Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Leaving big tech to build the #1 technology newsletter | Gergely Orosz (The Pragmatic Engineer)

45 snips
Nov 17, 2022
Gergely Orosz, author of the top tech newsletter The Pragmatic Engineer and a former engineering manager at Uber, shares his journey from big tech to newsletter entrepreneurship. He discusses the leap to freelance life, highlighting how he amassed 200,000 subscribers within a year. Gergely opens up about the loneliness of solo work, the financial benefits, and essential productivity tips for navigating unstructured time. He emphasizes the importance of passion over a traditional career path and offers insights on community engagement in the tech industry.
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ANECDOTE

Leaving Uber

  • Gergely Orosz left Uber despite a high salary and stock options after a promise to himself and COVID-related layoffs.
  • He initially planned to start a venture-funded startup but found success writing and self-publishing books.
INSIGHT

Workload of a Newsletter

  • Writing one in-depth newsletter post per week is more demanding than it seems, often taking several days of research, drafting, feedback, and editing.
  • Gergely sometimes uses parallel work streams and sets deadlines to ensure consistent output.
ADVICE

Accountability and Cadence

  • Set deadlines and external accountability to maintain consistent writing habits.
  • Public commitments, like a newsletter, create necessary pressure for consistent output.
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