TLDR provided by claude: 

I've been hit with the sticks of what-not-to-do throughout my career (thanks OG mentors), and honestly? Those failures taught me more than any fancy degree could. Customer obsession + data + critical thinking, that's where the magic happens... implementing stuff? That's just the easier slice of the pie.

But here's the thing that's tugging at my heart - I'm realizing my real joy isn't in being the engineering wizard (I'm good, but I'm no Anthropic-level architect). It's in being the person with the magnifying glass, hunting for clues and empowering others to do the same. It's this beautiful intersection of work and purpose that just... hits different.

So I'm making this small step, this gradual shift from IC to whatever-comes-next. Strong opinion, loosely held. Might fail again. Might hurt. But that's the secret sauce they don't tell you - hope is a choice, and success comes through muscle memory, built one failure at a time. ❤️