Funemployed Part 2

I originally styled my life this way in September 2021 after settling into my cabin in the wilderness of Loja Ecuador. The term comes from Hattie Chung who inspired me while I was a 10th-12th grader (sophomore and junior) at MIT.

2026 marks a new chapter, more than half a decade later, where I'm returning to standard employment and aggressively searching for a job, just as I did back in 2019 pre-pandemic when I ended up launching my career at Scale AI. Today, the most promising opportunity seems like Mercor, but that could easily change tomorrow as I work through various interview processes. I'm grateful that anyone would even consider hiring me at this point.

I despise applying to jobs, as I've written about extensively before. All my previous employment opportunities came from sideways approaches, not Ashby application forms. Also, I don't think I'm destined in the long term to be an employee. I already blogged about how each of us is an individual corporation, and I think AI as a technology only accelerates this future. The best advice I have for latecomers at this point is just learn to write + learn to code.

Unfortunately, I'm quickly going broke paying over $10k/mo in basic living costs in a downtown SF high rise building. In the past, my toolkit to seek opportunities has always started with extending runway, and the easiest way to do that is to simply move. This time, there is a massive constraint: I can't move. I'm stuck in this lease thanks to a poor choice and a beautiful relationship I intend to keep!

I'm now past the delusions of grandeur I had putting myself in the same reference class as Alex Wang, Nikhil, Luana & Tarek, Steven & Scott, Akshat, Tieshun & Anthony, Tyson Chen, etc etc etc... I'm simply not operating at their compounded scale and I have no entry vector into the markets as a founder. Having mental breakdowns since July 2025 over these facts was tough.

At the highest level, my ongoing plan is:

1. get a job in SF for at least 2-3 years (financial stability, in USA).
2. workshop next steps (5-year plans: explore asia + politics).
3. "retire" in my late 30s instead of my late 20s ("failed to be a prodigy", again).

This means I have the following prerequisites, which boil down to stabilizing my mental health, my relationship, my finances, my social circles, etc:

1. obtain interviews & offers. probably reconnect with network. maybe join a church a la Peter Thiel?
2. earn more than i lose in the next 18 months. i will be bankrupt long before 2028 at current burn.
3. reconsider real estate as an investment class. bitcoin will get deflated by AI, somehow i sense that is not the terminal asset it used to be. (should be safe for next 2-5 years to still be long Saylor's thesis tho, so i'm a big proponent of MSTR.)

I am not the person I thought I would be at age 30. This is slightly disturbing but ultimately will work out fine if I can just get through 2027 as a whole, and keep aligned with market forces on the macro levels. I have a compass, there is no map, and the territory is moving every day. What an exciting time to be alive :)