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

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lenny Rachitsky

Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2022

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gergely Orosz writes the #1 technology newsletter at Substack, called The Pragmatic Engineer. He started his career as a software developer in the U.K., spent three years at Skype, and followed that role with four years as an engineering manager at Uber before deciding to leave big tech and work for himself. Gergely began pursuing his newsletter full-time in September 2021 and in just one year has amassed 200,000 subscribers. He now makes more money than he did at his salaried tech job, and with freedom and flexibility. In today’s podcast, Gergely shares why he left his well-paying job at Uber, how he got his first 1,000 subscribers, why this kind of work can be stressful and lonely (but ultimately rewarding), and why it takes hard work to build authority and become a great writer. Working solo can be challenging, and in this episode, both Lenny and Gergely offer tips for structuring your unstructured time and finding your focus.

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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/leaving-big-tech-to-build-the-1-technology-newsletter-gergely-orosz-the-pragmatic-engineer/#transcript

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Where to find Gergely Orosz:

• Website: https://www.pragmaticengineer.com/

• Newsletter: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gergelyorosz/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:

• Lemon.io: https://lemon.io/lenny

• Eppo: https://www.geteppo.com/

• Vanta: https://vanta.com/lenny

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Referenced:

• Gergely’s books: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/books/

• Centered: https://www.centered.app/

• The Pomodoro technique: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryancollinseurope/2020/03/03/the-pomodoro-technique/

• Coding Horror: https://blog.codinghorror.com/

• How to Achieve Ultimate Blog Success in One Easy Step: https://blog.codinghorror.com/how-to-achieve-ultimate-blog-success-in-one-easy-step/

• A Comment Is an Invitation for Refactoring: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/a-comment-is-an-invitation-for-refactoring/

• Kent Beck’s website: https://www.kentbeck.com/

• Steve Yegge’s famous rant on Google vs. Amazon: https://www.alexanderjarvis.com/steve-yegges-famous-rant-on-google-vs-amazon/

• Stevey’s Tech Talk: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZfuUWMTtMcC1DZF6HxJhqsGrBXu8Jzi7

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In this episode, we cover:

(04:32) Gergely’s background

(07:19) The Pragmatic Engineer, growth and current subscribers

(08:59) Compensation with a subscription-based newsletter vs. his salaried position at Uber

(10:55) How the onset of Covid and layoffs at Uber prompted Gergely to start his newsletter

(23:10) What he did immediately after leaving Uber

(25:41) The day-to-day of writing a newsletter

(35:08) Tips for productivity

(41:19) Gergely’s favorite parts of entrepreneurship

(43:15) The downsides of solo work

(50:39) Why Gergely stopped making long-term plans

(54:30) How to get started writing a newsletter

(1:04:48) Key advice on building a successful newsletter

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].

Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Transcript

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0:00.0	In my best year at Uber, I made about like 320 or 330,000 dollars in total compensation and when I quit my job I was actually thinking like am I crazy because I am leaving, especially in Europe, this is a lot of money to say, well, this will be similar to something, you know, someone in a similar position would have made like five or six hundred K in total in the U.S.
0:20.0	But now I am making more in composition that I made at Uber and the difference is that now my composition,
0:29.5	while my earnings keep going up as long as the news that it is growing so there's no
0:33.6	theoretical cap on this of course there is an actual cap there's churn growth is
0:38.5	slowing over time but it's very very strange because I felt that I was in a really privileged position.
0:44.0	I just honestly making tons of money doing a job that I loved and this was at
0:47.9	Uber or as a software engineer and I'm now doing something I love and in some strange way. I guess it even pays better.
0:57.0	Welcome to Lenny's podcast. I'm Lenny and my goal here is to help you get better at the craft of building and growing products.
1:06.0	I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hard-won experiences,
1:10.0	building and
1:13.0	my guest is Gergae Oros.
1:15.0	In a sense, Gergae is the me of engineering.
1:19.0	He's got the top engineering newsletter on Substack.
1:22.0	It's growing really fast, and like like me he does this full time.
1:25.9	In this episode we talk about the life of newslettering full time like we both do.
1:31.2	We get into Gurgier's decision to leave his cushy tech job at Uber to go into this life full time,
1:37.3	what the day-to-day life of a newsletter person is, the pros and cons of this life, what it takes to be successful, and a bunch of advice for how to get started
1:46.7	if you're curious about going down this route. This is a pretty unique episode and it was really
1:51.7	fun to do. If you ever thought about writing or
1:54.8	going down this kind of creator route you'll love this episode. With that I
2:00.0	bring you Gurgae Oros.
2:08.0	This episode is brought to you by Lemon. I.O. You've achieved product market fit.
	...

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