North Macedonia, Gold Math Medalist, and Engineering Comedy w/ Andrej Ivanov | Ep 78

Today I sit with Andrej Ivanov. We talk about North Macedonia and his upbringing there. He also shares winning awards and traveling for Math. We also talk about engineering and standup.

Timestamps
(4:04) Comedy & Engineering
(6:00) North Macedonia
(18:20) Childhood in North Macedonia
(19:40) Being a Math Olympian
(23:23) Nya & Andrej Role Play
(26:00) Being Drunk The Smart Way
(28:05) Winning Math Awards
(31:43) Moving to Manchester
(38:04) Nya's First Time Living in Europe
(42:09) Moving To Switzerland
(45:29) Software Engineering
(54:02) Engineering and Comedy
(1:03:10) Advice To Younger Self

Andrej's Socials
Instagram

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Third Culture Talk Podcast is about people living in different cultures. Different than the culture they are from. Culture meaning, way of life, culture a person raised in, or place of birth. Guests ranges from third culture kids, artists, to comedians, to everyday people. We all are living in changing cultures and have a story to tell

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Music: "Chill Day" by Lakey Inspired

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;19;19
Unknown
I won a gold medal for in my country. Then I want a bronze medal in the Balkan Olympiad, which is decent. And I got something called an honorable mention in the World Cup, which is like in you don't get a medal, but you if you solve one problem fully, there's like six problems. So yeah, I did it was pretty good.

00;00;19;21 - 00;00;42;18
Unknown
The problem is we couldn't compete with the other countries. Welcome to the Third Culture Talk podcast. I'm your host Nya Yeanafehn. Yet often this podcast, we talk of people that are raised in a culture different than their parents, home culture or way of life or nationality. And now they're living in today's culture, which is vastly different than it is of our parents or even back in the day.

00;00;42;21 - 00;01;07;26
Unknown
So let's begin today's episode. That country happens to be America, but I've never heard that one, actually. Oh, you never heard those? If you don't have the club, yeah. Then, you're not really living life. Oh, shit. When you are not a native English speaker. Like, there's no matter how long I speak English. Like, you never learn about these phrases because you speak with other people that also don't learn the phrases, right?

00;01;07;27 - 00;01;26;23
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. And then part of the English language, too, is that you got some people that don't use it correctly. Like for me. Yeah. I just say something stupid and that's not the same. So. No. Well, then. So now all the English speakers in Berlin will start saying this bullshit. Maybe. And and, if they. I will take credit.

00;01;26;23 - 00;01;44;24
Unknown
I don't want to. Actually, that is something I do not want to take credit for. You can use it. Anyone wants to use that, you can use it. No problem. I won't come after you. I won't say you can't even sue in this country, right? So, yeah, you can take it. That's really funny. If you. Because you can be, an English teacher and teach people incorrect phrases that don't exist.

00;01;44;27 - 00;02;02;25
Unknown
They'll never know until they use them. That's true. And so they find, like, where I live, right? Yeah. You know, it's like an email me like, hey, you said that this is the right language, and now the people think I got the clap, you know? They think I have some disease. It's like, no way. I just, you know, I heard I heard it somewhere on a Reddit form.

00;02;02;25 - 00;02;24;08
Unknown
So it wasn't me then. No no no no no no, it was of me. Oh, she you know that song. Oh yeah baby. Oh, damn. Oh, that's 0000. We love to hear American song. That translates to other countries. Oh, yeah. That is so dope. Yeah I remember, oh, when I was learning English that the song that was very popular was.

00;02;24;08 - 00;02;42;24
Unknown
Do You Remember the way. The way. By Justin, Justin Timberlake. Oh, no. I hear you sing. Oh shit. Just the way I fuck, I don't know, but the chorus is the way I are. And I was just learning the grammar. And that was the way you are. The way I r I r. So I was like, what the.

00;02;42;24 - 00;03;01;14
Unknown
How does that make sense? I was like, what? What grammatical form is this? Damn. Yo. So American music just be even making it tougher. Yeah, yeah. I was good thing I didn't know about hip hop then. Oh, yeah, that would have been so it just a guy from North Macedonia to be like, hey, yo, what's good? Yo what's good?

00;03;01;18 - 00;03;19;18
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. That was that good. You. If you said that that means someone is going to be physically affected. That was guilty. But for me, it sounds cool. Cool for you is like, whoa, what's what's happening? What is good I don't know, was it bad before? I don't yeah, I don't know I'm moving my I, my pack is good I don't know.

00;03;19;19 - 00;03;46;19
Unknown
Yeah that's a good point. Yeah. Slavic accent sounds scary for some reason. Yeah. Is it American movies? Right. America controls everything it does. Yeah. Hold on. But does it sound scary to you when you hear another Slavic person with the Slavic languages? It just sounds like language to that. Okay, that is some propaganda. Yeah, yeah, clearly. So some issues make Slavic cute again.

00;03;46;19 - 00;04;04;28
Unknown
Let's go. That could be my contribution. Yeah. He could fill my comment. You know, just everywhere he goes, have a teddy bear, you just hug him before you do. You said just. But I love you. A little was good for you. Like, oh, shit. All right. I don't know what is good. The teddy bear. Me, the audience, what got them.

00;04;04;29 - 00;04;25;29
Unknown
But, But. Yes. So, how you been? How's things been with you? Pretty good. Just pretty busy, you know, I'm. I'm working, full time. I'm a software engineer. And then I'm trying to do as much comedy as possible. And, you know, when you when you start doing comedy, you start doing it more and more and it starts taking over your life.

00;04;25;29 - 00;04;49;08
Unknown
So yeah, this, this past few weeks, months is just work. Use up all your brain. Take a little break, go to comedy, write jokes, try try jokes. Sometimes. Sometimes do good, sometimes do bad. Try to process the feeling of bombing. Oh, yeah. Start again tomorrow, right. Work comedy? Yeah. Ham. And that mental flip to bits when you work in tech, right?

00;04;49;08 - 00;05;08;01
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. So like. Yeah doing that was is the right side of the brain. That's more technical right. Or I don't know which side of the brain. Yeah I've, I've heard I don't know the scientific thing but I've definitely felt it in my life that, it's hard to think creatively in a corporation. I don't know how to put it in words.

00;05;08;06 - 00;05;26;25
Unknown
Yeah, but I know that when I'm thinking in comedy terms, it's more like, I think one way and then during work I think another way. And then if there's a, there's a break boom or it starts, then at the end of work, boom. Now you need to be creative again. Yeah. And it's yeah, yeah. It's like crazy. So before we started.

00;05;26;25 - 00;05;51;12
Unknown
So for everyone who doesn't know, this is Andre. Andre, I don't the last name I can't pronounce. Ivanov. Cute. Ivanov. Yes. Very cute. Yes. This sounds like a figure skater. Yeah. So American Olympics, you know, like I'm a Soviet figure skater. Yeah. You know. Wow. The guess we have on this podcast is an interesting, the majestic Andre Ivanov.

00;05;51;18 - 00;06;16;24
Unknown
It sounds majestic. See, you're already doing a good work of making it sound more pleasant. The Slavic. No got great, great language. I'm learning, you know? Okay, so, you're originally from North Macedonia? Yeah. Yes. Different than Macedonia. Yeah. Yeah. That's, Yeah. Okay. I don't know the history. It's very confusing. The. In short, no. So there's, a region in Greece called Macedonia.

00;06;16;26 - 00;06;40;10
Unknown
And we're, a country that's called North Macedonia. Actually, we changed our name to North Macedonia, like seven years ago or something like, because we've been having beef with Greece for, for a long time over the trademark, of the name because Macedonia also Alexander the Great, his people were called like Macedonians and ancient Macedonians. Oh, wow.

00;06;40;11 - 00;07;06;28
Unknown
Yeah. So that's where it comes from. Alexander the Great Macedonia. Okay. Yeah. Wow. So North Macedonia, an early a young country, a very I mean, not I mean, not young maybe the name or the. Yeah. Well, officially we were we're independent since 91. So before 91, we were, in, Communist Union. So it was like the Soviet Union, but the cuter Soviet Union, it was called.

00;07;07;00 - 00;07;29;03
Unknown
It was warmer. You know, I don't know if it's warm, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's was it is warmer. So yeah, it's a communist union of seven countries like in the Balkan. It's, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Kosovo, I think. Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. So we were in a union and then 91, we the union broke.

00;07;29;06 - 00;07;46;16
Unknown
Everyone started gaining independence. There was war. There was war for for some reason, for us. So whenever a country left the Union, war started in the country and we were like, yeah, we want to live to though, like, yeah, you're good. All right, all right. You just don't want to leave. It's like, whoa, whoa, not you. No no no, you you're staying here.

00;07;46;16 - 00;08;06;21
Unknown
What are we talking about? Oh, we all can leave. Yeah. So basically, yeah, we kind of lived for free without war, so. Which is nice. There's. That is though. Yeah. Yeah. Most countries can't say that after some change from, higher down regime that controlled it. Yeah, yeah. And leave it's like a worldwide phenomenon. Yeah. Yeah. No, even Africa, right?

00;08;06;22 - 00;08;27;11
Unknown
Is like, sometime that happens, but that's good. That's dope that your country was, spared the war. That usually happens after, disintegration of a, a regime, a what would you. Yeah, it's a I guess. Yeah, I guess it's a regime. Yeah. Or empire. I don't even know. Yeah, that sounds weird. Of course. No, definitely not Empire.

00;08;27;11 - 00;08;48;28
Unknown
But. Yeah, yeah, I a regime. Yeah, yeah. See I'm learning. Yeah, I'm learning the nuances of words. Yeah. You know, I'm learning a little bit. Okay. And yeah, this, this region is really interesting and funny in a way, because all the countries in this region have beef with each other, but there's never really war. It's just kind of shit talking all the time.

00;08;48;28 - 00;09;09;15
Unknown
And like you go on YouTube, you'll find just people fucking fuck you, fuck you. Macedonia. Like it's a bunch of Facebook and YouTube shit and and people on the in the news or like this fucking. You'll never believe what the Bulgarians did. And they're like, you'll never believe what Macedonians did, but not really. So lots of conflicts. Okay, so let's learn a little bit.

00;09;09;15 - 00;09;30;21
Unknown
Macedonia. Right. Because a new country probably is probably new for some of our viewers, right? Yeah. So North Macedonia is a country that is seven years old. You said Nana seven years old. The the name of it or something, the actual naming of it, but has been free since 1991. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So what is Macedonia, North Macedonia known for?

00;09;30;24 - 00;09;50;22
Unknown
North Macedonia. What is like the thing is known for Germany got their bread and beer, France got their baguettes and cheese, you know, Netherlands have rain. You know, what is North Macedonia? Well, so that's the thing. No one knows anything about North Macedonia. So whatever I say right now, this is what Macedonia will be known for.

00;09;50;23 - 00;10;07;21
Unknown
Okay. This is good. Is it putting my country on the map? There you go. He's put it on the map. Are we doing a good job? All right. I'll tell you the things that I like the most. Okay. About North Macedonia? Mountains. A lot of mountains. Wherever you go, you see mountains. Really beautiful to see. We we don't have.

00;10;07;21 - 00;10;35;25
Unknown
See, but there is, one of the biggest lakes in Europe. It's really nice. It's a big lake with, crystal, like, really beautiful nature, crystal clear water, a lot of churches. Wow. All of that stuff. Very good break. Yeah. This is common for all, Balkan countries because, you don't know Rocky. It's like the, it's a super high alcohol, alcoholic drink.

00;10;36;00 - 00;11;04;09
Unknown
Really? Yeah. So it's like the vodka of the Balkans. Whoa. And, like, everyone will drink it. My parents make it every year, every cup. Most of the houses make it themselves every year. Like, what is it made out of? It's. I guess it's the closest to whiskey. Oh, okay. And yeah, each household will make it each year. Just a few weeks ago, my parents sent me a photo from the basement with they've got this big ancient devices for filtering, for filtering.

00;11;04;09 - 00;11;30;19
Unknown
Right. But the thing is, this shit is strong like this because they there's no device usually in the household to measure the alcohol percentage. So you kind of I bullet it's like so it could be it's like 40 5060. It's it's pretty strong. Wow. So you would drink this. You would drink raki as an appetizer. So appetizers are very important in Macedonia bro.

00;11;30;21 - 00;11;53;20
Unknown
When my parents eat they don't care about the main dish. It's all about the appetizer. They have like a salad. Yeah. And shots of Russia. And then it's the shots of Raqqa and the salad. And by the way by the time the main course comes, you're excluded. It doesn't matter what your ethnic what the. Okay. So interesting. So a lot of shots before food.

00;11;53;23 - 00;12;13;02
Unknown
Yeah. But it's not like it's not like the American shot church. Okay. It's like the you look. Yeah. Okay. So you say something is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you take a bit of pickled stuff in the, the super it the alcohol hits you super hard. Then the pickle hard, stuff hits you super hard from the other side.

00;12;13;02 - 00;12;38;22
Unknown
So it's like, damn, just a lot of pain before the main course. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Okay, so North Macedonia okay. A lot of approaches that are very strong. Yeah. So that's the alcohol. We we fuck with white cheese. White cheese. Oh yeah. Okay. We'll what? It just, like cheese but white okay. That's really good. I mean most cheeses for me yellowish but yeah white cheese.

00;12;38;22 - 00;13;01;13
Unknown
So yeah. Yeah for, for us we have a separate name for white cheese and cheese. So you would find different types of white cheese and it's the, the, the flavor is different than normal. Yeah. And like the structure and you would find different ones. That's really good. Wow. Yeah okay. White cheese. So I got to make sure to try out white cheese I try out the red genic.

00;13;01;15 - 00;13;33;13
Unknown
How you say it, right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. I say that was like a city in Iceland. Oh. My bad. Okay. So you had those things and what's the what's a third one? What's the third one that, North Macedonia is known for. Okay, so I said the nature, this food. What? I think it's known for this super intricate conflicts with this neighbors, that are super complicated and no one cares about the except for us.

00;13;33;18 - 00;13;52;04
Unknown
So we have a we've had a decades long conflict with Greece. We've had a decades long conflict with Bulgaria, with Albania. Wow. It is just yeah, a lot of arguing in this region. I mean, you know, I don't know why, but I feel like some of those countries in the Balkans, when it comes to arguing, it's like, no joke.

00;13;52;06 - 00;14;18;24
Unknown
Like in terms of, like the, let's say, the loudness of the room. Yeah. That's the because that's the thing. There's no there's no discussions here. Yeah. Like you will never see two people from two different countries sitting down and having arguments, you know, fuck you. It's oh fuck you. Ha. There like that. Yeah. So that's what happens any time there's a diplomat that comes in from one of the countries, hey, fuck you for a second.

00;14;18;27 - 00;14;37;09
Unknown
He has a big scroll. He's like, okay, let me read my points. First of all, let me start with saying, fuck you. So he goes to the Parliament to try to like, do some type of like, no, it's some trade agreement. Hey, so fuck you and your grain and your bread and your beer. No, fuck your beer and your there.

00;14;37;09 - 00;14;53;14
Unknown
And this and your car is no fuck you. America is better. No. Fuck you. Come to drink. Try my rock. You. You try my rock. Yeah. And, Yeah. After. After you get the pleasantries out of like. But for real, you should, you know, import the manufacturing of the cars in this country. We we think we can have a good trade agreement.

00;14;53;16 - 00;15;11;18
Unknown
They get it all the heat first and then after, they're like, all right, but we should, like, maybe, you know, broker a deal. Yeah. The grain prices are going high due to the war in Russia. We should. We're pretty broke. We actually need to sell stuff. But actually the price of, energy and fuel is going up. We should actually think about partnering up or something, you know?

00;15;11;18 - 00;15;34;00
Unknown
But by the way, fuck you. You know, while you were speaking, I remember this is a funny thing. So, you know, we've had this conflict with Greece, and there is we came to a resolution, a few years ago, we changed our name to North Macedonia. Nice. And, the agreement was like, we will remove any mentions of Alexander the Great, from our country.

00;15;34;00 - 00;15;58;22
Unknown
So we will rename the airport, and we have. But the thing is, we have a huge statue of Alexander the Great in the square of the capital. Yeah. And the Greece was like, yeah, you you you need to take this down. And then what, what our government did is they, they renamed it to anonymous for euro dollars. So no, there is a big as 40 meter statue of Alexander the Great with his with his flag and everything.

00;15;58;22 - 00;16;21;27
Unknown
Looks like him. Yeah, it's a synonym. So it really, who's this big guy that, the different Alexander Douglas? There was a lot of Alexander's. Yeah. During this time, you know, don't have broad shoulders. And the flag. I conquered a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah. That's hilarious. Wow. What a weird, not weird, but I realize that in European countries, there's a lot of things that are very, like.

00;16;21;27 - 00;16;37;19
Unknown
People have pride on that. They were like, do like they have so much pride is like, no, you need to do this before we do anything. It's like a statue, right? It's like, no, no, no, we won't allow you to rename your country does not recognize you until you do this one thing. Yeah. That's American is like, can we just destroy our history?

00;16;37;19 - 00;16;54;22
Unknown
Right. We just try to, you know, just cover it over. You know, we're like, oh, racism. What's that now? You know, but that's inside. No, that's a good point. Yeah, yeah. It's like most of our history. It lasts at least like 20, 30 years max before it gets rebuilt into high rise. You know, I mean, just like, that's a good point.

00;16;54;22 - 00;17;14;29
Unknown
I, I kind of don't mind that, because whenever I go in this, like in the Balkans, in Eastern Europe, everyone focus on history. But the present is so fucked. Like, let's let's just focus on the present a little bit, like our hospitals are not working. Let's think about, oh, shit, 2000 years ago later and fix the hospital first.

00;17;15;03 - 00;17;38;06
Unknown
Right. The busses are not working. There's, like, nobody's stolen from the hospital. It's like, so intricate. It's. I know we need to expand this hospital. There's more people that are sick. We needed not this stone and take it out. Yeah, yeah. So I just it it's interesting. A lot of bittersweet emotion. Yeah. So North Macedonia is because you know I'm, I'm, I'm in this zone where I'm about to start exploring different places.

00;17;38;06 - 00;17;59;06
Unknown
So I mean I got a travel out there and see what North Macedonia is about. Sound like you know if Alexander the Great was there then I got to check it out. No, absolutely. For for tourism, it's a pretty cool place because I would say it's different than a lot of other places in Europe. And also tourism is not that developed.

00;17;59;06 - 00;18;16;19
Unknown
So it's kind of there's a lot of places that are untouched. It's a good adventure. Wow. I mean you, I've taken a lot of friends there and really usually usually they love it because it's like you have, you don't know what to expect, right. Because you don't know anything. It's like I'm taking you to Narnia. It could be.

00;18;16;21 - 00;18;36;27
Unknown
It could be anything. Yeah. Wow. Okay, I gotta check that out. So North Macedonia and, how was it growing up there for you, like, in general? Like, was it like, was it cool? Was it like, give me the hell out of here? Like. Yeah, let me think. Yeah. It was it was cool. I was, yeah.

00;18;36;27 - 00;19;07;26
Unknown
My parents were great. Very supportive parents. I went to so the high school, I went to, it was like this private high school, and, the goal of everyone was to, like, do extracurricular activities and eventually get the, you know, get the hell out of here. Yeah. But, yeah, so everyone was very ambitious. Everyone was trying to get into an as good university as possible.

00;19;07;29 - 00;19;31;24
Unknown
So, yeah, it didn't even make the decision. I just entered that high school and like, that was the environment. So, I was like, just. Okay. Yeah, there's no other option. I'm just going to study and I'll try to get into a good university, get out of here. Nice. Yeah. And then, I think he told me, like the first place you went to outside of went to, you know, graduated, in North Macedonia.

00;19;31;24 - 00;19;55;06
Unknown
You went to, the UK. Manchester. Yes. Right. First one was Manchester. So how was that? Because it was that the first place you travel to outside of that region? Or did you travel like to other countries and stuff before? Yeah, I was traveling. I was, I was, participating in this math competition. So through that I had a chance to go to Thailand and Hong Kong, but that was, that was like a week there, right?

00;19;55;12 - 00;20;17;19
Unknown
Manchester was the first time, like, living somewhere away from home. Hold on. So let's go. Let's circle back. So you won a math. So you math competition use it. Yeah. And it allowed you to travel to Thailand and those places. Oh yeah baby. Wow. So how was that coming from North Macedonia and then traveling to Thailand? I don't know, that feels like a such a jump.

00;20;17;21 - 00;20;40;01
Unknown
Yeah, well, it's, it's there's this, competition for math, like a World Cup. It's called a math Olympiad. So basically, every country, first holds competitions within the country. They choose a team, and then the teams go and compete in a in a single place, which happened to be Thailand or Hong Kong for the years that I went.

00;20;40;05 - 00;21;00;14
Unknown
Wow. So yeah, I was Captain Macedonia, baby. Nice, bro. James, you welcome superstar over here. Ladies. There you go. Berlin, ladies. Okay. So, what was it like? How did you get in? Like, was it like, some tryout or something and just gave you a book and just like, hey, look, just, you know, figure this out.

00;21;00;15 - 00;21;21;22
Unknown
Yeah. Say it out loud. It's the same thing with, I think with the high school, it was also a lot of focus, a lot of people that went to these competitions. So I was surrounded by all these people that go to competition. It's a similar thing, like, comedy, you know, like you surround yourself with people that do comedy, and everyone's so passionate about it and just keep doing it and doing it.

00;21;21;22 - 00;21;47;07
Unknown
That was so that was my life in high school. Everyone around me just super, you know, autistic, like into math. And that just encouraged you, encourages you to be more into it. So I was just like solving problems, bro. I was, running away from classes. So I can do math. Like, I would I was hiding, I was hiding, I was hiding in other rooms doing my math problems.

00;21;47;07 - 00;22;08;13
Unknown
So what happened when you found out? Like when your teacher or your mom or dad found you out? Like, did they did they get mad at you for or for learning more math? Have done the math doesn't mean talk to you. Yeah, the teachers get mad because it's like you don't respect their subjects enough, you know? So I'm like skipping some shitty philosophy class to work on my math.

00;22;08;13 - 00;22;30;28
Unknown
So it required some negotiation and charming for the for the teachers. Oh, my. You know, kind of the the cultures in Europe are so interesting, like the things that people pride themselves. It's so like the teachers getting mad that you you're not learning the flat, you're learning math, that that's what you're doing. Like, yeah, you're skipping class to learn more like trigonometry and like calculus.

00;22;30;28 - 00;22;48;14
Unknown
Like how how dare you learn more? It's like, why you. That's a dream for an American teacher. What if I had a if I ever had a son and he. I found them, like, I don't know, in a corner with a math book, trying to learn. I'm like, I will find you and you pretend, see? Like I'm like, oh, my.

00;22;48;14 - 00;23;14;05
Unknown
What? Yes, please. Please disobey me to be the next Albert Einstein. Which would you be worried if your son is like, tutoring all the time and at some point. And I think for a son, at some point, you go. Bye. All right, well, look, the way you came into this world is that I met your mom. So, I don't know where you trying to go in life, but you kind of have to go outside.

00;23;14;05 - 00;23;35;10
Unknown
She wasn't in a math book. Your mind and you find her in between. Page 235 and 245. Like, you know, got to go outside. Okay, well, let me do, let's do a role play. I'll be. I'll be the sun. And you're worried about my involvement in math, and it will be very easy for me to act because I am this.

00;23;35;12 - 00;24;03;15
Unknown
X x cubed x cubed plus y cubed equals x plus 100. And I took Pythagoras I mean that. Yes. What are you doing? Is that Eastern European or African accent? Duh. Okay. I, I'm just trying to solve this combinatorics problem. What a combinatorics problem. It's. I think if I use the pigeonhole principle. Pigeons. I told you, there's no birds in this house.

00;24;03;17 - 00;24;25;21
Unknown
Dad, stop embarrassing me in front of my math friends. He's usually not like this. He knows I told you about the invisible friends. They're not real. Did their dad stop saying that Pythagoras is not real? Even though you know even though he died 2000 years ago, it doesn't mean that he cannot be my friend. Look, the number one, the number one thing here in this household is when you're dead, you're dead.

00;24;25;24 - 00;24;48;00
Unknown
So if you keep on being in the math book, you're going to be dead. What happened to girls? Math is better than to see that coming. Whoa, whoa. I told you about that shit, okay? I told you about that shit. Okay, balance. Balance. You know about balance, right? Math. You know your balance, right? It's like an equation. Yeah, like plus and minus one plus one.

00;24;48;03 - 00;25;12;28
Unknown
You should equal you at some point that you're so dumb. All right. I had a hard life. Okay, one. Let's let's show you. You embarrassed me. I don't know, math. What do you. I'm just taking out my anger on you. Just like. Hey, he's, I don't know what you're talking about. Learn the rules. Learn to get a woman, and then stay in the house and make whiskey.

00;25;13;01 - 00;25;32;11
Unknown
You know what I like? When you're doing accents. It's a journey. It starts off. It was a bit African, eastern European. Then it ended. Is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yeah. My brain is going through a lot right now. Culturally, I'm trying to learn German. There's some African stuff came out. Kid is now authority put into it. And his Americanism, there's envy.

00;25;32;11 - 00;25;55;13
Unknown
Yeah. He's actually doing some actual, you know, real mathematic words and shit, like, sure. Now my mental. I'm being challenged. I'm like, oh, fuck, you really come into this? Was he actually, this is actually for real. If you said gibberish, I would have been still to the one accent. Then many stars saying Pythagoras. I got triggered PTSD.

00;25;55;13 - 00;26;15;10
Unknown
Yeah. I was like, oh fuck. But daggers, but dagger ism theory, something, you know, that's funny. But while we were doing this, I just remember this actually happened. So when I got drunk the first time, it was New Year's Eve. Oh, shit. And I got, I got super fucked up. I still didn't know, like, how alcohol works.

00;26;15;12 - 00;26;33;20
Unknown
So we were, like, drinking with my friend from a bowl, and we were like, oh, this is where, you know, it doesn't hit you immediately. So you think, oh, I guess I'm really good at drinking. So we just kept drinking and then just hit me at once. I lost consciousness and then I knew I did some crazy shit, but I didn't remember.

00;26;33;20 - 00;26;52;22
Unknown
And then my friends told me the next day they were like, bro, you are going up to girls, to every single girl in the party. It was like, you know your heart. You had a stick from a tree with you. And they were you were giving them math problems on the ground. You were drawing equations, autograph. The bro that.

00;26;52;24 - 00;27;00;23
Unknown
I'm not going to lie to you when you say girls, he says stick. I got very.

00;27;00;25 - 00;27;21;00
Unknown
Math equations are the best possible outcome. After you say I. That was a twist that I was not expecting. I expecting the other twist, but it was a bigger twist. Use like girls sticks. I was like, right. Let's. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, whatever. But they you said I was drawing on the sand math problem was, damn, bro, you the real Albert Einstein?

00;27;21;00 - 00;27;45;09
Unknown
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Eastern Europeans are cute. Yeah, we're. They're amazed by your mathematician stick. Oh, I don't remember. And I'm kid. I'm happy. I don't remember, bro. You know how that's the first thing you did when you first got blackout drunk? Yeah. Wrote fucking math problems on the ground to women that bro. Wow, what an advanced country that is.

00;27;45;09 - 00;28;05;28
Unknown
An advanced country for the young men there to just draw math problems on the ground when they get drunk. Yeah, yeah, that's I guess that's a like a small country mentality or like I need to try to be the best to get out of here. Sure. Yeah. True. Yeah. Wow. So you then you okay? So you learned the math.

00;28;05;28 - 00;28;36;25
Unknown
You went to Thailand. Did you win any awards or something like that, or was you, like, kind of like. Yeah, I was, yeah, I won, I did, so I won a gold medal for in my country. Wow. Then I won a bronze medal in the Balkan Olympiad, which is, which is decent. And I got something called an honorable mention in the, World Cup, which is like, know you don't get a medal, but you if you solve one problem fully, there's like six problems.

00;28;37;01 - 00;29;03;01
Unknown
So, so so yeah, it did. It was pretty good. The problem is we couldn't compete with the other countries. Yeah. Like, what are the top countries? Yeah, well, of course us is first usually. Because but they have like training. They have people training them all the time. I was just kind of by myself looking at problems online, like on the toilet, trying to solve figure shit out by myself.

00;29;03;08 - 00;29;28;00
Unknown
Right. And, and the second reason is the US had Asians. We didn't have Asians. So it's kind of an unfair to. And we say Asian. You talking about India, China, the whole I think it's mostly the US thing was Chinese. So let's be honest. Yeah. The US there was 100% Chinese. The single white dude. Yeah. I mean in America when it comes, I mean, yeah, unfortunately in America you can make it in life in many different ways.

00;29;28;00 - 00;29;43;24
Unknown
The math is not even in like the top five. So that's why so many other people come from different countries. I mean, like, all right, well, if you're not going to focus, we're going to focus on America. People born in America trying to like not scam, but it's like, oh, let me, let me, let me sell, let me do some business.

00;29;43;24 - 00;30;00;14
Unknown
Let me you know, be the middleman, not the I don't want to build this shit. You know, I won't give it to the other guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let the other people come in the country. I'm going to just sell it. That. That's an American man. America is crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really crazy. Oh, something I just remember this story with.

00;30;00;18 - 00;30;25;25
Unknown
So we're. Do you know Bashar al-Assad? The, yes. A dictator from Syria that recently fled the country is now free. Yeah. So by mistake, I met his son there. I met the son of Bashar al-Assad. He was actually, the son of Bashar al-Assad. Was, in the Syrian team. Wow. So basically, after the competition, we went in Hong Kong, we went to play football, went to a football team.

00;30;25;25 - 00;30;43;25
Unknown
And Syria team. Is there and Macedonia team is here. We like yeah let's play. So he was like the captain of the team and he gives me his hand and he was like he gives me his full name. You know Ahmed al-Assad or something like that. I was like, okay, we go full name. I'm Andre, one of.

00;30;43;28 - 00;30;59;14
Unknown
Did you know at the time, you know, I had no idea we were hanging out for like a few hours. We actually we were hanging out for the whole time. And then someone. I don't know how we found it online. We're like, oh, shit. This is the son of Bashar al-Assad. Oh, that is why you. Yeah, we had the same number of points.

00;30;59;16 - 00;31;19;12
Unknown
Oh, I mean, have you ever said that at a party or. Probably not. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm too busy giving girls problem, math problems. Oh, okay. Right. Yeah. Now, you don't give women not regular problems. Math problems. Ones that are hard to solve. I think he's emotionally distant, as I know. Baby, I got Pythagorean him problem.

00;31;19;14 - 00;31;43;04
Unknown
I got 99 problems, but a big chain one. I got 99 problems. And they're all math. Oh, hip hop is hilarious. Wow. Okay, so, wow, a lot has happened in that and that Thailand place. You met a lot of interesting people. You know, you won an award. I mean, yeah, to one to win something in a math Olympics.

00;31;43;04 - 00;32;15;11
Unknown
That is wild. Yeah. So that's all you being and all that led you to Manchester, United Kingdom? Yeah, yeah. And boy, that was probably a a transition for you. Like, I mean in terms of the bulking culture to now Manchester UK culture. Yeah. Yeah. Like how was that from that move. It was interesting man. I think because I was such a nerd, I wasn't I think my emotions started developing very slowly for like, a human being, I think.

00;32;15;13 - 00;32;42;09
Unknown
So before I left, you know, I had all my friends back there. I had a girlfriend there. I had my family, you know, in Macedonia. It didn't occur to me once that it might be hard to leave all that behind. I was like, no, no, no, I'm going to go to Manchester. And then I, I reached in my, dorm room and it was, this fucking shit is tiny room with a spring.

00;32;42;09 - 00;33;00;24
Unknown
A shit is spring a bit. And then, I was like, what the fuck do I do? And I just started crying. It's just all the emotions that my young brain couldn't comprehend. They all came like the start just flood, started flooding in and I was just crying for. So, I mean, was this a good university? Was it like.

00;33;00;24 - 00;33;18;27
Unknown
It sounds like it wasn't. No, no it it's it's a decent university okay. It was just the initial change. Yeah. Then it was, getting better. But it's a, it's a cool place. I was just saying that I, I didn't process it. And when I realized, oh, shit, I'm here now, there's no going back. I was like, fuck, this is so hard.

00;33;19;03 - 00;33;41;07
Unknown
But it's actually Manchester is a nice place. Oh, it's, good university. The life. Lots of stuff happening. Not too expensive, the UK. The one thing about the UK, it's a bit, dangerous. Like you, you hear, especially, when you're a student, you live in, like, the poorer areas, and there's, like, a lot of thieves that know that students live there and that you are reckless.

00;33;41;07 - 00;34;06;19
Unknown
So they. But they robbed us once. But, Rob, you know, we had a house. And the guy, the guy that was living on the ground floor, he was like they were smoking weed and, he had his window open, and one of my flatmates called him over in the hallway. He was gone for like 15 seconds. Some guy came with a bike, jumped in, stole his laptop, his phone and jumped out in, like, 15 seconds.

00;34;06;22 - 00;34;28;11
Unknown
And then we we called the police, and the police was like, oh, yeah, just leave the window open for evidence. Will be back in. We'll we'll come in the next week. We were like, wait, what? Yeah, leave it. There was saying, wait, I think I was able to get in the. Yeah UK police. It's so yeah, it's a bit, I was, I was a bit, scared at times I think.

00;34;28;14 - 00;34;47;18
Unknown
Yeah. Because I mean Manchester has a lot of stereotypes of it being like pretty much rough or so from what I've heard from people like who's been in the UK or lived in the UK. Yeah, Manchester, like the, there's like even a type of accent they have that is a little more difficult to hear maybe. No, no, no, I think it's another city because Manchester is really sweet.

00;34;47;18 - 00;35;07;11
Unknown
You go, yeah. You go into a store and they're like, how are you doing love? What would you want? The love everyone is calling you love. I was that for you because, I mean, I'm assuming the word love was probably not mentioned as much in North Macedonia, I'm assuming. Yeah, yeah, but I have assumptions about Soviet post-Soviet countries that, like affection.

00;35;07;14 - 00;35;31;20
Unknown
Not a big thing. Oh, so no, that's actually we're different than that. Okay, so so Soviet countries are more cold. I think we are pretty warm. Like, okay. Like there's a lot of hugging and closeness. Yeah. It's not like Russia. Yeah. Yeah. That was funny. It's it's more like. But it to. Okay. All right. Yeah that's good.

00;35;31;20 - 00;35;49;05
Unknown
Don't say I did some try my brother to. You got the shoulders. Oh no you got. Oh yeah. Yeah. That should look at that. Look at that. He got the fingers too. Oh. Okay. Now, I'm not a lot about North Macedonia. Okay, I gotta go the. Yeah, you definitely gotta go. Yeah, yeah, you'll have a good time.

00;35;49;08 - 00;36;08;00
Unknown
For the UK, I was thinking, so love was fine, but I didn't know about the phrase. You're right. So, like, I was outside. And so if someone is being even a stranger like Hill instead of yellow, they'll say, you're right, mate. And I was like, well, do I have some, like, do it? I thought, do I have blood or something?

00;36;08;07 - 00;36;40;17
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. Like what's happening was, I think I am good. I mean, I thought I was good before I walked out the door. That's hilarious. Yeah. So he was, like, learning a bit. Yeah. So. And, Oh, man, I, I, I only when I went there, I realized how hard my accent is before that because when, before that I was doing all these tests like s.a.t.s, blah, blah, blah, where you like, you do English on a super, super sophisticated levels with this like grunt, eloquent words.

00;36;40;19 - 00;36;58;19
Unknown
Right? But it's only in writing and you don't realize that when you speak, you speak like this. And then someone filmed a video for Instagram and I watched it. Then I was like, wait, this is what I sound like? Oh my, what the. I thought I was a professor and I was like, hello, I am Andre, I come from Macedonia.

00;36;58;20 - 00;37;18;18
Unknown
No country for me. Hello. It's like, I know better. I know more than this. I know more than my accent of English. Yeah, well, that's so interesting. But also that's important to say too, because I mean, look, man, you was in a math Olympics and stuff, right? And unfortunately, people have assumptions and stereotypes about people sounding a certain way with the English.

00;37;18;18 - 00;37;35;13
Unknown
Yeah. But you clearly you're very smart. Yeah. So that's, that's a messed up thing to for some people might be like, oh you know, hello. You know like, I don't know, but you know, it's just English, but you probably know better English than the people that do speak English. We think about it in terms of sat like, yeah, because you.

00;37;35;14 - 00;37;51;07
Unknown
Yeah, native speakers don't take this test. And I mean, there's a in this case, you learn so many words that you will never fucking use in your entire existence. There you go. And if you use them, no one will understand them. So what's the point of using them? Right? I'm speaking my English. My whole life you said a word.

00;37;51;07 - 00;38;07;26
Unknown
I would have not understood. And I speak English the whole, you know. So you probably. Yeah, you probably know all the corner cases of English and everything. Whereas for us we're like, yeah, I don't mean I don't know. Yeah. Doesn't matter. Yeah. I mean but how was it for you when you Germany, the first country that you lived abroad.

00;38;07;27 - 00;38;24;00
Unknown
Yeah, it's the first country I lived abroad. Yeah. And it it has been in terms of learning the language, you mean, or just how it has been living here. Yeah. Just some adjustments that you need to make or it's similar to. Yeah. So I would say the adjustments was that the what. I mean I complain about this a lot, but the lack of sun was something.

00;38;24;00 - 00;38;51;22
Unknown
But the first thing actually let me not even use that as a cliche. The first thing was that just not being in an overly capitalist place was very different for me. I just that's that's just what were my day to day. My whole existence was, was just like, make a lot of money, get to some higher point so you can, like, buffer yourself against the impending, being at the bottom rung and like, you know, going to the hospital and being broke forever or like that, like it was just always that.

00;38;51;24 - 00;39;07;09
Unknown
So being somewhere where, like, it was just chill. You go to a restaurant, you know, you're eating and I'm like, hey, what the let me get the bill. I put my card out. Oh no, we take cash. I don't have cash. Yeah. You go to the ATM just like right around the corner, go down five blocks. I'll tell you about ten minutes.

00;39;07;09 - 00;39;35;08
Unknown
I'm like you. You trusted me to leave here with after I'm done eating and to pay. I mean, you give me up ten minutes away, how can I? How about I don't come back, you know, so being in a country where it had a lot of social cohesion, meaning that, for example, everyone follows the rules in a way that if the light is red, to see that many people just stop and just like, like patiently wait, even though they can go, that was like, whoa, what?

00;39;35;08 - 00;39;58;27
Unknown
Like, oh, okay. Yeah, I see what you mean. Have you ever been to Switzerland? Switzerland is like the God tier level of this. Yeah. In Switzerland, if you hike on a mountain, farmers will put up stands, selling cheese. And, like, there's the cheeses, there's the prices, but there's no one there. It's just you take the cheese, you leave money.

00;39;58;29 - 00;40;22;03
Unknown
What the. Yeah. That's quite. It's crazy. You know, it's funny, I would imagine, imagine if, like, they just had somebody in the hills just like, well, maybe like a tranquilizer gun or something that just waiting for you to just not pay. If you like. Honey, we got a cheese for free, you know. Have you tried to American tourist get tranquilize it.

00;40;22;03 - 00;40;39;21
Unknown
Just got someone in the bushes to drag their bodies. Just like I. You come to you, you start waking up like, oh, what? What happened that night? Well, you know what happens, right? Oh, this is what happens. We still cheese in Switzerland, you know. Now we're going to make cheese out of you, buddy. American cheese, American cheese.

00;40;39;21 - 00;41;00;21
Unknown
They shake you up a little bit, then you leave, you like, okay, we'll follow the rules. We'll follow the rules. But, yeah, don't tell anybody. You know, the lead. The fucking cheese alone. But yeah, that's okay. So that was something that was very different from in terms of the social cohesion. And then also money not being the overall thing for most things here.

00;41;00;28 - 00;41;20;16
Unknown
That makes any sense. Like, you know, again, living in places like, you know, because before Berlin, I lived in New York City for a while. So New York City is those places where capitalism is in your face all the time. You like the the way you date even is like money, like eat the how you go about the money, even where you live.

00;41;20;16 - 00;41;37;25
Unknown
This shows how much money you have. If somebody says, I live in a Lower East Side, that means, you got some money or you live in Midtown, like Midtown East, you buy what? You know, you, what you doing? Right? So living in a place that wasn't all like that, that was very interesting, I would say. Yeah.

00;41;37;25 - 00;41;59;20
Unknown
Yeah. You know. Yeah, I've noticed that. Toyota. I went to New York briefly. Oh, yeah. Right. Feeling. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So different than Berlin. Oh so different. Yeah, yeah. Some people say it may be the same, but, you know, you go to New York, you just feel the wealth and the disparity. Yeah. You know, like you feel the difference between rich and poor so quick in New York.

00;41;59;23 - 00;42;25;22
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. You know, but please. Yeah. So. All right. So Manchester UK used there for a bit. You know UK is an interesting place. But then from the UK where did you move to Berlin or Germany or where do you live after? So it was Switzerland after that. So kind of my thinking was, so back then, it didn't come.

00;42;25;24 - 00;42;52;10
Unknown
There was. No, I didn't even consider that wasn't a thing. I was just, focusing on my studies and everything. So after Manchester, I wanted to study in the best possible place that I could. After that, and Zurich, there's a technical university in Zurich, which is, like, really, really good. So I went there, I was, I was there for like two and a half years.

00;42;52;13 - 00;43;10;03
Unknown
So at the start of the studies, I was still in this mindset of like, oh, I'm going to work my ass off. I'm going to be a PhD. A special boy that I will invent some I will the I will invent something special in this world. Yeah. But then as the time was going by, I was realizing, like, this is not really me.

00;43;10;05 - 00;43;37;11
Unknown
Like I'm not the ideal me is not someone that sits and just thinks by himself, like, hey, I had a lot of curiosity to, I don't know, just, meet people like, travel. I don't know, just go out of my comfort zone. So I didn't fit in in Zurich because Zurich is a place. It's beautiful, but it's very homogenous, like I would say, in terms of what people are.

00;43;37;12 - 00;43;58;16
Unknown
So you in Zurich, you you have a super high paying job, you focus on your career, you hike, and that's kind of it. So you pay for things that are not being you, but you buy cheese. Yeah, yeah, you have to buy it is you. That's very important. Very important. Or else. Yeah. Actually cheese is huge in in Switzerland.

00;43;58;18 - 00;44;26;17
Unknown
But yeah. Yeah. So I was studying there and then I had to do an internship because I was running out of money because Switzerland is expensive as fuck. So I really had to do an internship to finish the studies. I was like really put in a corner. So it just applied everywhere. In Switzerland, it's hard to, when you're non EU like me, like they're very strict with, like, even if your resume is perfect, like you've got internships, super good universities, it's hard to get an internship.

00;44;26;22 - 00;44;48;18
Unknown
So I was just trying everywhere outside. And it just happened that I got the internship in Berlin. It was decent. I was like, okay, I'll take it. And I came, did six months in Berlin. I really liked it. I liked working in a company. I fucking loved Berlin as a as a city, you know, like all all this because everyone is in the is kind of very curious about everything.

00;44;48;18 - 00;45;09;10
Unknown
And, everyone is doing stuff I don't. I just really loved it. So I finished the Masters, came back here to the same job, same same everything. Oh, my. So same job you internet and then, you know, you working there? Yeah. Yeah. Nice. And, yeah, I started doing companies so normally. So starting being more social, starting doing more comedy, all of these things.

00;45;09;12 - 00;45;24;03
Unknown
And I fucking loved my last 2 or 3 years here, you know that is bro. And then. Yeah. You working in, tech right now, right. Yes. Nice. And which is, cliche in, Berlin, as I hear. But, I think, tech is, I think tech. When people say tech, it can mean so many different things.

00;45;24;03 - 00;45;47;27
Unknown
It can be marketing, project management, it can be engineering, all those things. But, you know, you also do engineering, which is. Yeah, I'm a software engineering engineer. I guess it's a cliche, but it's true that, yeah, I find that when people study anything technical, they converge to software engineering because it's so much in demand. Oh, yeah. I have a lot of friends that they'll study mechanical engineering, electrical.

00;45;47;27 - 00;46;11;12
Unknown
But in the end, you're going to be a programmer and that's what's going to happen. Yeah, yeah. But I feel like software engineering is so unique in comparison to what you learn in school. Maybe I'm speaking from American because like I used to do software engineering. So, you know, I worked with people that had like, you know, PhDs or master's degrees or something like that and so on about software.

00;46;11;13 - 00;46;35;22
Unknown
Maybe I could work them more on a front end. So front end is more like just chaotic. And there's always some frameworks in this and that. Whereas back end is like you got Postgres, you got SQL, you got MongoDB, you got horizontal vertical, you know, you got like very things that are not going to change, like data. The many can manage you correctly, you know, about, you know, time complexity and like, you know, the there's some fundamentals.

00;46;35;22 - 00;46;54;22
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Fundamentals. And and that's it. And it's not going to change much. You know it's like okay, here's okay. Is there a relational database is one to many many, many relationships. That's it. Where front end is like well here's this is on Firefox different in Chrome. Yeah. Different Safari. You, you you know, I was like, you know.

00;46;54;28 - 00;47;24;25
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Only different. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's a very good point. That's why I, I always think that computer science degrees are a bit of a waste for a lot of people, because a lot of people just want to be web developers after they graduate. And in computer science, you learn all this theoretical stuff, like you learn a bunch of math, you learn about a bunch of all these algorithms, which can help you, you like, try to do research or something scientific like that.

00;47;24;27 - 00;47;42;17
Unknown
But for 70% of the people, it's not it's not necessary. Yeah. That's why I like you. You said you you did an online course, right? No, I did, I did a book. In-person bootcamp. In-person bootcamp for one year. Right. It was actually for three months, which is crazy. Yeah. So three months and you got a job afterwards?

00;47;42;17 - 00;48;02;26
Unknown
It's such a, I had to do a lot more, but, like, it was. Yeah, it was a it was, a bootcamp general assembly. I just got in New York and, and when I was there, yeah, it was like 24 hours just learning it was, it was like you learn about relational database. Well, good. You got to make a database by tomorrow.

00;48;02;27 - 00;48;22;18
Unknown
Yeah. Like you learned it today. You have until from six five? No, from 4 p.m. till 8:00 in the morning to come up with a database that has a one, two. Okay. Come about authentication. How does it, you know, look like And make it, you know, make a table and, and SQL come up with the querying of whatever.

00;48;22;18 - 00;48;38;02
Unknown
Select this from this. You know, it was like and you know I'm not I didn't go to school for this. Yeah. So I'm just gonna like I'm just try and go fast. And thing is, it gets exponentially difficult. I literally showed a graph and I was like, over time. Yeah, yeah. Level of difficulty is gonna, like, go like this.

00;48;38;04 - 00;48;53;05
Unknown
And it was like literally after week five, it the arc already went like high and it was like, all right, this is crazy. I mean, you got prevent, you got to present in front of everybody explain what you did. So that was even more difficult. You kind have bullshit like, well, maybe it was like, no, no, no, what is it?

00;48;53;06 - 00;49;09;06
Unknown
Why did you do this? Everything. So, I went through that process, but did you, how did you manage to keep up without, did you do any university degree? Yeah, I did, I did marketing, which is like, you know, I mean, even a school, the college I went to was like, it was like, all right.

00;49;09;06 - 00;49;32;19
Unknown
But, I guess maybe a back step is that I did have some programing experience a little bit like I used not too basic. So I played around with basic mS-DOS and stuff like that. So like, I knew that, like if I went to like, m like if I went to terminal in and and, and like visit Apple or whatever.

00;49;32;21 - 00;49;51;03
Unknown
Right. Like the using a terminal or in Linux or something like that wasn't foreign to me, but it was just like the concepts of things that were like, okay, you have to explain that was a thing. It was like you have to present in front of everybody and everybody like, and they come to you and you can't be like, and then they challenge you to like, well, why did you do this?

00;49;51;03 - 00;50;05;15
Unknown
Why did you create this running when you didn't have a backend for this? Like, you know, you got to at least create the table. So if you have a user that you know, signs in or registers, they got to have, they got to be registered somewhere. And like, did you why did you not implement like crowd, you know in terms of create read up.

00;50;05;15 - 00;50;25;25
Unknown
They deleter, you know like all these things that were just like are you learning it on the spot? So it was that and I have very smart people in the there is one kid, he was 19 years old, right. He this guy I think he's in Oxford now. Right. But he was like when he's smart kids and I think he he's very, very cool dude.

00;50;25;28 - 00;50;44;17
Unknown
So hey man how you doing this now blah blah. Later. White kid is not whatever cool dude. Smart is doing a class. I'm talking my 19 years old smart. Like he built something so good. I where I was on a project with him. It was basically a algorithm that helps people find a date based on that other person.

00;50;44;17 - 00;51;02;27
Unknown
They want to take the data out on personality, and then it'll recommend certain restaurants and stuff in the city. And like it was, it was to the point where there's other like years later, there was like companies call me being like, hey, so what's this thing you guys? He built? Like, he did a lot of it, but a lot of smart people like people from different walks of life.

00;51;02;27 - 00;51;21;12
Unknown
You had this one guy. He's a track worker on empty. He's worked on the tracks. The MTA, like, literally, he's like, you know, hit the tracks and everything. Staten Island, he's like, and you're gonna, like, hear that type of accent. Very smart dude. So a lot of smart people. And it was difficult because I had to learn on the spot and even graduating, I was still like, lost.

00;51;21;14 - 00;51;42;23
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, three months is for a lot of this thing I think you need. It just takes time to sink in, like these concepts, because you can learn them, but to understand them and to be able to apply them afterwards, it just takes time. But it's super cool that you got it done in three, three months. Yeah, I mean, it took a lot longer to really than get a job.

00;51;42;24 - 00;52;05;21
Unknown
I had to build stuff. Oh for sure, for sure. I mean, for me, for me, I, you know, I was studying bachelor masters, now my PhD, I worked, I've been working for two years and all of this, like, super devoted. I'm only now starting to feel comfortable, honestly, like, yeah, it takes a long time and. Yeah, yeah, it takes a very, very long time.

00;52;05;21 - 00;52;27;12
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. But I mean, yeah. No, you know, I don't I don't work in it anymore. But it's now so ingrained that like, I guess what, what a coding bootcamp teaches you how to do is it teaches you how to build something. Now like, because that was one thing I'll do hackathons and stuff. And then I would notice that people that maybe are in university, they're learning.

00;52;27;14 - 00;52;41;20
Unknown
They will talk about the series and concepts and planning. Whereas for me it's like, all right, what kind of app we building? Okay, so who can do front end? Who can do backend okay. How are we going to do authentication. Absolutely. You know what I mean. Like even even down to like okay we got GitHub. All right. Cool.

00;52;41;20 - 00;53;01;16
Unknown
So like let's push this up to like an environment so we can test it make sure it works. Yeah yeah. All right cool. Let's make sure localhost works for everybody. Let's make sure that is something.dev dot whatever works there. Absolutely. You learn so many things when you start when you start working on something actual compared to when you start like, oh, this guy will go on vacation, we need to start this early.

00;53;01;16 - 00;53;21;23
Unknown
Like this. My yeah, there's all the like all this decision making that you make every single minute of the day. Yeah. Which you don't learn unless you do it. Unless you unless you fucking push something up to GitHub and it deletes like overwrite something in the main branch you like. Yeah. Sometimes you need to delete a database to learn.

00;53;21;23 - 00;53;42;03
Unknown
So, so you gotta drop a table and then, you know, figure out how to pick it back up. You're like, how's what happened? You know, you didn't see the red fucking. But yeah, right. You know, somebody reach out. So yeah. So I try to fetch some data and I can fetch it. This is like, just give me A4400, yeah.

00;53;42;03 - 00;54;07;22
Unknown
Let me check. Oh, yeah, I deleted it. Good. And we are never getting it before. What? Yeah. You're like, oh, boy, you're right. So how the hell are we going to get this information? So funny. It's always funny, engineering and then comedy because, like, this, so different is completely different worlds. Yeah. I'm wondering, do you do you think your engineering background is helping you?

00;54;07;24 - 00;54;27;15
Unknown
In some ways, yeah, it does actually, which that sounds crazy. I know it probably does, but I think it does in a way that it helps me break down certain things. Maybe not engineering itself, but the way I learned it, because like the way I learned it was very I would say that was probably the top five most difficult things in my whole entire life.

00;54;27;15 - 00;54;46;04
Unknown
Yeah. Learning it because it was like you just mentally numb, going through something that is, is getting harder and you already not where you at. Like eyebrow was like almost in last place, almost in that like up to the end. Like people were even looking at me like, Milo, you got a job, homo. You know, I was.

00;54;46;04 - 00;55;03;21
Unknown
I don't know either. Yeah, yeah. So learning how to mentally go through things that are unknown and a very difficult. And I just getting to the other side I think really helped me out. Oh yeah. And then also organizing I mean, you know, I think as an engineer you learn how to organize your certain pieces of data.

00;55;03;21 - 00;55;27;27
Unknown
So if you allow your brain to just come together with, like creativity in the artistic sense and engineering, that allows you to, you know, start learning how to compartmentalize certain things or to look at patterns and figure out, like, okay, I said this word and yeah, yeah, no, you're right. I think I've been thinking about this, lately.

00;55;27;29 - 00;55;49;19
Unknown
And I think it's like you said, it helps you with, but on some abstract level that it's more harder to describe, like the similarity between comedy and problem solving and engineering. For example, like in engineering, you have, oh, we have this problem. Oh, maybe you have this problem. Maybe I can take this technology and use it in this way and do it.

00;55;49;20 - 00;56;08;22
Unknown
And like that will fix the problem. And in comedy it's like similar. We have this concept, this like, I don't know, like I have a joke that Macedonia is small, full of poor people, cigarets and alcohol like a petty. Yeah. Is like, oh, Macedonia is small. Oh, Schmidt is small. Let's connect the motels. There's alcohol in there.

00;56;08;22 - 00;56;25;20
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, there is something here. Yeah, yeah, I think I'm thing where you are right now man. In terms of like the two like it. Yeah. Over time you just start. It starts coming together. Right. Because you're doing so much comedy and you also have your job that like is just naturally going to blend together in a way.

00;56;25;22 - 00;56;44;27
Unknown
And I think even as a step further, you just know how to mentally separate the two also helps. It gives you that muscle of learning how to like. All right, put this to one part. But this in another part like in terms of creativity, because comedy also I mean, you're hosting a lot of gigs and stuff too, that this business involved in it.

00;56;44;27 - 00;57;02;09
Unknown
Yeah, you kind of have to separate your mind. Like the comedy business side is not funny, actually is very like, you know, all right, how many tickets you sell and. All right, what's the money? And, you know, so you got to mentally and knowing how to do that at this core basis of you know, how to program. So that's one side of your mind and you doing that.

00;57;02;17 - 00;57;24;16
Unknown
And then comedy which you are doing, I think helps you out in the long run. So how do you feel now that you stopped working in engineering? It's, helping you stay more consistent with comedy. Coming up with jokes. What differences did you feel? Yeah, I'd say just mentally freeze you, you know? Yeah. That, Because now this is my day to day, and I have to figure it out, right?

00;57;24;16 - 00;57;50;02
Unknown
So, like, you know, okay, this is this is the thing I really have, in terms of my day to day. And then also, I'm here in this country living here because I have my stand up comedy to show I'm an artist. So it's like this extra thing that makes it even more. I think it helps, since me being me not working in engineering, but I think is like extra things, additional like I have the mental free time now.

00;57;50;04 - 00;58;10;25
Unknown
So that is something also, you know, I'm in the cask and that just says like, okay, you're here because you're a stand up comedian, like literally on documents. So it's like, okay, for real. I'm in a country because of standup comedy. So I got to like mentally it's like a mental wait, yeah, if I want to renew my visa, then I'm like, as a standup comedian, what did you do?

00;58;10;28 - 00;58;30;27
Unknown
You're like, for health care. We're giving you this health care because you're making money from standup comedy. It's like, oh, shit. So that helps you. Does it help you? Because I'm kind of. Now when you're describing it, it makes me anxious thinking that, like, if, if I rely on because if you rely on it, you take it seriously.

00;58;30;29 - 00;58;54;18
Unknown
And if you take it seriously, isn't serious the opposite of funny? Yes, this is true. That's why comedy is. This is not funny. Yeah. I mean, but I think this is where it may help for you to write. Like, can you mentally, you're now developing a muscle to know how to go between numbers and words, right? So like, you just it of course is it is anxiety driven Reiki.

00;58;54;18 - 00;59;19;19
Unknown
You're like, shit, I got actually I treat it like a business, right? Yeah. Right. But I think then when you had this muscle, you have of like treating numbers in a way to build something, it adds like this extra superpower to where if you come across these situations, like you got to make a certain amount or you're relying on them more seriously, then you know how to like at least mentally separate the two or or you already have the capacity to do so.

00;59;19;22 - 00;59;34;26
Unknown
And he learn how to, you know. And are you doing it now? I mean, the same way you're doing it now, bro, is the way I did it in New York City, like I was doing comedy. I started comedy in New York City before. After I had an engineering job. So that's what I was doing in between the two,

00;59;34;29 - 00;59;52;10
Unknown
So I was doing engineering, and then right after, literally right to work, I would go to open mic. Yeah. Host open mic or something in front of, you know, 20 other comedians. Right? 30. Oh, shit. Must have been way to offer it in, in New York. That's, I don't know if your audience knows. Yeah, yeah. Started, you know, comedy, New York City.

00;59;52;10 - 01;00;11;12
Unknown
Yeah. And yeah, it was difficult, you know, because you again, you coming out of work mental, you know, weights everything and then going to then comedy, which is like, I mean, even at the time in New York City, it's like the people, some people are doing it for real, like, yeah, full time in New York City, which is already crazy.

01;00;11;15 - 01;00;29;16
Unknown
And yeah, it's yeah, it teaches you. It teaches like I did, even acting like I did, plays. Right. So, like, learning how to, you know, like scripts being more into my body and stuff and, you know, learning how to play another character, but then going to work and being like, all right, mental capacity. Right. Yeah, yeah. Are on break.

01;00;29;16 - 01;00;48;17
Unknown
Learning how to like, read, you know, get the lines, you know, and memorize, you know, 10 to 15 pages of lines or something. But then balance it out with stand up, you know, all these things. That must have been a crazy schedule if you also have acted. Goddamn, it was insane how real sketches. And then, like you know, performing in front of a sketch group.

01;00;48;17 - 01;01;04;09
Unknown
Well, that was even more that was like 3 to 5 scripts that you had to memorize, and he had to do it live and you had to, like, do wardrobe change and shit. Right? Yeah. So it was a lot. But the muscle Man was like, you know, and you just know how you mentally know how to compartmentalize. Yeah, yeah.

01;01;04;10 - 01;01;20;01
Unknown
So you like. All right. Cool. That was work. And then work once work done. Now I'm doing some silly shit on stage where I'm. When I'm acting like a gym coach that has his pants too high, this and that in a sketch that he. And. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's your overtime. Your brain just gets used to the activities.

01;01;20;01 - 01;01;46;11
Unknown
They become subconscious in a way, and it becomes easier. I've been feeling it definitely in my, I've been doing kind of the same routine in Berlin for 2 to 2 years now and compared it compared to the beginning. It was so hard in the beginning, like I would go at work and like, fuck, I need to, I'll need to think and then eight hours of struggling at work and it's like, okay, now you need to be funny and you don't know anything about it.

01;01;46;12 - 01;02;04;18
Unknown
So I go an open mind like I'm like, fuck, I don't want to go. Like, I don't feel funny right now. But now it's it becomes easier and easier. Now I feel like I go at work. I'm like, okay, we'll we'll solve some problems. No, I, I know I'm going to have an open mic. I'm like, okay, yeah, let's write down a few jokes.

01;02;04;18 - 01;02;22;08
Unknown
I don't it just feels easier as you do it more and more. There you go. So you already did. And I bet the comedy will help you out in your job too, because then it helps you deal with certain personal information. Not personal, but like, like personal interactions with people. So then like, you know, do you deal with a project manager.

01;02;22;08 - 01;02;42;22
Unknown
Right. And then maybe the way you talk with the project manager is that because you, you dealt with hecklers. So for a project manager does want to have a yeah insane deadline for some feature or something. You know how to handle that. Yeah I agree. No, no, that's very true. I've noticed that. I've noticed that, for example, because I, I'm not that afraid of people I perform in front of crowds.

01;02;42;22 - 01;02;58;21
Unknown
So if like a super senior like, you know, manager comes usually people are like, oh, you know, I don't how I, I'm, I just treat him like, hey, how are you? You know, how are you doing? Yeah. People appreciate that. Yeah. Hey, if I call him out on some bad commit, you be like, hey, what was that? Dude?

01;02;58;27 - 01;03;19;14
Unknown
We call because you're billed as doing? Wow, you don't want to merge my. And how funny. You know, give that you have no test. This one. Interesting, You know. Yeah, yeah, but that's cool. But, so one question I'd like to ask before we, before we end is sometimes I like to ask everyone is that you've been to many different cultures, man.

01;03;19;14 - 01;03;42;03
Unknown
You know, the North Macedonia to Manchester, UK, and then Zurich and then to Berlin. Even now you bouncing now the culture of, tech and stand up, which are different. What's the number one advice you give to your younger self? Oh, shit. To my younger self. So before I try to do 18 year old Andre or.

01;03;42;08 - 01;03;54;20
Unknown
Yeah, or something like that. Oh, man, that's a very good first question. Let me think about this for one second.

01;03;54;23 - 01;04;25;00
Unknown
I would say, okay, I'll say a few things. Okay. Number one, be be patient. Like, don't I think in the past and even now, you just want things to come right away. But they don't they never come right away. Just be patient. Accept that it's you won't see results immediately. And that's the only way like either struggle that work in two years, you're going to be fine.

01;04;25;00 - 01;04;51;02
Unknown
There's no shortcut. Don't expect there to be a shortcut bomb on open mics. There's no other way. Like, don't expect to get like, just bump and it will come. Just believe. Which is easier said than the than than actually which is that's my my biggest for me the hardest thing about comedy is that for something like engineering, like, you know, you do a degree, you know, you do a degree, you follow the wave, prepare these courses for you.

01;04;51;02 - 01;05;09;08
Unknown
They'll prepare you. Then there's a job interview just for do this task. You'll get the job. Here's the path. Yeah, but for comedy, it's like, yeah, it's just darkness. You don't know what it is. You're just. It's just you don't know what's on the other side. You know what I mean? So. So you just need to be patient and just.

01;05;09;10 - 01;05;36;06
Unknown
You keep believing, which is crazy, that you're believing with no guarantees. So that's that. Be be patient. Do. Go outside your comfort zone. I think that's my. Yeah. Go. If you if you're curious about going outside your comfort zone and if you feel scared that's the, that's the thing to do. Just do the thing which scares you and makes you feel uncomfortable.

01;05;36;06 - 01;05;57;13
Unknown
And then it will make you feel good. Yeah. Nice. And watch less YouTube. What the fuck are you doing? Watch. Just stop playing League of Legends. Come on. Go outside, touch some grass, drink some, Rock. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Do some Reiki, fall down on the ground and wake up. And what? And draw mask problems on the ground for you, lady?

01;05;57;13 - 01;06;13;28
Unknown
Yeah. Fight the Greek guy. Debatable. Gary. There you go. Just like Alexander the Great or anonymous? The great. Anonymous. Great. Dude.

01;06;14;01 - 01;06;19;16
Unknown
Anonymous. Great. Dude. It's.

01;06;19;19 - 01;06;40;01
Unknown
That's bloody anonymous. Anonymous. But he's a great. Yeah. He just let you know he was anonymously great. Is the statue his name is not Alex either. Yeah. You know, some may call him Paul. Just change it up a bit. Yeah, but, bro, thank you very much for doing this. This was very fun. Yeah, it's very fun.

01;06;40;01 - 01;06;56;10
Unknown
It's very dope, man. Learn more about North Macedonia. So I got to visit and, you know, drink the strong. Look at it. So. Yeah. Thank you. Drink right here. Eastern Europeans are cute. There you go. Cute. You find out with a teddy bear at a mike soon. Or a show soon. He got shows. You don't shows.

01;06;56;10 - 01;07;10;01
Unknown
There you go. And put some respect on your name there. Andre. Hello. Okay, guys, thank you for listening. And are watching to the Third Culture Talk podcast. I'm your boy, Nya Yeanafehn. This is Andrej, and I'll see you guys in the next one piece. Bye bye.