. So make sure that you brush up on your interview. Just do some mock interview with the people they you know, and making sure that you get it right in terms of the actual process itself. And then, of course, in terms of actual technical skill, that's also important to brush up as well. So and there's many different sites that it has mock question that you can kind of test yourself out and then just try now learning and making sure that you can actually write code fast so that, you know, people interview doesn't have to wait for you to think about what's its impact with that in that. Yeah, there's a couple of there's more I can share my link if there's a way to do that.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:15:38] Yeah, definitely. I'll make sure to put that on the show notes. And speaking of networking and connecting on LinkedIn like you recently had really increased your network on LinkedIn quite rapidly. Talk to us about how you did that.

Max Zheng: [00:15:49] Yeah, yeah.

Max Zheng: [00:15:50] So based on my mission, like I my goal is to connect every single person in the entire world. So it is an ambitious goal because I want to make sure that I send a message to every one of them because like, you know, sometimes if I don't, it could be too late. I mean, like, you know, if I don't actually put my message in front of them. So I want to be able to connect to every single one and then send their message. I are you happy? Are you and are you living the dreams every single day? And if you're not, I can help you. So that's the reason I'm increasing my my account. And obviously it's going to take forever. And, you know, it's going to be very difficult to reach everyone on LinkedIn sense. And everyone's on LinkedIn yet. But yeah, in terms of increasing your account, there's a couple of different ways you can do that. But most effective that I've found is simply just connecting. Like now find someone that likes a post that's on your homepage, just go through and connect, connect, connect, connect to every single one. That's interesting.

Max Zheng: [00:16:45] And of course, you don't necessarily have to be focused depending on your goal. I mean, you don't want to be focused on the quantity, but you also want to focus on quality as well.

Max Zheng: [00:16:53] So if there is specific people that's in your industry that you're looking for a job, looking, for example, like, you know, you definitely want to focus on that versus connecting to everyone.

Max Zheng: [00:17:04] And yeah, in terms of accounts like, you know, last week I was at four thousand, this week five thousand.

Max Zheng: [00:17:10] So because I'm connecting to hundreds of people every single day.

Max Zheng: [00:17:15] So yeah,

Harpreet Sahota: [00:17:17] That's awesome to see man like I'd love to go to your work now with human prosperity. So you went through some personal ups and downs throughout your life, throughout your career, a lot of battles with yourself. But talk to us about that.

Max Zheng: [00:17:30] That's a lot of battles. But yeah, I'll tell you a few significant ones in terms of that. That's kind of maybe the way that I am. So the first one, the most significant was like my motivation when I was going to school in high school.

Max Zheng: [00:17:52] I didn't have it was a motivator. And I was you know, I didn't even want to go to college. I was like, what's the point of be to go to college? I don't care about it. So but thankfully, I had a really good computer science teacher that told me, like, hey, you should apply, you know? And so I applied for it and I got a full scholarship to University of Central Florida.

Max Zheng: [00:18:14] So I went there for a couple of years. And during that process, which my major as so many different times. So I start with our computer science. And then I switched to electrical engineering and switched to Business Administration and I switched to information technology. And then finally I switched back to computer science because I just wasn't you know, I wasn't - my heart just wasn't .

Max Zheng: [00:18:38] right there. And I eventually I just stopped going. So. Yeah. And then so during that time after that, I just kind of went to a different kind of job. And there are some, I guess, some real world experience. I thought there might be my help. That was when I got my first girlfriend. So I wasn't really into a relationship actually my entire life. I was being just by myself, so. So it was kind of funny in some ways, but then, yeah, and then I got into that job at the computer at the think of a support job that I brought home for me. So that was the beginning of my professional career, you would say. And from there, everything in terms of, you know, a job in finance, some AIs like it was like, you know, I was earning way more than, you know, what I expected to sell and which is good. I had more money than I needed. But after a couple of years, like, I don't like like I just didn't quite know what's the point? Like, you know, I just go to work, come back home, go back to work and then play some game afterward. So yeah. So I just kind of lost all motivation to left. Like why what's the point. So I mean that's kind of that's when I kind of thought about like, OK, I'm in my life and just be done with it.

Max Zheng: [00:19:51] Like thankfully you've got this, you know, it's just a thought. And I didn't really do do anything in that area. And then the next day and then other. Wow. Like my mom was asking me, like, hey, do you that you're old enough, you should go get married and you have a job and things like that.

Max Zheng: [00:20:09] So that's when I went back to China and kind of, you know, kind of just just kind of meeting with family and things like that.

Max Zheng: [00:20:19] And of course, when you go back to China and there's marriage in discussion, if people are gonna introduce you. So, yeah, that's how I got introduced to my wife and then I got married.

Max Zheng: [00:20:28] So everything was great for the first year or so and the honeymoon period. So it was an amazing experience. And then I married a really loving wife. So, yeah, eventually things, you know, as you know, marriage goes, you know, you start having conflicts and arguments about various different things. And of course, they are at work as well. I kind of transition to a different companies that are in the process. And then there was some conflict between the people that I work with, especially when I was in Ariba. I mean, like there was some people that was, as you know, self of have a very strong opinion on how they do things. And that is always hard to advise on what needs to be done. So, yeah, there's always some arguments. And during that time I was the lead within a team, but still it was there is always a kind of argument there having to go with different approaches and things like that. So, of course, I mean, I win the battle because I was the technical lead. But then, of course, you know, these relationships get broken down in that time. Yeah. After I left, like no one other person there, I just wanted to talk to at all. And everybody knew that we had to like a really bad history. And now I'm and I'm pretty sure I would never speak to that person again. So and yeah, it LinkedIn I had a similar story. I mean, like initially I was actually interviewed to be a manager and I passed the interview as a manager, but because I didn't really have a record that I was a manager in Haribo. So therefore I actually went into a LinkedIn as a senior engineer first, just with the assumption that, you know, I will get to know the team, kind of start doing some of the management stuff, and eventually I'll get promoted to a manager of transition, not promote it, because I was actually in that process the way I like.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:22:21] When you're working in organizations and you yourself are feeling their lack of motivation, do you think that your colleagues, your coworkers are able to pick up on that? Or was this like kind of outwardly you were you seemed like you're happy, you seem like you're motivated, but you're still conflicted inside. Like, what was that like?

Max Zheng: [00:22:40] Yeah, it was the latter that I used to describe. So, I mean, like outward wise, I mean, like, I was fine. I mean, I was happy. Everybody see me as like the go to person, the technical lead. And then they didn't really see me as unmotivated because I didn't really show that side of me to anyone. And yeah, sometimes when I'm home, that's when I'm like, no, I just take a nap whenever I feel sad or things like that. So because I'm at work, as I mentioned, like, I'm always known to be performing at above average, so everyone knows that I get shit done. So, yeah.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:23:18] So so how did how did this all culminate like this kind of battle you were doing with yourself?

Harpreet Sahota: [00:23:23] I how was it from here that human prosperity started like what was the you mentioned what you want to do is you want to connect with everybody on LinkedIn. But what's the inspiration for the company like how did this get started.

Max Zheng: [00:23:36] Yeah. So yeah, it's, it's, it's something like a LinkedIn. I mean there are certainly various other issues and things like that.

Max Zheng: [00:23:43] And then when I went to Confluence, that's when I started to kind of think about, OK, I need to open myself up a little bit more. And, you know, that's also when I learned about compassion. And so I tried to be compassionate to everyone.

Max Zheng: [00:23:57] But then after a few months, I got crushed, like, I just.

Max Zheng: [00:24:00] There's so many suffering, you know, so many feelings, and and it's time I also had my own conflicts and that kind of made me with your with you myself back to the way I was, which is, you know, just doing it by myself and didn't really want to reach out or open myself anymore.

Max Zheng: [00:24:18] So that's when I was like, oh, OK. Now I lived 30 years of my life. And yet I still don't know how to how to live a good life.

Max Zheng: [00:24:25] I want to have to be happy. What the hell. So sorry. Can I say that. OK. And so therefore I just need to.

Max Zheng: [00:24:35] So that's why when I started writing my life guide, so as a self engineer I always version control myself.

Max Zheng: [00:24:41] So I start writing life guide and version control my life guide in GitHub and every single day I will kind of iterate on it, try and experiment different steps and how to be happy, happy and productive and live a great life.

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Harpreet Sahota: [00:26:37] So what was it that kind of had this spark like that? It seems like you're like just woken up somehow. All of a sudden something just woke up inside of you and now you've got this new perspective on everything. Was there a particular moment or some some thought or idea that you came across that that then spun you into this really positive upward trend?

Max Zheng: [00:26:58] There were a few few places when the way that happened the first time is when I was about six month ago. I kind of realized that my step that I think that that developed was missing something like it didn't what have you wasn't able to enable me to be happy. So like I had to step right everything in terms of making sure I'm productive. I then like it all when I'm not happy. I'm not without hope. That's when I realized, like, OK, I'm missing something critical there and something distinct from productivity. So that's when I kind of start thinking about what that was. And then you go, OK, I need steps to be completely districts that have to be happy. And so I was going to think about who was the happiest people I know. And those are my kids and they are so happy all the time. So that's why I started modeling some steps based on my kids. And once I completed my happiness steps, that's when I was able to be happy every single day, which is a awesome thing. So I was happy and productive 100 percent every single day. But that was a seem like a lot of people are not quite so much so.

Max Zheng: [00:27:59] And of course there's still some conflict with other people. So even though I have when I have conflicts, I'm happy, but they're not. So questions like, OK, how do I resolve or conflicts I have with people? Eventually I also realize that, OK, I'm missing something else which are about it. So it's really important that you have how do you that's embedded within your heart before you are to follow the steps. So values will be, for example, like they have to be validated, which is true. The pleasure and unity and unity. That was the last piece of the puzzle that was missing. And that was was what allowed me to finally see everything clearly in terms of how I can actually be maintaining a really good relationship with everybody, everyone. So the thing about that is like, you know, when you're having an argument, if you focus on what's right and wrong, you know, if you're right, the other person's wrong. Yeah. One person will win or lose and you will win that battle. But then you lose the war piece of broken that relationship. However, like if you put unity on the front in it as the body would embed in bed, then you not worried about right or wrong, you're worried about unity.

Max Zheng: [00:29:08] How do I make sure that I can have a good relationship with this person while trying to do the right thing? And depending on the situation, sometimes it's OK to sacrifice the being right. I mean that it's OK just to do the wrong thing with minor things. And I go, yeah. And of course, this is not just about, you know, giving up on the right thing to do. You can still figure out the right way to do something and maintain a unity. It's harder, however, is not it? So and that's when everything pivots.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:29:36] Do you think there's a difference between being right and doing the right thing?

Max Zheng: [00:29:42] Yeah, you definitely could be different. I mean, that being right is, you know, it's just simply how you feel like doing the right thing is what you do. So you can have any, you know, a thing that you're being right. But then, you know, you could be doing. The wrong thing, and even if you're doing the right thing, then you might not know being fight.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:30:01] So what's up, artists? I would love to hear from you. Feel free to send me an email to theartistsofDataScience@Gmail.com. Let me know what you love about the show. Let me know what you don't love about the show and let me know what you would like to see in the future. I absolutely would love to hear from you. I've also got open office hours that I will be hosting and you can register by going to Bitly.com/adsoh. I look forward to hearing from you all and I look forward to seeing you in the office hours. Let's get back to the episode.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:30:54] What were some of the steps that you had observed in your children that you implemented in your life to be to be happy?

Max Zheng: [00:31:02] Yeah, there was also four steps to be happy. And this is the one of the key things in my guide. So within my guide overall, you know, this forced that to be productive and for that to be happy and three values. And finally, the one mission that you have, which is, you know, that dream and things like that. So the happiness gaps are four steps are you know, if you take the first letter is castling, SLN and the first step is s for sleep well.

Max Zheng: [00:31:31] So it's like super important. They sleep really, really well every single night because like, when you don't sleep well, you know, you become easy, grumpy, and everything you asked for was part your health, your mental health and everything. So when you sleep like everything resets and become happy after just Emidio waking up, like when you have a really, really good sleep, you wake up, you're already happy. So that's a natural thing that your body does.

Max Zheng: [00:31:53] And then the next step you have to do is have to be able to let go of everything. So because if you actually to let everything into your heart, they'll crush you and actually hold onto you and then they will eventually make you immortal. Ideal. And that's not a good thing, because then you won't be able to figure out how to move forward if you are being crushed all the time. So important to let things go first and then figure out what's the right thing to do to fix the issue. So you don't want more things. You want to let it go first and then figure out so we to let letting go.

Max Zheng: [00:32:26] And then the next step is enjoy the moment. So right now I'm talking to you. You're the most important thing in the world right now. If nothing else matters.

Max Zheng: [00:32:34] And you know, that's what kids do when they playing the toys, they focus on the toy. They're not thinking about anything else. And that's how they enjoy that moment and enjoy the Data in life. And so and being able to be so happy, being in that moment so is all about that moment. And the last step is that you have to nurture her AIs with positivity. You know, so often that people think about this like so many negatives out there in terms of, hey, you cannot do that, you cannot do that. Oh, I hate you and I don't like you. I don't like that. They look, Yuki, like when you do all those negativity, they had to try to you down best, reduce your try to live. But, you know, if you had to reverse it and always focus on a positive and also encourage others like, oh, good job, you know, and and I love you.

Max Zheng: [00:33:19] And although that's a possibility and that changes things so much now you actually have a drive to do more things. You have to try to eat better food, yummy food. You have a joy to share with people, love people and help people like all those things.

Max Zheng: [00:33:34] Once you actually start doing it, that engine, that drive that you have. But it's going to become more and more stronger as you put more positivity and more encouragement in there. And that's what drives you the entire happiness, you know, in some ways. So, yeah.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:33:50] And this framework that you've developed here was this kind of to take a lot of thinking, they just spontaneously happen. Like, how do you develop this framework?

Max Zheng: [00:33:59] Oh, yeah, it's not definitely not spoken for. One thing is definitely that it took a lot of time. So like in terms of entire guide, it was almost two years ago when I started writing it and iterating every single day. So I mean, like that's how much effort you talk to a guy completely. And I was surprised, like when I finish it, like, wow, they actually took almost two years to actually write. A single guy only has a four different steps, the entire thing. You could print it on like two sheets of paper. It's all because. Yeah, so. Yeah, yeah. And in terms of the happiness, the upside, that was a bit easier because I know I was able to moderate against my kids, but even then I was it. I still need it a couple of times, especially that last step.

Max Zheng: [00:34:44] Nurse your drive because that one's not very obvious. I mean, like when you look at kids, they do the first three pretty well, but then kids don't actually do the last one in terms of nurturing your drive with positive. Activity, but that's something that naturally do like, you know, when they see some toy or see candy, like they naturally gravitate towards things that make them happy.

Max Zheng: [00:35:03] So but as adults, we somehow lose that natural drive. So that's why it's very important that we nurture it by proactively, explicitly do it ourselves. And once you start doing that and then you will naturally wrap up and then, you know, you will naturally come back to you again.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:35:21] So for for Data scientists, we have to learn a lot, so much that we have to learn that it could get demotivating. It could get frustrating when you come across a topic that is very difficult and you're not able to pick it up on the first try. So would nurturing your drive kind of be like, if I'm learning something right now and it's difficult, I don't get it. Instead of just saying, oh, this is hard, this sucks, I hate it, then pushing it away, kind of just saying, OK, cool, this is an interesting challenge. I'm now having an opportunity to work on a tough problem. Not many people get to work on problems like this is so exciting. Is that kind of what you mean by nurturing?

Max Zheng: [00:35:56] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that is one way to nurture your drive and increase your motivation of doing things, but just simply by focusing on a positive aspect of it like that. If you actually say, I don't like this, I don't feel good, I don't, I hate it. And then what that what that does is that you are just generating a negative feeling inside your body and inside your brain and that negative feeling is attached to what you're trying to do. And when you have negative things attached to what you're trying to do, mean each time you try to do it, it automatically invokes that negative feeling again. So that's why I was like, next time you try to do is like you automatically have that negative feeling attached to it and you don't want to do it anymore.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:36:34] So it's interesting because it is like that that emotions are physical, physiological response. Right. They're actually they're not just in your head. They're biological processes that your body can memorize those. Right.

Max Zheng: [00:36:49] When Yeah. Yeah. And that's based on work from BJ Fogg, which is he is a leading expert in behavior, in human behavior. So he came up with a couple of different principle in terms of behavior design. So and in there, like, you know, he has he came up with something called Tiny Habit, which allows you to create change something, whatever you want to do into a habit. And the way you walk is based on that same principle by attaching a positive feeling towards what you are trying to accomplish. So like, oh, that's like you has to happiness only for three different steps. Like, yes. ABC anchor to what are you trying to do, something that you reduce or you anchor on top of it, beef with the behavior you want to do. So for example, you want exercise, you know, then you can start to be happy. You do in a see, that's where the separation is that we are to celebrate what you just have done. So if you take one step to exercise, then celebrates. Yeah, I did it in January. The exciting feeling like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good job. Are you awesome. Like create that passive feeling attached to the two, to that one step that you did and then keep on repeating a couple of times. It naturally becomes a habit. You bring wise yourself and now each time you take it one step, the break that generates a positive feeling, something you want to do naturally. And that's how it turns into a habit where you just do it and now you love it and you know you keep doing it.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:38:14] So can you show your framework for productivity with us?

Max Zheng: [00:38:19] Sure. So for productivity it's alot like ABC, but it's a little different acronym, so be productive.

Max Zheng: [00:38:28] You need to do ABCD. A is for activating your mind, your body passion in mind. So and that's really important. Like if you don't activate in terms of like not pushing yourself in terms of your body, what you can do and put your mind on by learning new things, then you know, you're stuck. So it is very important that you can always be continually you have a mindset of growth mindset to learn and new things to push your body on terms of how much you can do in terms of exercise. And then, of course, you have to have your passion as well.

Max Zheng: [00:39:03] And that's what drives a lot of the work that you do.

Max Zheng: [00:39:06] And the thing is, like a lot of people don't believe they can actually become a genius or taking that they don't believe they can memorize, know everything in the entire world and things like that. There's always a limit of beliefs. So it's like if you want to remember everything in the world, it's possible probably. Well, not quite everything, I guess, but pretty much anything you want, you know, anything you need to to do your job and things like that, so and so as a matter of using techniques. So and you know, you mentioned Jim quick. Now he has a lot of memory techniques.

Max Zheng: [00:39:35] And if you learn those techniques, you know, you can memorize anything instantly. So I'm sure we can talk about that in a little bit, too. Maybe. Yeah.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:39:43] Once you close your mind to the possibility that it can be achieved, then there's no way it's going to happen or you have to keep an open mind open right perspective that I could have started going to.

Max Zheng: [00:39:54] Then B for my for be mindful with acceptance. So, like whenever you're actually doing work you have to be mindful of what you're trying to do. So right now, if you're doing coding like three, focus on just doing coding.

Max Zheng: [00:40:07] And it's not like if you're actually talking to someone with your coworkers, be mindful of what's going on, your emotions. And if you think things can go wrong, like if they actually yell at you or something, you know, it's why they are doing a bad thing. But except that except those things is OK. And then you can actually figure out, you know, doing the next steps because you don't want to. One of those things that affect you own time being mindful. That means you are aware of all the information that's out there. You want to get as much information as possible because information, that's how you make these decisions. If you have 10 percent of the information, you make 10 percent of good decisions, but you can have 100 percent of the information they you were able to make the best decision possible. So being mindful, being able to actually know what's the what's your emotional state, what your mental state and what your physical state those are will allow you to know what you can do and how how well is you able to perform, how well you can perform.

Max Zheng: [00:41:06] So the next step is see for concentrating on one thing at a time. So while people try to do multiple things and think their brain can do it, but it's scientifically proven their brain cannot do more thing at the same time, you can only do one thing and each time you switch from one thing to the next is expensive. So. So that's why I go there, especially for saw engineer when you're doing critical thinking, because all this stuff where you are designing stuff and where you are to be fully immersed in writing your code like you don't want to break that bill. So it's this kind of is very important to completely concentrate on one thing and finish it and then work on our next one. So, of course, sometimes, you know, work is very hectic. So you cannot always, you know, just finish one project before you work on the next one so and so you can definitely do multiple projects. Well, just make sure that you minimize the number of switching. So if you can only work on one party at a time, great. If you need to do to project by project, then make sure that you switch. It points way big steps to avoid as much as possible.

Max Zheng: [00:42:12] And when you're fully focused or fully able to concentrate, that's when you can really maximize your brainpower in terms of what you can do and what you can learn and how we can improve. If you can keep on switching all the time now you can learn as much I cannot achieve. You perform at the maximum, actually. So so are you. Exams and when you multitask while you think you're doing performing faster, but you are not yet if you're doing a lot more, a lot of excessive waste of breath, context switching and overall quality drops in the same time, the speed at which you complete your task is sort of drops as well. So and then the last step is really important, is do the right thing. So, you know, if you do not do the right things, you know, sometimes you just sometimes sometimes you cannot undo them. Know if you actually do the wrong thing by hitting someone or killing someone, then your life is gone. Like those things you cannot recover and something you can kind of long in and move on, which is good. But still, that is the time wasted. So it's really important just to do the right thing from the start.

Max Zheng: [00:43:19] And that applies to software development or data engineering work and things like that. So when you have a Data project, make sure that you are actually working on a solid foundation. Don't just build everything as fast as just writing some script and then throw it out and be done with it because you have to maintain that goal.

Max Zheng: [00:43:36] So you copy and paste a duplicate bunch of code everywhere. And that's a wrong thing, obviously. And while it might be sounds like he's faster to not having to spend time abstractly in the first place, but then, you know, you do that a couple of times and then you have a mess that you cannot maintain anymore. So that's why it is really important to do the right thing by attracting what you need from the get go. And then from there, you build on top. And the thing is, next time you do it, you're going to take less time and next time to do it, take less time. So and the thing is, you're also building a really solid foundation in terms of how you build scalable software. And that's the mindset you want to do when you're actually doing that and doing lots of engineering. You always wanted to think about how to build in a scalable way instead of just hacks. They're actually they're there because you get in the habit of writing hacky code. It's going to be hard for you to write the code in the future. So you don't want to make that sacrifice. You don't want to train your brain to write hacky code. You want to train your brain to write the code.

Max Zheng: [00:44:37] And whenever you can spend a time to build the infrastructure at bottom and if built on top. So in sometimes you have to make a sacrifice. That's OK. You know, sometimes it's OK to make that sacrifice and just get it, get it, get it, get it out. But then remember to come back to it. And I'll fix it later as well, so and a lot of people were kind of internal testing, they always kind of like the way that I'm going to do a test to get things out and things like that.

Max Zheng: [00:45:04] So that's just some example of, you know, why do the right thing it's a correct approach and, you know, it's just in the way do the wrong things. While it might seem like you are doing it again on a short term, which is true, sometimes you do have a gain, in a short term, but long term you lose in terms of your skill set, in terms of yourself and in terms of the actual output, in terms of the impact you have for for everything. And obviously, if you're doing not having the right impact, then he's not going to get the right promotions. You're not going to get your career promotion and things like that. So that's why it's super important, especially when you're starting your career focused on doing the right thing, learning the right techniques, and not just.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:45:45] Thank you very much. That's very, very insightful. I know the audience is going to love hearing that. So question for about the concentration part of, you know, sometimes we're working on something and then we might get a compulsion to go and go check Instagram, let me go check LinkedIn. Let me go check my email. Let me go check this random thought that came into my head. Let me just do something other than what the hell is in front of me.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:46:08] How do we fight that urge? What can we do to stay focused on these selfish impulses, pop up into our head?

Max Zheng: [00:46:15] So that kind of goes back to a behavior design by BJ Fogg. OK, so in that book Tiny Habit, I highly recommend everybody buy that book and read it. Like that's going to be one of the best book you can buy and help you to help yourself develop your own thinking in terms of behavior. So there's a second formula in the book, which is called a B=MAP. So this one essentially is the formula for behavior. So any behavior that you do that, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you look at me, the way we are doing everything, everything you do is breaks down into this formula that he had developed. And what that means is B for the behavior is equal to motivation ( M for motivation), A for ability, and P for prompt. So, for example, like right now we are doing this podcast right now. It breaks down into those three things as well. Behavior, obviously, we are doing this podcast. Motivation is a motivation because I want to share what I have done with the world as much as possible. And you have a motivation because it helps your listeners as well. So they have the motivation. So that's why we are doing this and then this ability, because this is Zoom so and we can do this.

Max Zheng: [00:47:23] However, if there's no zoom and there's no way for you to contact me in some way and ability is gone and you're not going to do it. We want you want to happen. And then, of course, you know the last one prompt. So in a prompt will be like the current invite. So and the message you sent me, if you didn't send me the reminder or you or I didn't have that calendar invite there's no prompt, I'm not it's not going to happen. I mean, I will forget about it. So so that's why everything you do it maps to that simple formula. It's super powerful. And using this formula is how you change your behavior as well. So, for example, I mean, you know, all the different distractions you have, if you just use a formula, you can easily remove them. So in terms of motivation, you check your LinkedIn, you check it Facebook, because like oh yea, something that makes you feel good, something fun with our friends, things like that. So there is motivation. So you can kinda remove that, that motivation by, you know, kind of I guess force yourself to think, OK, if I do it then it's going to cost me my job or something like that or something else. So you can kind of reduce your motivation by reasoning, by thinking about what's the consequences and things like that, or simply just attaching a negative feeling to it. So like, each time you touch your phone, let me wrist like that attached negative of pain to it and then your motivation decreases.

Max Zheng: [00:48:44] So, yeah, it's sometimes hard to kind of remove all the motivation. And of course sometimes people do this because they are depressed, like not if they're depressed, that's why they actually do those things. So the proper way of addressing that maybe is like you want to make sure that you're happy all the time following the happiness steps so that then you don't have a motive, you don't have a motivation to use those as a way to make you happy. So so that's motivation and then ability like your phone is always there now for your family in that room, put your phone lucky in some kind of summerset somewhere or give it to your your your your spouse or someone to hide it. And now you have no ability to reach your home and bam, you're not going to be checking in devices anymore. And of course, there's the prompt. So the thing is, like whenever there's a message that comes through, there's always the prompting thing. But like, you know, that's the prompt is like, oh yeah, I need to check if someone's saying stuff. I want to look at it now. Just remove the problem by simply changing it so that it doesn't make us now or removing the banner so that you don't have to see the message coming up at all and or in simply just put your phone face down so that you actually don't even see it. Don't hear it. And yeah, without a prompt, it's not going to happen.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:50:02] So speaking of motivation, let's talk about the other motivation, I guess the motivation to to to to do something good. And sometimes we lose motivation. It know happens to me sometimes. Um, what are some tips that you could share with us to hack our motivation so that we can keep that momentum moving us in a positive direction?

Max Zheng: [00:50:25] Yeah. So for that one, we have to understand what motivation is and it kind of translates to a couple of different things like there.

Max Zheng: [00:50:33] That's two major things that, you know, that's really key. And one is what that is in a physiological level, which is that if dopamine being released within your brain when. You actually feel that motivation and dopamine is what makes you feel good, that joy is the feeling that you get and that's what motivates a lot of people. If he feels good, I'm going to do it again. So so I have to wait to actually get that dopamine released. These are very different ways. But in terms of hacking it like an issue, one way it will be like making sure they don't reward at the end of it. So that's why I like it. A job you get motivated because you have a paycheck or a bonus and things like that. So if you're trying to complete a project and you just keep on procrastinating, then probably weighed in. Like if you complete this project, go on a vacation, I think you'll be very motivated to get that done soon as possible so that you can go on that vacation.

Max Zheng: [00:51:26] So that's one way to kind of hack that.

Max Zheng: [00:51:29] And, of course, in another way is really about like nurturing a drive you drive is one that kind of motivate, you know, naturally drives you to do things. And in terms of making sure that you can actually want to do that project, that you don't really like it by loving it. So, like, in really, really, you try to love that project. You do like instead of the negative feelings, you have got to replace it with a love like, oh, I love learning about this, I would love doing this project. And that the more you replace negative feelings were positive ones, then you attached positive emotions to it and that more work out increase a motivation to complete that project.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:52:14] So talk to us a bit about imposter syndrome. What is it and how can we fight it?

Max Zheng: [00:52:21] According to research, is life like everyone in their lifetime feel that imposter syndrome at one point or another. And yeah. And and what that is, is that you feel like you don't deserve what will what you will have gotten like your job position or the salary you're earning. You think you are fake and you know, and it's a matter of time before people find out that you are fake and you get fired and things like that. So and when you kind of look down into it, look into it, they're more like, you know, it really stems from a couple of key things in terms of your mentality is the fear. So the first thing is to fear. You have a fear of being found out. You have a fear of failure. And that fear is what kind of holds you back and the same time, you know, triggers this imposter kind of syndrome.

Max Zheng: [00:53:12] And then second thing is self-doubt. Your doubting yourself. You don't believe you. You don't believe your ability. You don't believe you can do what needs to be done for your job. So those two those are the two key things that actually kind of manifest itself as imposter syndrome. So now to resolve it when you attack or those two things. So in terms of self-doubt, we need to tackle that with self love. So simply just like completely - oh, not self love. Actually belief. What you want to do is tackle that with belief. Like really believe in yourself and apply yourself. And yeah, I mean, like, there's not much you can go around that by simply, you know, it's a mental exercise that you had to go through. And it's is like I believe myself, I can do it every morning. You wake up and you can tell yourself that and the best I can, I'm going to get this done and things like that. So and then apply yourself, you know, apply making sure that you actually do follow through, you know, don't just believe in yourself, but then don't follow through. And if you don't follow through to actually do what's necessary to get things done, then obviously, you know, that won't be good and they'll actually make you feel more doubt. So and then a second aspect of it is the fear, like, how do you get over your fear of failure or fear of the people putting out? And the best way to that is self love. So they love yourself completely. Don't be afraid to to fail. Don't be afraid to fail, to appear to be found out. So I just love your fear and you feel it completely because you know, that is holding you back. Your fear is just holding you back, thinking that's holding you and not letting you take intelligent risk. So and you want to be able to futbol itself completely by simply loving yourself, removing those fears, and then in terms of feeling like you have a lot of bad combination, negative connotation attached to failure.

Max Zheng: [00:55:18] And that's one way of seeing it, because when you actually really look at it, a failure is simply something you don't know for now. And then once you do go through it and figure out what you don't know, you have learned something is a lesson in disguise.

Max Zheng: [00:55:33] So we so you what you want to be thankful for it, like, you know, because that means each time you fail it is an opportunity for you to learn something and improve yourself so that you're strong and. So the next time you can actually do much better and have a higher rate of success, so that's why I like it. It's just need to completely I love your fears of your even your flaws as well. Well, not quite this topic, but even of last you and then followed by loving your failures and when you completely love yourself and you know what is low self-esteem, low self esteem, low, low self confidence, all those kind of will naturally go away. And it's time you start loving and taking in that kind of risk because you don't have to be afraid to be failing. So you actually you won't have to be you know, you have to be motivated to do anything you want, everything you want. So and of course, when you believe in yourself, then you can actually read, apply by learning, keep on learning more things and applying more things in terms of like learning new skills and learning techniques to really improve yourself. And when you believe that you can actually memorize everything or believe you can be a genius or believe that you can be get that promotion and things, I don't like that many passes power within your mind because believe a super powerful it does miracles. Unfortunately, a lot of people believe in a negative and that's what you get. If you believe in the negative part of it, then you get negative.

Harpreet Sahota: [00:57:00] Yeah, I think it's important for people to understand that they don't have to be victim to their own thought process and their own faulty belief system that you can at any point in time choose to think different thoughts, like you can actually choose what you want to think. You might have initial impressions, but that doesn't stop you from automatically kicking off a habit loop to flip it around to be something positive. Right. And you can actually update your belief system to serve yourself in a more positive way. You can go through life and think, oh, man, I can never get better at anything. It's just genetics. Nothing's ever going to change for me. I can't do it. It's not really a good self-serving belief system to have. Why not choose something more empowering? Why not choose a belief system that is going to set you up to want to go do hard things they can get better at?

Harpreet Sahota: [00:57:51] Right. Yeah. So question here about memory. So how does memory work and can you share a tip for how we could memorize things.

Max Zheng: [00:58:00] Yeah. So it's really important that we understand two or three aspect of memory and how it works. And one is that memory works based on association, so it's always associated with something that you already know and you try to remember something that without associating something you to know, it'll be very hard. It will take a long time. Yeah. Eventually you could do it. But yeah, if you associate with something you already know, like for example, if you know what Apple is and now you actually bought a Apple computer and you can easily associate a tool based on the fact that, you know, the sound has an apple to what Apple and therefore you can either remember when Apple Computer is. So I mean, that's based on association.

Max Zheng: [00:58:43] But course, if you don't know what Apple is and now you actually think about an Apple computer, it's like, you know, it's a little bit more free and it takes a while for me to kind of memorize what the heck is Apple Computer? So that's association.

Max Zheng: [00:58:53] The second aspect of memory that is based - like visual memory is so much better than, you know, a text or some other things like, oh, no other other kind of memory, because like a long, long time ago, we didn't have speech, we didn't have language, you know, the entire human history or we both bathos into what you see. And that's how you can remember stories, remember what's going on. So based on evolution, you know, your memory, your visual memory has evolved to be super good. And it is still it is today. So it is 60000 times faster than you know, yet your processing text so and so. Therefore, you can leverage based on those two key things. You can kind of leverage them to memorize anything you want. So I'm a really good common technique is called a low key technique, which is based on locations. And you can associate something to what is a location. And so location is something you only know. You have to find something that you're already familiar with. For example, your body, you only know your body parts so you can easily associate something to your body. So now I'm going to teach you how to memorize the top ten foods. So you kind of have to imagine, like on top of your head, you can imagine. Yeah. So in terms of like you imagine is actually made of an egg. So like could bring the egg is a one of the brain covering inputs.

Max Zheng: [01:00:21] So imagine your head is an egg and now you think that's it. You instantly memorize, you know, the first brain food by associating the egg with your head. Now if you crack your head, open the egg or imagine there's a walnut in there, which is you looked at your brain. So that's what's in there. And now you memorize the walnut as you know, what a second one. And if followed by years like. Imagine coconut oil coming out, so that's a thorough report and then you mentioned blueberry coming out of your nose was very memorable and apparently everybody hates broccoli. So I like coming out your mouth, spitting out, like, so yucky. So and then imagine leafy green vegetables around your neck. So as a necklace and for your fingers, imagine their stomachs so that, you know, they look like Emmerich's and they can look outward. So and then of course you can have like chocolate coming out your butt, you know, very memorable. And then finally you have like fish. You know, you have fish, fish like your shoes. Imagine you're wearing fish on your feet and good. That's like stinky, smelly and funny. You mention water coming out of your body, your sweat and things like that. So. So now that's it. You have just memorized, you know, ten the ten bring foods and tomorrow you can still remember it. And for many days to come, you still remember it just like that.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:01:46] So you seem to have adopted a growth mindset for yourself. How did you come across this concept and in what way has it had the biggest positive change, your biggest positive impact in your life?

Max Zheng: [01:01:58] I think it's when after I kind of completed my life guide, that's when I actually started to like, really focus on growth and really push myself, because before then, I was kind of sad. And when I'm sad, I just don't really want to do anything. So in the same time, you know, I find myself to be exhausted.

Max Zheng: [01:02:17] So after I was able to address the happiness part and then I get unlimited energy inside of me in terms of what I can do. And I always be able to hit a hundred percent positive as well because of that. And now that I have 100 percent productivity and I have like, you know, I can walk or day or night or problems, and based on that, I can actually start doing a lot of things, like after reading the book that I didn't want to read before, I am able to read now.

Max Zheng: [01:02:44] And the other thing that I do and once you start the learning process in terms of reading books like you open the door to so many different things, you're learning so many things in.

Max Zheng: [01:02:54] And once you start learning and eventually you learn about like all these different techniques you can use to maximize your productivity or maximize your anything out that you're trying to do, such as be reading or memory techniques and of course, empowerment techniques and meditation and other things like this. So many things because human history, we have been here for so long. There's like so much content out there that help you live a great life. And to get through them, you have to read them. You had to go out and get them. You know, you cannot just wait until someone spoon feed you. And and that's, you know, that's that's going to be not very efficient. So the key thing is you have to be happy for me. It has to be happiness first. Like, I have to be completely happy based on my happiness, which means you're happy to maximize your happiness intelligence. So I kind of want to make a note of that, like in a lot of people don't want to quite know the difference between, like, happy happiness versus happy intelligence, especially happiness intelligence. And that's a new term that was defined by Song Yang from Germany.

Max Zheng: [01:03:56] She's a psychologist and and so happy to, as intelligent as she defined it, is the ability to be happy. So and that's really important. Deming's it to be happy is a skill, is a choice now is not something that you have to face, something that you cannot change, something you can't.

Max Zheng: [01:04:15] You learn being using different techniques such as the money for happiness steps. If you do that, you increase your maximize your happiness intelligence Deming's. You can be happy whenever you want. Like, you know, some kind of bad thing can happen. Yes. You will kind of bring it down, bring it down, but then you'll quickly bounce back up so you can be happy again. That's quick. And then you know, it's really up to you. In some ways it becomes a choice like do you want to stay to be sad? Like if something really bad happened, you know, someone in your family you don't want be happy. You know, instantly you can stay sad because it is a sad event and you want to say, you know, it's OK to be sad. But yeah, after a while then you if you when when you're done, then switch back so you can actually be happy again. So I can hit the ground running and do what you need to do to get other things, you know, get things rolling. So for me that's like happiness, intelligence, and then of course not happy, you know, happy life. But that's got to be for me like that, as joy is. If you are feeling like always come and go when you eat ice cream or you watch a movie. So I know that's most people think that's happy, but he's not quite sure happiness or true happiness is what I call it, a happiness, which is that like warm feeling you feel for the people they love. You know, it lasts forever. It doesn't go away that easily, you know, and it doesn't matter where you are or when when it is, you know, it's always going to be there. So if that is true happiness right now and yeah, the ability to be happy you happiness allows you to be. Have both. So even though is about to be happy is incredible.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:05:49] I love it, man, and I love the soundtrack we have of kids in the background. I think that adds to the happiness texture. I think that's a really great touch.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:05:58] So last formal question here before we jump into a lightning round, and that is what's the one thing you want people to learn from your story?

Max Zheng: [01:06:07] Two things to kind of talk about is to believe in and apply yourself. So and if you do that, then anything is possible. So there's nothing you cannot do if you believe in yourself every single day. The second thing is love yourself company that will make sure that you don't have anything holding you back.

Max Zheng: [01:06:29] So loving yourself completely is to remove any shackles from you. Believe in yourself what you can actually use to push yourself forward. So and once you have this nothing holding you back, then you can run it full throttle.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:06:45] Beautiful. So let's jump into a quick lightning round here.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:06:49] If you can meet any historical figure, who would it be and what would you ask them and ask them?

Max Zheng: [01:06:56] Albert Einstein. I would ask him like now what's the pivotal point where, like at all where he kind of changed from someone with autism in some I think I think some level autism in some to some degree of disability in terms of learning. And from there is at some point he pivoted into the way he is today. And yet watching that short on what the experience was, it was like I think it would be very valuable if I had to guess. I believe he played in that plane.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:07:27] So, yeah, it's very interesting because people just assume assumed Einstein was just born some great genius and he just knew physics from the day he was born. But they don't understand his actual journey. Like, you know, first of all, he was he wasn't that great of a student, but he just had a great deep interest in this field, in this world. And he was kind of blessed, the opportunity to work as a patent that allowed him to have free time, really pursue and think about these things. Right. It's just persistence. And even when people like you just quit. He said, no, I like this shit. I love this. I'm the continued study. A hundred percent. Just apply yourself. Be persistent and within yourself.

Max Zheng: [01:08:14] Yeah. And there's a famous quote from Albert Einstein. And it is I have no special ability. I said I have no special talent. The only thing I have is curiosity.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:08:30] I love love that. What do you believe that other people think is crazy?

Max Zheng: [01:08:36] My mission. My mission to ensure the prosperity of humanity by enabling everyone to be happy and productive. So that's a mission that I truly believe in. And I'm watching many people think is crazy.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:08:50] If you could have a billboard anywhere, what would you put on it?

Max Zheng: [01:08:56] The moon. So then you can you can see it.

Max Zheng: [01:09:00] Everyone in the world can see it every single day and just love yourself. If you had to choose one thing to love yourself.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:09:12] What are you curious about right now?

Max Zheng: [01:09:15] I have a lot of things that I'm curious about at the same time, like when I'm curious about things I always figure out and find out and solve that curiosity. So I don't have a strong curiosity right now. However, I am reading about happiness or happiness by China right now. China is the leading expert in terms of psychology for happiness. So he has written and done a lot of research in that area. So right now I'm reading his book Happiness, and it's a lot of good content, so I'm looking forward to reading.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:09:47] Have you read Search Inside Yourself by Chade Meng Tan? Yeah, I think you really enjoy that as well, because he's also a software engineer and similar mission tears as well. So what is an academic topic outside of Data science that you think every data scientist should spend some time studying soft skills?

Max Zheng: [01:10:12] So, I mean, the all the different soft skills is really important for you, for anyone to kind of advance in your career because like you don't work alone. You know, the technical aspect is more important than a soft skill is what makes you become a leader and example of where you can grow your career.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:10:32] What would be the number one book? Fiction, nonfiction or maybe one of both? If you want that, you would recommend our audience read.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:10:40] And what was your biggest takeaway from it. 

Max Zheng: [01:10:42] So selflessly plugging myself

Max Zheng: [01:10:46] I would say my guide, my double guide, my you know, the double your happiness and prosperity guide they know about that guy. So because that contains pretty much a categorize, summarize information about everything that's out there that I know of and it links to every single book out there. That is what I have read so far and very useful. Now if I had to pick a single book that actually published, I would go with them on this by Tim Cook. So because that book also has a lot of different ideas in terms of increasing our motivation and making sure that you empower yourself and things like that and so and remove all your limits because, you know, you have a lot of lead me to believe that kind of hold you back.

Max Zheng: [01:11:31] And it is the time that opens the door in terms of like what is possible in terms of your abilities and things. I don't know.

Max Zheng: [01:11:38] And that is really important for you to know as a solid foundation before you learn anything else. So that's one book that everyone's been.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:11:47] Yeah, Limitless i an amazing book. I definitely think that is a foundational book. If you're going to go buy a new book, go get that one first.

Max Zheng: [01:11:55] Yeah. And I think it's on sale for $2.99. I'm not sure if you still are still on the kindle edition, so I definitely get it.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:12:04] So where can people find your book again? Is it free?

Max Zheng: [01:12:07] Is it how can they get their hands on it so it can go to http://double.guide

Harpreet Sahota: [01:12:14] Ok, if we could somehow get a magic telephone that allowed you to contact eighteen year old Max, what would you tell him?

Max Zheng: [01:12:22] I guess the same message. Love yourself because. Yeah, well, maybe not OK, because I was very motivated, motivated during that time. So I think I would go for believing apply yourself instead because I want to make sure that I, I can be motivated to do stuff.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:12:46] What song do you currently have on repeat.

Max Zheng: [01:12:50] I don't have a song on repeat. I do listen to it. Trance music, vocal trance music. And this does sound good. I don't want to have a specific one for this one. I guess that I don't quite remember the names. I mean, but it's like do you like to fish or something like that? But it's not kind of weird, but is this the sound of it? That's what I really like. And that's what's put me in a mood in terms of my coding indicator.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:13:18] I was to check that one out. "Do you Like to Fish"

Harpreet Sahota: [01:13:21] So how can people connect with you? Where could they find you online?

Max Zheng: [01:13:25] I'm available on LinkedIn all the time. And and if you actually search me, Max Zheng, you'll see how the first one on the map, because I think I'll go with myself sometimes.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:13:36] And yeah, it's it's you know, and of course I also have a link to introduce myself, which is MaxZheng.info. And they're finally like, if you want to check out my or my guides or my guides in some part of your life to be happy, productive and leukotrienes every single day, Amazon says, you know, go to the corner slash at HP. That tools.

Harpreet Sahota: [01:13:59] Max, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to come out of the show. I really enjoyed talking to you, really enjoyed all the wisdom you share with our audience and hearing about your story. Thank you so much.

Max Zheng: [01:14:10] Yeah, good to be here. Thank you for having me.