HBS Magazine @HBSAlumni invited me to write about freediving, failure, and what the ocean taught my mind after winding down the company I had built over a decade. alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages… I posted the full essay here:

San Francisco lately. Old friends. New friends. City light. Ocean air. Big ideas. Good people. Finding signal.

A year ago, in April 2025, I got sober. After a decade of startup grind, I have come to understand that agency, health, and self-command are not separate from leadership. They are part of the foundation. This was never an abstract subject for me. My grandfather died from alcoholism-related complications when my father was young. The story I was told was that even after surgery had taken much of his liver, he still demanded and drank copious amounts of soju. I’ve had a complicated relationship with addiction. I didn’t drink through most of college. But in my early career in New York, alcohol became an easy escape from the grind. I thought I could handle it. I thought: this time is different. Addiction is a quiet, pernicious snake. It weaves its way into your life over years, and then, in the darkness, binds you. For years, I knew I had a problem. But I told myself I was functioning. From the outside, I seemingly was. I was working hard, leading, producing, keeping things moving. But functioning is not the same as being free. Over time, the degradation of my health and mind became obvious. And by then, I feared it was too late to escape. Last April, at the urging of @GreemKim , I quit. I was afraid I was losing something that defined my happiness — the thing I thought kept me sane in this insane world. But I was wrong. Instead of losing something, I got something back: myself. Not quickly, nor all at once. But slowly, softly, bit by bit. My mornings came back. My body came back. My energy came back. I could start to hear my own thoughts again. The joy in the quotidian came back too. Sunlight through leaves, a quiet walk, a meditative afternoon. My sense of agency came back: the feeling that I’m not just being pulled around by impulses, habits, substances, moods, machines, or old stories I tell myself about who I am. I’ve been quiet here for a while. I needed space. And I didn’t want to perform a version of life I was no longer interested in living. With time, I hope to share more again. Not as a highlight reel, but as field notes from the path: rebuilding, health, discipline, creativity, technology, embodied practice, and the kind of human future I want to help create. Because in an age increasingly designed to capture our attention, automate our choices, and mediate our sense of meaning, self-governance is not merely a private virtue. It is how we stay human. And I believe this even more deeply now: if you cannot govern yourself, you will struggle to govern anything else with clarity. Self-command is not merely related to leadership. It is one of its foundations.

Black tie in the Bay. Thanks to our hosts Silvia Console Battilana, @Stanford President Jon Levin, and Nobel Laureate @Pmilgrom. Congrats to the Auctionomics team on the Emmys!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass | iPhone 17 ProRes RAW Open Gate | 5 Oct 2025, SF feat. music @DesertHollow

Not the Metaverse we were promised, but maybe the one we deserve 🤯. Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, & Fishstick dancing on a Choppa. @Fortnite #Delulu Early Access LTM

Fortnite taking a page out of VRChat’s book Delulu early access 🤓

Reenergized from the YGL Annual Summit in Geneva—a joy to see old friends and meet new ones. This year I felt even freer to synthesize ideas & connect dots. Thanks @YGLvoices & @wef. Onward to tangible change.

Officially a Master Freediver (AIDA 4). One breath took me 36 m / 118 ft into the ocean, along with a static pool hold of 4 min 19 s. For the first time in a decade, I hold minimal responsibilities and am intent on living day-to-day. A casual lunch “You should try freediving again” turned into a spontaneous signup. What was meant as a refresher turned into a journey through every level, and I became my instructor’s first student to reach Masters in one uninterrupted shot. Progress wasn’t linear — equalization, depth plateaus, ego checks — but the ocean rewards patience. Freediving isn’t adrenaline; it’s underwater meditation: total mind / body awareness, total surrender, deep peace. Years ago in Cebu I hit 27.8 m / 91 ft on my second day ever, then went back to quotidian life in the U.S. This time I kept going. Training on Bali’s sunrise lines I’m humbled daily — buddies casually tagging 50 m from shore, 70 m off the boats — and our cardinal rule rings louder than ever: never dive alone. This feels like step one in a journey, and I’m grateful for every instructor, coach, safety, and buddy. One breath at a time, I’ll see you in the blue.

Greetings from #UnrealFest Bali 2025

After an unforgettable decade, we have decided—together with our board and shareholders—to close @penrosestudios. In the early days a handful of believers crowded my SoMa apartment, convinced that stories could surround us. Over time we pushed technical boundaries and crafted experiences that shaped the still-nascent art of spatial storytelling, earning recognition from audiences, peers, and juries—including the inaugural Lion for Best VR at Venice for Arden's Wake. Amidst the winter of our industry's discontent, acclaim alone never blossomed into sustainable scale. What endured was commitment: teammates who burned midnight oil, investors who backed uncharted frontiers, partners who opened doors, and explorers who slipped on headsets to enter our worlds. My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you. As we complete an orderly transition, I am working with colleagues to steward the studio’s archives and light a path for those who come next. Afterward, I hope for a true breather—family, fresh air, and reflection. To everyone who shared this ten-year journey: thank you for proving that a few trillion pixels, arranged with heart, can move the human soul. - EYC

What will the AI last mile look like? #AITownHall x.com/i/spaces/1rmGPyOBWLLJN

Android XR Glasses | Fortnite AI Vader #AITownHall x.com/i/broadcasts/1vOGwXOdV…

Fortnite dub playing as Padmé with Darth Vader-voiced AI is the inevitable & inexorable future of gaming. Picture GTA 6 or Cyberpunk with NPCs who are context aware and talk back to you. Vader mused on his history with Senator Amidala & Anakin throughout our match. Gaming’s next AI-powered era comes swiftly.

OpenAI is reborn as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) chart by @ldjconfirmed