Marcus’s Friends and Family Update #3 - February & March

February and March were intense months. Between ending one job and starting another, travelling and moving into a new place, this month has been a roller-coaster.

Atlassian Final Week 📶

My final week at Atlassian was an extremely social one. Most interns had wrapped up their work and spent a lot of time just hanging out. For me that meant playing ping-pong matches every day. I had a farewell lunch with my team which was delicious but we ordered way too much food.

During the internship, I had two friends I knew previously from UQIES in the same role. Given the return rate of APM interns is around 50%, we were unsure if we were all going to get an offer. Amazingly, Atlassian extended all three of us return offers. Since Darcy got a return offer last year this also means that the UQIES → Atlassian APM pipeline is sitting at a 100% return rate. We’re also trying for the elusive 100% offer decline rate 🫠.

🏓

Note for anyone wanting to get an APM return offer: there is a clear correlation between the amount of ping pong played and return offer rate.

While I’m grateful to have the offer, the real benefit lies in the psychological safety of knowing that if things don’t work out at Updoc I still have fallback options. Saying all that I am quite jealous of Atlassian announcing their sponsorship of Williams right after I left meaning I missed seeing Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon in the office 😭 .

My time between Atlassian & Updoc 🤠

While I was Atlassian I realised there were two life experiences I wanted to pursue this year:

• Going on a meditation retreat.

• Going Skiing/Snowboarding

I’d been contemplating both of these for the last few years but never put the time aside to actually pursue them. I knew my free time to travel would be significantly reduced once I joined Updoc so I gave myself a two-week gap after Atlassian and decided I would try and do both.

Wat Buddha Dhaamma ☸️

The day after finishing at Atlassian, I hitched a ride with a very generous Sri Lankan Family to Wat Buddha Dhamma. The Wat is a Buddhist temple secluded in a national park around 2 hours north of Sydney. They have an open offer for anyone to stay with them as a guest for free given you adhere to their schedule.

The energy at the Wat was unlike anything I have ever experienced. It was one of the most chill places I have ever been (maybe only Pai in Thailand competes). On my first day at the Wat, we were given a tour and taken to this isolated meditation cave in the middle of the forest with an amazing view of nature. Our host also said something that stuck with me for the rest of my time there: “You’re forced to walk mindfully at the Wat or else you will end up stepping on a snake.” 🐍

After the tour we had lunch. Lunch at the Wat was unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. Going into the temple I thought I would be eating nothing but rice and vegetables. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Monks eat like kings. I couldn’t believe just how incredibly well-fed they were. It is a Buddhist precept that Monks can only eat food that is directly offered to them. Therefore, they rely on the community to feed them. As one of the monks put it, “The lay people feed my body and in return, I nourish their soul.”

Almost every second day a group of aunties from Sydney would make the two-hour trek up to the Wat then spend 1-2 hours cooking at the onsite kitchen for the Monk’s lunch. They would prepare at least 10 different dishes, ranging from banh mi, fish curry, pasta and desserts. Think of all your favourite dishes from Vietnam, Sri Lanka & Laos all on one plate. That’s how the monks eat almost every day. Whenever someone didn’t drive up we thrived on the leftovers from these feasts.

I initially assumed the schedule at the Wat would be nothing more than rough sleeping and hard work, especially with the mandated 3:30am wakeup. However, after Lunch at the Wat, the day is essentially yours to do whatever you want. For me that mostly included reading & walking around the bush. It was incredibly refreshing to just be in nature. To be able to walk through the forest paths or sit on the front porch of the house in a reading chair for hours at a time having nothing at all to do. I highly recommend for anyone interested to go at least once. I plan on going back sometime next year for hopefully ~10 days.

Japan ⛩️

The day after I got back to Sydney I was on a flight at 6am to Japan (thanks Niel and Aryan for letting me crash on the couch).

Despite having been to Japan only twice, it is my all-around favourite country to travel outside of Australia. From the quality of the food, people, infrastructure & breadth of nature Japan has endless things to enjoy. After visiting with Connor’s family in September I decided I had to go back during winter. Catching the train from Tokyo to Nozawa and seeing a fresh dump of powder was an amazing feeling.

Snowboarding 🏂🏾
You know what was not an amazing feeling: my body after my first day of trying to learn how to snowboard. Thankfully, pain incentivises quick learning and by day 3 I was able to tackle more challenging runs. I had originally planned on listening to a few audiobooks during my days on the slopes but it turns out that snowboarding is hard. Really hard. And that meant I had to give it my full attention.

Thankfully that also meant I was in the flow state most of the day while I was engrossed in trying to not catch an edge as I made my way down the side of a mountain. I am proud to say that I did go from complete beginner on my first day to completing my first black run on my last day. But I’m also glad that I’m not going snowboarding anytime soon 👹

Tokyo ♨️

Returning from Nozawa I had one full day in Tokyo which was absolutely amazing. I started off the day at the Tsukiji Fish Market where I had the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten. After a stroll in the national gardens, I visited the advertising museum in Tokyo (did you know that Japan was the first country to invent modern marketing?). I then topped off the day at the best Onsen I think I have ever been too. They had every different type of sauna you could imagine, cold plunges, indoor and outdoor baths and an outdoor mineral spa that was just perfect. Overall highly enjoyed Japan.

Starting at Updoc 💜 🥼

I started at Updoc the day after I got back. Going from a Nasdaq-listed company to a 30-person startup has definitely been a shift in scenery. Everyone in the company now sits within a 10-metre radius of me.

I joined Updoc as their 3rd full-time product manager. I feel the PM title is a little bit misleading, however, as Updoc PM’s work very differently to PM’s at other companies. The playbook at Updoc is infused to the core with the ethos of The Lean Startup: Ship fast, measure the impact and then iterate.

I definitely think Updoc is the best place in Australia for someone early career to learn not just product but also how to run a bootstrapped company. I can see myself easily being at Updoc for the next 2-3yrs then taking those learnings and applying those skills to build something interesting.

Moving into a new place 🏡

For my first week after getting back from Japan, I was living out of a hostel. Thankfully Darcy and I happened to secure a 2 bedroom apartment in Surry Hills which is literally a 3 minute walk to the office and 2 minutes from a gym. The convenience almost justifies the ridiculous amount of rent we are paying.

Moving in I was shocked just how many things go into an apartment that I never would have thought about before. Given that I came down to Sydney with only two suitcases worth of stuff I definitely feel like I’ve amassed a lot more than that after moving into our apartment. We still need a few pieces of furniture but overall I think we’ve done well. We hosted our housewarming party on the weekend which was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who made it.

Misc activites & Catchups 🍽️

Books Read 📖

• Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. Taught me that pretty much whatever difficulty I go through is nothing compared to what these men suffered through for a year and a half and that hedonic adaptation exists even at these extremes.

• The Power of Now: amazing first half, second half was good but waffled on.

• Dungeon Crawler Carl: Recommended as one of the best Audiobooks of all time. Very unique voice acting and worth listening too.

• We are Legion (we are Bob): really cool Sci-Fi concepts, not as good as Three Body Problem though or Project Hail Mary.

Looking Ahead 🙈

• Coming up to Brisbane for a weekend on the 4th, let me know if you are around.

• Booked a Holiday with Connor to travel to the Philippines for 10 days during the Easter holidays. If anyone has any Philippines recommendations let me know.

One request 🙏🏾

• What’s one item in your home that you love? We need to furnish our new apartment somewhat nicely to justify our rent.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading,! Catch you next month 🙂

Marcus