Eric Yen
Line-art portrait of Eric Yen

Eric Yen

The work you love isn't something you "find". You "discover" it by trying.

I want to help people who, like me, feel stuck at work and want to find their passion, use AI to try things and discover work that makes them happy.

Ex-MediaTek Senior Technical Manager (E10)M.S. CS, National Taiwan University (AI/NLP)Two-time founder20+ years building software
Subscribe for free How I can help

01 · How I can help

AI makes trying easier

I made it to E10 at MediaTek, and the stability only made me feel emptier. These are the things I used, and built, along the way.

Do your homework with AIGet the facts before you decide

  • A prompt for researching jobsKnow whether a company and a role are worth it before you apply. Paste in the job link and AI writes you a report.
  • 線上課程評價調查Before you pay, tell apart information anxiety from a course that actually fits you. The seller picked the glowing reviews; let AI dig up real opinions on PTT, Dcard and YouTube.
  • English speaking practice with ChatGPTA speaking tutor that adapts to your level, without paying for lessons. It slows down when you're lost and rephrases you more natively.

Build the idea with AIDon't wait until you're ready

With AI, an idea can be built and tried in a day. No reply to your application doesn't mean you weren't good enough. Maybe nobody was reading. I turned that idea into the Ghost Job Detector, from idea to launch in 28 hours.

28 hoursfrom idea to launch
300Kviews on Threads
8,303likes

使用說明Source它怎麼活了 28 小時

Read the road I tookFrom E10 to founder to shutdown

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02 · Milestones

Engineer, founder, shutdown, and small tools with AI

Two startups fifteen years apart, with nine years at MediaTek in between.

  1. First startup

    It failed, but for me it was a happy, enjoyable ride.

  2. 9 years, from data infrastructure to LLMs

    Data infrastructure, business dashboards, prediction, reinforcement learning, up to E10 Senior Technical Manager.

  3. Slowly losing the passion

    Scrolling my phone past midnight to put off the morning's commute. I once took a day off just to sit in a park for hours, wondering what was wrong with me.

  4. A spark buried for fifteen years, relit

    On a family trip to Japan, a friend called asking me to look over an AI Engineer job description.

  5. At 42, I pressed resign

    Handed back my retention bonus and went full time on my second startup.

  6. Started writing in public on Substack

    The decisions, the mistakes and what I learned, written down.

  7. Pulled the plug and fired myself as CEO

    If I hadn't tried, I would never have found where my limits are.

  8. Built the Ghost Job Detector in 28 hours

    300K views and 8,303 likes, then taken down the same week when 104 changed its data format.

  9. More small tools, built with AI

    An online-course review checker: real opinions before you buy.

03 · Writing

Start with these

In order, from leaving MediaTek to starting over with AI. Written in Traditional Chinese.

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04 · Where I stand

Passion isn't something you think up

  1. Passion is something you only discover after trying hard. If something seems interesting to you right now, it's worth your time to give it a real go.〈一個 Fire 自己的 CEO 的 5 個避坑教訓〉
  2. Stick with anything 100 times before you say you've really tried it. The number doesn't matter. Only real effort tells you whether you like it.Threads
  3. Don't quit cold. Keep your job, build a side project, and only make it your main thing when the timing is right.〈一個 Fire 自己的 CEO 的 5 個避坑教訓〉