Tim Joo: Year-End Life Review (December 31, 2025)
On Current Emotional State
"Better than I did the last two weeks, that's for sure. I just think I'm slowly starting to recoup my mental faculties and emotional faculties."
"The freshness of what happened with the job, it's still raw, obviously. When things are raw, it makes it hard to let the positive, yeah, like zoom out, right? Because you're still kind of dealing with it."
"It really shouldn't hurt me that much. I didn't like that job, but I think also I think maybe it's a reflection of my ego being wounded. There was a certain status that came with our job, right? And obviously the pay that's associated with that status, and so having it taken away, it's like, all right, well, you know, what am I? Who am I?"
On Self-Identity
"I'm just a guy with a big heart that is retarded. I think that's what it is, man. A guy with a big heart that wants people to win. I can do a lot of things."
"When I say I know who I am, like I know what I'm good at. I know what I can do and what I'm capable of doing. I also know, I think as I get a little older, I'm a little bit more aware about like what I'm not good at."
"Sometimes it's easy for me to get, sniff my own shit and think it smells good. Get caught up in the ego. You're like, ah, you know, everything is good. You convince yourself that you're on the right path, but you haven't thought about all the downsides because my ego is running high."
"At the end of the year, I'm a little bit more humble."
On the Job Loss
"I was always aware that I could get fired from this job, very aware of it, like a month ago, even two months ago. The thing is, is that like, I was kind of just trying to figure shit out on the fly."
"The best way to describe it was like, I was trying to upgrade an airplane when it was in the air already."
"I take full responsibility for what happened with the whole Joe thing. Is there a path where I'd still have a job? Sure. 100%. Well, it's probably a couple of, at least a couple of paths, but you know, I kind of wanted to do what I wanted to do. And I was given an opportunity to do that and it didn't work out."
"It's not like I got fired for like HR, you know? So like, there's some things that are good about my situation."
On Coping Patterns
"I don't give a fuck. It's just literally, I don't give a fuck. That's what it is. It's literally, I don't care. I really just do not care. I feel like shit. I'll do it. I'll do whatever to make me feel good."
"It's all artificial dopamine, right? So it's like, Oh, I don't feel great. Guess what? I also like don't have a job. I have all this time and I'm going to sit here and like not feel great for hours throughout the day. So like, all right, well, I'll just go pick up a bag of artificial dopamine and just rip it."
"What happens is that the next day you feel like shit again, you sleep all day and then you wake up the day after and you're like, great. I also, I'm still unemployed. I don't have shit to do. I'm going to feel like shit all day. So I'm going to buy another artificial bag. So it just keeps going."
"The good thing, I guess if there is a good thing, is that like, I've been caught up in these loops enough to recognize when it's like, all right, all right, you got to fucking stop and get your shit together. Otherwise this is just going to keep going and it's going to get worse."
On Past Hardships (San Antonio Era)
"I've done like, I've gotten terribly fired from jobs where I thought my whole career was over really driving Postmates and donating plasma."
"When I was living in San Antonio, thank God my rent was so cheap. I was paying like $750 for a shit hole studio. I didn't have any money. I didn't have a job. I was like 29 when this happened."
"I literally just started, it was my first job as a software engineer. Three months in, I get fired for just getting blacked out drunk and saying the absolute most ridiculous shit. And like now I can look back on it and laugh at it, but, oh my God, I thought my life was over."
"I would wake up early in the morning, go to a Starbucks, work for like four to five hours. And then as soon as lunchtime hit, I would turn on Postmates and deliver for hours until like 10 o'clock at night. So maybe eight, 10 hours, eight to 10 hours just delivering Postmates."
"San Antonio is a really shitty place to deliver food for because a lot of the people that would order food were from the military base. And you're not allowed to go on the military base if you're a driver."
"I was averaging like $6.00 or $7.00 in delivery. It's great if it's a short delivery, but many times it would turn into a 45-minute delivery. Then you get paid like $7.00 for an hour of work."
"Then I learned that they're giving out money for plasma donations. So I would donate twice a month. If you did it eight times a month, which is the max you can do it, you get paid like $450."
"You feel like shit. You're walking around with a bandaid all the time. And I remember one time I went out with a coworker friend after I got fired and he actually cracked a joke about me donating plasma. And I lied to him and said it was a blood donation. But he looked away because he was embarrassed."
On Perspective
"I've put myself in a lot of shit situations. So that's why this whole thing getting fired and whatever, it's not like the end of the world for me. You bounce back from more."
"The problem with that is that like, there's always a time where you don't bounce back. There's always that risk."
"People are in their house, they'll get out of shape and they'll get in shape and they'll get out of shape and shape and they can bounce back. And then as they keep yo-yoing between like a healthy lifestyle and an unhealthy lifestyle, eventually they don't bounce back nearly as fast or nearly as well."
On Self-Reliance
"My future can't be dependent on someone else. Unless it's like a really, really rare situation to be in a great place. It is so rare to be in a great place."
"If you're in a really great place, then by all means, stay there. You have found a diamond in the haystack. But if you've accepted that it's a really rare situation, then the opposite is true. That like the majority of places that you're going to be at have varying levels of suck."
"My goal for 2026 is to make the year of building self-reliance."
On Lessons from Joe Liemandt
"The thing that I learned the most was that the market rewards experts for sure. And the market rewards experts constantly because most people aren't willing to do the work to become an expert because it takes a long time. It could take anywhere from one to five years."
"I got to figure out where the expertise is. Like where to apply. What am I good at? What am I actually good at? I think I'm good at, I don't know about strategy. I think I am. I don't know. But I'm good with people for sure. I think I'm good at communication. Meeting people, uplifting people."
On Potential Claude Code Education Niche
"Maybe start teaching adults how to use Claude Code. Might be a good course series, how to maximize it, what you can do, the possibilities of Claude Code. Because it's really intimidating."
"Bill Perkins has been tweeting the last 48 hours about how much his dick gets hard off Claude Code. So it's like, all right, well, obviously Bill Perkins is pretty cutting edge, but like, what else can you do with people to spark their imagination regarding Claude Code?"
"I am not an engineer. Terminal intimidates the fuck out of me. How can I use Claude Code and Cursor to really do some crazy shit?"
"What's interesting to me about Claude Code is that it seems to be the natural interface to learn hardware and robotics because it's terminal commands."
"Joe can take the whole fucking K through 12 education angle. I don't care about that at all. Kids are always going to get the most attention because they're the shining future. But there are thousands and millions of adults that currently feel left behind. What can I do to help uplift them?"
On Market Opportunity
"AI has allowed an explosion of outcomes that smell to me almost like 2010, not 2012, like post Facebook IPO. With 2010 with Facebook kind of blowing up causes like great wealth explosion in social media that also coincided with this great wealth explosion of mobile apps."
"Now we're like right there with AI where there's, we've already seen signs of a great wealth explosion for AI that paired with Trump about to lower the shit out of all the rates. We're going to see another explosion of like free money lending and all that."
"This is now the time to be like, okay, well, I used to get paid X amount of money. It's okay to lower your expectations about that stuff because there is clear upside."
On Salary Expectations
"I don't want to make less than 200K unless it's like a clear upside play. Like, hey, you're at a good place, we'll give you equity. Sure. I'll even go as low as 125. I might have to, I mean, all this stuff that I'm saying about what I want is irrelevant. It's what the market prices and values you at."
"I am willing to go to 125 if there's equity involved and it's a company that I'm just like, yes, this is it."
On His Fiancee
"I think I'm going to get married this year. I'm going to do a legal marriage in Peru. Because doing the fiancee visa here in the States means there's too much risk for me. I have to basically have a job and financially sponsor her."
"If I just get my paperwork here in America and go down there and get married in a Peruvian government, they don't give a shit. It does mean that she probably can't come to America for a longer period of time, but that's fine. I'll just be back and forth."
"The reality is that if I wasn't engaged, I'd probably be in a dumpster. Not in a dumpster, but I would definitely be going back to fucking playing raw dog roulette in Latin America."
On Gratitude
"I'm grateful for our friendship, for sure. I did not foresee it at the beginning of Gauntlet. Or even during it, right? I mean, obviously we knew each other. You entertained me a couple of times when I was drunk ranting."
"I'm grateful for Gauntlet as well. I'm so grateful for Joe, shockingly. Much of what he taught me was what not to do, but also there were some things that were like... at the end of the day, man, it's the fucking fundamentals. You cannot run away from the fundamentals."
"I'm grateful for my fiancee, for sure. I got engaged. I'm very grateful for that. That was a big deal. Because I didn't think I was going to be able to do it."
"I'm grateful for all the things that I take for granted. Having a family, parents, all that stuff."
2026 Goals
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"Get back in good shape. I did not focus on that at all this past year. Also, it's not even just physically too, but spiritually, emotionally, mentally. Being healthier in that regard."
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"Get married."
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"Build a business. I'm positive I'll be able to find work at some point within the next year or so. So it's not really like a big meta goal."
On K-Shaped Economy & Friendship
"We've got to get on the right side of the K. A big part of the utility of a friendship like this is, like, we've got to get on the right side of the K."
"I'm glad that we're being candid about that. The first step is, a shocking amount of people don't have self-belief in the most fundamental way. Where, like, they cannot envision a world where they could be successful, wealthy. When you say that kind of snarkish comment like 'man, I wish I was rich, or it must be fun to be rich,' you're signaling to me that you don't believe that you can be rich. That's not the right energy to be around."