Remember the old meme that business books are just love novels for men? Well, then business consultants are just overpriced therapists and I felt exactly like that.

Remember how nearly all speakers at invite-only leadership conferences work for consulting agencies named something like I Am So Cringe Partners Limited? That could have been me!

After something like 10 years of working for top games industry corporations and getting a huge network I felt very important and decided I could just give business advice and talk at conferences for money.

It was a decent idea and it totally worked since I am a known face that feels credible. I put a hefty price per hour so customers feel like I bring value and that is it. In fact, I was selling therapy for successful men.

Lera saved me from this boring life by daily trolling and pushing me to do something useful instead, something that makes the world a better place. “Because old boring men like you gonna die soon and I will have to live in the shitty world you will have left” - was her narrative.

I thought she was right so we started Gamedev.Camp : I bring my network and my credible face while she makes the world a better place and does all corresponding work.

This appeared to be the magic formula that helped us to raise money without a slide deck or an MVP and to pivot when the war started and killed the market for our initial idea (and thousands of Ukrainians too 😑).

Sometimes I still do consult but with a total non-bs approach and I am upfront that they pay me for therapy, not business advice. We discussed this in the audio.

For the whole podcast she rants at men but I feel like many or even most people don’t have time to self-reflect, practice empathy or think about what they’re doing and why. It changed to a better side during the pandemic, but we’re back to normal now: animal-like emotions-based instant reactions to whatever the social media feed feeds us all.

Under the cut, I explain what is on the cover and how philosophers and comedians are related to our audio diary and to the world overall.

Still, it is sad. I think we as a society should be better at life and a keeping to our values.

Umm, yeah, what are your values by the way? You can hit reply if you have an emotion to share privately.