Peter Yang: Time will eventually be more valuable than money

7 takeaways from my conversation with @petergyang, creator of Behind the Craft, former product leader at Roblox, and dad of 2. 1/ The walk to school is the best (and often, only) meeting on Peter's calendar. Since leaving Roblox, he walks his 8-year-old 20 minutes each way, and with no iPad in reach she tells him about her friends and their school drama. When they get to the door, her friends are waiting to give her a hug. She's lobbied to drive a few times. Peter says no (he needs his steps). 2/ AI agents gave Peter a new excuse to grab his phone. Checking on his agents felt like work, which made it easier to justify than scrolling Twitter, so he bought a timed lockbox and now locks the phone away during Lego and reading time. When I asked if he feels pulled to reply to his community in real time, he said, "I care about my community, but I don't care about them as much as my kids." 3/ Peter's savings could cover 10+ years, and he still never took a break between jobs. A scarcity mindset, some of it from his dad and some from a stretch on an H1B, kept him bracing for the worst case even though the math said he was fine. His wife (his "real boss") set a total comp number his business had to hit before he could quit. His warning for big tech folks is the $4 million house that wipes out your options the moment the economy turns. 4/ A 4-hour OKR meeting launched his creator career. After a session spent haggling with other PMs over 2% versus 3%, Peter walked out in a fit of rage and depression and wrote a newsletter post about the creator economy. He had to ship *something.* In one performance review, he was told he was doing great and needed more meetings. He calls it product management theater, where a strategy doc climbs from director to VP while everyone guesses what the CEO wants. 5/ His 8-year-old built a makeup game by herself, talking to Codex. Peter handed her his old laptop ("The iPad's terrible"), and when a rectangle covered the nails, she gave Codex feedback until the polish changed color. She's learning the be-specific, be-concise feedback habits PMs preach, plus patience, since her earlier review of Codex was "What do you mean it can't build a pet dragon raising game instantly?" (Both of their games have 100% retention. The player base is 2.) 6/ Piano is required through grade 3. After that, it's her call. Peter's in-laws pushed for piano lessons; Peter wants basic competency and then an exit if she doesn't enjoy it. He still regrets not being courageous enough to turn the HyperCard dungeon crawlers he built as a kid into a career. He tells his daughters he doesn't care about straight A's and would rather they put up a lemonade stand and learn to sell and fail. 7/ Peter is planning to record his parents' stories for his daughters. His family rented a basement in Canada when money was tight, his mom has had 3 or 4 battles with breast cancer, and his grandma left home at 17 to fight in a war. His girls have never gone without, so he wants to turn those conversations into a book for them someday, on the theory that kids who haven't struggled can borrow resilience from the family members who did. Full episode: https://t.co/yaef6xzTvh

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7 takeaways from my conversation with @petergyang, creator of Behind the Craft, former product leader at Roblox, and dad of 2. 1/ The walk to school is the best (and often, only) meeting on Peter's calendar. Since leaving Roblox, he walks his 8-year-old 20 minutes each way, and with no iPad in reach she tells him about her friends and their school drama. When they get to the door, her friends are waiting to give her a hug. She's lobbied to drive a few times. Peter says no (he needs his steps). 2/ AI agents gave Peter a new excuse to grab his phone. Checking on his agents felt like work, which made it easier to justify than scrolling Twitter, so he bought a timed lockbox and now locks the phone away during Lego and reading time. When I asked if he feels pulled to reply to his community in real time, he said, "I care about my community, but I don't care about them as much as my kids." 3/ Peter's savings could cover 10+ years, and he still never took a break between jobs. A scarcity mindset, some of it from his dad and some from a stretch on an H1B, kept him bracing for the worst case even though the math said he was fine. His wife (his "real boss") set a total comp number his business had to hit before he could quit. His warning for big tech folks is the $4 million house that wipes out your options the moment the economy turns. 4/ A 4-hour OKR meeting launched his creator career. After a session spent haggling with other PMs over 2% versus 3%, Peter walked out in a fit of rage and depression and wrote a newsletter post about the creator economy. He had to ship *something.* In one performance review, he was told he was doing great and needed more meetings. He calls it product management theater, where a strategy doc climbs from director to VP while everyone guesses what the CEO wants. 5/ His 8-year-old built a makeup game by herself, talking to Codex. Peter handed her his old laptop ("The iPad's terrible"), and when a rectangle covered the nails, she gave Codex feedback until the polish changed color. She's learning the be-specific, be-concise feedback habits PMs preach, plus patience, since her earlier review of Codex was "What do you mean it can't build a pet dragon raising game instantly?" (Both of their games have 100% retention. The player base is 2.) 6/ Piano is required through grade 3. After that, it's her call. Peter's in-laws pushed for piano lessons; Peter wants basic competency and then an exit if she doesn't enjoy it. He still regrets not being courageous enough to turn the HyperCard dungeon crawlers he built as a kid into a career. He tells his daughters he doesn't care about straight A's and would rather they put up a lemonade stand and learn to sell and fail. 7/ Peter is planning to record his parents' stories for his daughters. His family rented a basement in Canada when money was tight, his mom has had 3 or 4 battles with breast cancer, and his grandma left home at 17 to fight in a war. His girls have never gone without, so he wants to turn those conversations into a book for them someday, on the theory that kids who haven't struggled can borrow resilience from the family members who did. Full episode: https://t.co/yaef6xzTvh