The Shintaro Higashi Show - Goodbye Peter! 🎤

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

After years of insightful conversations, debates, and plenty of laughs, Peter is saying goodbye to the podcast as he moves forward in his career after completing his higher education. In this special episode, we take a trip down memory lane, reflecting on our best moments, lessons learned, and what’s next for Peter.Join me in wishing him the best, and let’s celebrate everything he’s brought to the show. It’s not goodbye—it’s see you later!

You know, we all had this conversation about how to grow this podcast, getting all these fans and sponsors and all. And I really hope you pull that through. I want to see you next to Prof G. Oh, I love Prof G. Or maybe you'll be on Joe Rogan. Like the crazy things, you know. But yeah, I'm really excited for the future of this podcast. Hello everyone, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show with Peter Yu, very sad day. Me and Peter are breaking up. Yeah, it's a whole thing. It's a dramatic breakup.

We had a fight. It's mutual. It's mutual. It's not you, it's mutual. It's mutual. It's it's not you. It's me It's me. Yeah, it's not you and then when you leave I'm gonna be like, oh, I broke up with him I kicked him off the show. It's gonna be like that. Yeah I'm gonna do a whole expose going on a tour a media tour and you know, that's right. That's right So yeah, Peter you want to give us a quick update? Yeah, so I mean, yeah, we're just joking around, but basically, if you guys have been listening to us, you know that I'm about to finish my PhD and looking for jobs right now and all that. Real job, real job. And I just figured, you know, I just won't have time to dedicate my effort to this as much as I like. And plus, Shintar definitely wants to take this to the next level.

But I just can't go on that ride journey with him right now at this point of my life. So I just don't want to be a Roadblock, you know, and then I want I want you to flourish with this thing So, yes, you know, I think I it's like I've taken it from zero to where we are today and pretty good Yeah, it's a pretty it's a it's been a very fun journey and I mean we're still gonna talk but just like I don't know Yeah, you know you could be on the guest, you know Come on and I'm definitely gonna Listen still and you know

I'm still gonna be doing judo and be a part of the community and stuff like that and yes So you're a high likelihood of going to California, correct? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because that's where all the AI jobs are. Yeah, I try to find some companies in like other areas. I think usually it's New York or Seattle on top of Northern California, like the Silicon Valley, San Francisco area. And based on my expertise it's just it's been hard to find like the best fit in New York and Seattle so

yeah I think yeah I'm gonna probably California yeah so you got to shop yourself around to the dojos now too yeah that's right I have to do the whole thing I do know some do the whole thing yeah yeah I do know some folks in like California It's interesting because there's a long history of Japanese immigrants, right? Yes, for sure. Judo is kind of like integrated into the community. Like all the Japanese Buddhist churches have Judo gyms. So I know. And it's very, very cheap over there here. Very cheap. Yeah, so I I know and it's a very very cheap over there here

Incredibly cheap where which I think it shouldn't be you know because how do sensei's make a living? They don't there's more money in that they don't they don't do they do it as a hobby hobby This is the issue with the hobby stuff. Let me start ranting about Me yeah, should I preach should I priest this? You gotta preach this to. To the teachers over there? Yep. And I've heard it a million times from a bunch of dojo owners, you know, oh I don't want to charge a lot, I want to make it accessible to everyone, you know, I don't want to make money from it. Sure. Yeah. Oh, what do you do during the day then? Oh, I have a 9 to job, it's a grind,

I finish work, I get to the dojo at 7, I teach one or two classes, but you're so tired, you're sitting on the side not giving a good quality product anymore You're not teaching at your best because you work a 9 to 5 I know guys who run dojos who are contractors moving sheetrock all day at night Busting their butt and then go into the dojo and teaching like a kids class, but he's there sitting on the side Like that's not good. Yeah, but if they charge a certain amount, they could run that as their primary thing. And during the day they could do privates and then they could work on the business,

not just in the business, and grow judo as a whole. Right, we need more full-time judo instructors. And then for that to happen, we need more money. Full-time, yeah. Yeah, it's a full-time thing. So, whoever you are listening in California, running a dojo when Peter walks into the dojo you gotta charge up an extra

New York premium just like five times as much whatever oh yeah it should be good when you're walking around and you know it was I mean I was there over the summer and then I trained at Palo Alto. Oh nice, was it good? Yeah, I trained there like 10 years ago when I was in college, when I was doing my internship there, so it was nice to kinda see them again. Usually I think a lot of these Buddhist church dojos focus on kids, so they're not a lot of adults,

but still I mean it was good to get on the mat and just work out. So I think it is a bit of a different culture, but I'll definitely shop around. I'm very curious. I think one of our patrons actually live on the East Bay and I think it's not a church dojo. It's more like a full-time. I know East Bay they have a gym Sayaka Matsumoto's gym. Oh yeah maybe I'll go there. Sorry Sayaka's dad David Matsumoto started this gym now Sayaka's the next she was an Olympian. Okay okay. The Matsumoto's are out there and that's like a historical dojo too because they've been around forever and they produce champions and you know. Yeah maybe I'll I yeah we're thinking about living in the East Bay too. So maybe I'll... It depends on, you know, my wife also has to find a job. So there's like a whole question where we're gonna live. I just have no idea. Wow, Peter, you come into a dojo in California.

Start messaging them. You know, this is the thing, right? You get all these job interviews that you were doing nonstop. And you're shopping around and getting offers and you're comparing and contrasting, you know I have to offer me and then once the offer start rolling in now you can start being a little bit more selective Hey, man, this company's offer me this I don't want to deal with you. I don't want to even take interviews now Yeah, the thing kind of shifts, right? That's yeah, it's like it's a dramatic shift in power Now you have to do that for the judo.

Yeah. Dojo, you got to go around and be like, yeah, well, you know, I don't have a comes with the recommendation. From Chintaro and Palo Alto I've been like, what do you have for me? How many training partners do you have? Right, right, right. You only have heavyweights. I need something else, you know, I don't have heavyweights? I'm gonna need something else, you know?

I don't have an offer yet, I guess. So, can I really be selective right now? The Dojo offers? Yeah, I don't have a Dojo offer yet. So you have to put it out there. Yeah. I have to start visiting. But we'll see. I just know that they have a huge judo community there. And it's definitely different from the East Coast, but it'll be interesting. Did you meet up with Carlos yet? Carlos, I did. Yeah, we worked out. Yeah. Yeah. How was that?

He was amazing. He's such a funny, gregarious guy. Everyone loved him at Christian's Dojo. I think he's gonna just kind of shop around a little more. He's doing that thing. But we're suggesting that. I'm always suggesting that. You know, it's same thing happened, right? He's like, I'm Chintaro, I'm moving to Michigan to be with my, my, you know, woman. And now I'm going to pick a dojo. And I was like, all right, go to her gym, meet up with Peter shop around. You know, now everyone wants him, right? Everyone wants him now.

It's kind of serendipitous how like you're on your way out, but he's I know you have a little bit of a connecting thing where you can kind of guide him into the mix. Yeah. You know, he had, he had a lot of fun. He came to last Thursday's practice and yeah, he nice He he goes after people man I thought I told him to like, you know chill out cuz you know, yeah, he just moved that stuff

But he he wanted to go with everyone which is great. Like he went with me here with Christian He went with all the all the brown belts green belts. We have yeah, it was great. He's pretty good, right? He's good. He's good he's good he's fast I think he's also I was impressed about how he he's a thinking judoka he oh he's always trying to find an angle he was he's not trying to just like oh I'm gonna do you know spend this one move or that he's always thinking he's asking questions and yeah, which is you know What you know? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah? This is what we kind of do right you want to be a Intellectual judo type not just a brute you know exactly

similarities between your job hunting and then judo grappling martial arts Philosophy theory all this stuff, and then how it applies to you building your personal life career life Yeah, I think you know I was just thinking about that this morning when I was walking my dog It's I I was like, you know now that I'm kind of trying to I'm like rapping on my job search a little bit Yeah, it felt to me like, you know way it's like being in the Olympic circuit or something. I don't know. It's just there's some similarities. I'm not saying they're like, exactly the same, but it's like, you know, we I try to I think it's always you can study so much.

And then, you know, the questions they asked during the tech interviews, you know, I was telling you a little bit about this. There's some randomness and then you just have to kind of get lucky. There's some aspects of that on what questions you get. But at the same time, what you could do is like, it's like kind of going to a competition. So you like front load all your job search with like companies that you may not care that much about so you get you know with them you get some practice it's kind of like you do Vandalia with the green belt yeah green belt so like you even go to like local

tournaments you know yeah you know and then you just kind of get to and then once you go through multiple interviews you kind of get the sense so you like okay this is how they ask this is how I should react to this or like you know and then you as you get in deep get deeper into your search you now it start interviewing with the companies we really want to work for it you know and this that's like your Grand Prix Grand Slams and hopefully the Olympics at the end. Yeah, sometimes you just have to go home and start training again. I definitely had those moments, you know, I would like get rejected and I'm like, damn, I did not think that they would ask me this question.

So now I have to go back and say, I better study up. It's kind of like you go to a, you think it's like, you walk through this local tournament and some, you know, a junior champion from Georgia comes shows up and then destroys you. That's like, Oh God, I need an answer for Georgian grip or something. It's, you know, it's like, it's kind of like that. What was a really super technical question that got you stumbled on the thing? Give me one of those so You remember your calculus right taking the derivative. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so So your last chance to be super condescending to me Peter

So, you know I the last time I took, actually had to like analytically spell out all the steps to take a derivative of a function was like back in like college, like first year in college, freshman college years. And so derivatives are pretty important in AI because that's how you kind of optimize the AI systems. That's how AI systems learn. X squared goes to two X kind of a thing with all let's go down

You remember your derivative rules, right? So I guess I did I guess I do I didn't think I did I was like there It is like that's how that that's one of the rules I act the derivative of x squared is 2x and there's like all these rules So usually so that's a very mechanical process. So everything is kind of automated. You don't have to know how to take a derivative of function now to develop an AI system. So I never thought that that question of, oh, can you take a derivative of this function

will come up. At one company I was interviewing and then just like, it was pretty like tricky function to take a derivative of. The interviewer asked me to do that. I'm like, oh my God, I'm screwed. Cause it's like, I don't remember all the rules now. I remember those are the basic ones. So there was a specific problem that they gave you.

So it was like, yeah, it's like, okay, let's, I mean, usually it's like okay let's uh I mean usually it's like oh what do you like what kind of function you would you use for this purpose and I was like this function and they'll be like can you write the code for that function to calculate that value and then now okay can you take the derivative and implement that and and then I'm like, oh shit. Because it- And did you do it? No. No.

What did you say? That function, I was trying to, I was like trying to take like small steps and then try to like simplify the problem and then, you know, try to, and then while I'm rambling, I'm trying to remember all the derivative rules and it's not coming, you know,

I probably look like a fool but After you could even say like well, that's so beneath me like that's such a junior developer freaking thing Like why would you even ask me that? Can you say that? That's a big gamble because I guess some interviews might like it but I I did I mean you gotta be like, you know, why would I work on these little technical tiny details? I'm a big picture guy, you know know I have 19 people underneath me on the team I haven't done this shit since college, like what is this uh, interview to get into like university? Like what is this shit? Can you do that?

I think a better way would be to like, oh man, I mean I don't, you know I haven't done this in a while Because this is all automated now Yeah, did you say that? You know, I haven't done this in a while because this is all automated now Yeah, did you say that? I? Kind of alluded to it, but then it doesn't work because it's like okay. It's like kind of like oh An Olympian I don't know like an international level judoka comes into a seminar and then they're like everyone's like a Kid or like everyone else say can you do I don't know oh chigari and then he's just like oh I'm sorry very similar analogy that's very exciting you ready for this one yeah not to like derail your story no no no go ahead Kale Sanderson uh-huh came to do a clinic yeah my high school yeah yeah

I remember you telling the story you're showing ankle picks showing his thing like maneuver. It was amazing Like yeah, this is a great drill to take your guy out of position and go for an ankle pick You know It was a funny thing because I raised my head to ask a question Yeah, yeah, my coach was like don't ask that stupid question whatever you're asking you right over He's like what were you gonna ask him? I was like I want to ask him if you could take off his shirts to see how jacked he is Gosh, you know, I'm gonna kill you and then another kid raises his hand and goes kill

Can you show me a five-point suplex like a chest that you buy it about all right? Yeah, and kill was I don't really do that You know, yeah. Yeah, so he can do that because it's kale Sanders. Yeah, no, because I don't really do that Yeah, yeah, and then a Russian guy that was there. It was like a Russian champion I can teach you this to this day throw and then a Russian guy that was there it was like a Russian champion goes I can teach you this this throw and then like started showing this thing in front of Kale Sanders dude all the kids went crazy like whoa like no one wanted to learn ankle pick after that and it was like it's kind of like that yeah and also I remember what this is a seminar we both went We didn't know each other back then but yeah, you know where Kozak seminar someone asked if

He could show any left-sided throws. Yep, and he said I don't do left-side throws That's you. That's your thing with the situation. So that's I don't do derivatives. There's a stark difference here because I'm not a like a renowned scientist right it's like you have a PhD from a very good university it's like me it's like maybe I'm a low I just got I did some stint at like a international low levels level C tournaments and I'm the show up and then you know I can just want a continental open yeah and then I metalhead to Grand Prix yeah and then the guys like can you do an uchigari and then I'm like I don't do that you know that's a doesn't quite work you know but anyway so let me ask you a question yes there's a video going

around on Instagram like there's a kid interviewing at a tech firm. Yeah it's probably fake. Yeah. But he has the phone over here and he's chat GPT and the interview goes share your screen right now and he goes to share the screen and he's like okay yeah you're not cheating but he has his phone out here. Yeah. On chat GPT like do people do that that i am pretty sure people do that i mean i definitely don't recommend doing that because you could tell i've been a interviewer although i wasn't interviewing people when like it was before chat gbt came out and all but it's like this like there's so much if you yeah you can you can probably pass a few interviews, but there's so much risk to that if you get caught you're fucked

You know that bad, huh? Who would want to work with you? That's sure that's sure like you know, it's just like the War will get out and I mean don't know right because you're looking at the thing down here and like you're like punching away I think yeah exactly and also like looking at the thing down here and like you're like punching away over here I think yeah exactly and also like say you you're like doing that and then chat should be to give you an answer but you don't understand it then and so and then you're like kind of like making shit up and you better be a good talker

I guess if you want to do that you know but yes your way through it but I've heard that story I've never seen it myself. I don't know anyone who does around me. But I just don't think that's worth it. It's better. It's just study. I think that's probably a safer way. But that does happen because it's gotten so competitive and Cheshire Beats has gotten so good. But yeah, I couldn't take the derivative right after the interview I looked it up and I'm like what the fuck this is so complicated you're cursing so much you're like I'm out of here I'm just sort of cursing non-stop today yeah oh yeah I'm like you know I it's all you

know off you know I'm I it's this is raw me this is real me yeah Peter's real you know but yeah it's uh but yeah that was i think i was really stumped with that question yeah interesting interesting all right so you want to say something to the viewers who've been listening to you for how many years now three years we have over 100 episodes right how many episodes we have too i don't even know man more than 100 it's like maybe 200 or something Yeah, I just want to say this is like Uh, we just started like, you know during the pandemic we were like separated I moved to michigan and we used to you know, like see each other like almost every day in new york and

You know, we're like, okay, let's kind of We're just trying to keep up with each other and then the idea came out like everyone's kind of doing this podcast thing maybe we're talking anyway. So let's just kind of record this and that's the that was a start. I mean, we had a humble beginning we had this janky setup with like using our own cameras and you know and yep, but now we're like Actually making some money. Thanks to you guys. I can't thank you guys enough to For this and now you're gonna be a sponsor of the podcast. Yeah I'll be a page. Yeah, I'll be on the page. Yeah, could you imagine? I can't I can't even imagine like you asked your wife with you without a job honey. Can I get a hundred dollars?

I could sponsor the podcast she would be oh my god dude so now I I have some disposable income now but there you go but yeah tell all the people how you feel Peter yeah it's like I it's it's okay it's like Peter sweet you know like everyone says you know I I love the time here. And, but at the same time, I think, I think you have to know when to step away. I think that's, you know, I think that's one of the things like people, even great people with great success fail to do, you know, and I think I, at this point, I think, I've done everything I could to kind of grow this podcast. And then, you know, the next chapter, I just, you know, my skillset and time, and you know, it's not gonna be, I'm just gonna be a hindrance.

And I think it's best I step away, which is, but you know, at the same time, I'm gonna, you know, still talk to you, you know. Of course, I hope you talk to me, Jesus. Yeah, it's not like I'm breaking you know still talk to you, you know Yeah, I'm breaking up with you or anything like that so and I'm still gonna listen I Really hope you know We we all we had this conversation of like how to grow this podcast like getting all these fancy Sponsors and all and I I really hope you pull that through. I want to see you next to this Prof G, you know, all this like... Oh, I love Prof G.

Yeah, or, you know, maybe you'll be on Joe Rogan and like, you know, all the crazy things, you know. But yeah, I'm really excited for the future of this podcast and I'm really glad that I was able to be part of it. Yeah. Beautiful, Peter. Honestly, man, thank you for doing this. You know, I couldn't have done any of this stuff be part of it. Yeah. Beautiful Peter. Honestly man, thank you for doing this. You know, I couldn't have done any of this stuff by myself really. Yeah. And I'm very excited for the future.

I mean, one of the podcasts that we already recorded, me and Vinnie Mancuso, is about steroids and Grappler. So you know, you wouldn't have allowed that. I didn't know anything about that. You would have been like, yeah, I'm going to... So you know, definitely some exciting stuff gonna happen in the future and hopefully you can take some of these skill sets you learned here also for your, I don't know, maybe you do an AI, you know, you're a big AI CEO sometime and you know, founder based marketing is such a popular thing now. Look at Jensen and look at Zuckerberg and

all these guys. You know, and it's not just in tech, but like, you know, yeah, apparel too. Right. So it's a thing. And now, Peter, you know, one day you could have your podcast. You're like, wow, this is familiar. Yeah. At least. Yeah. I think. Yeah. That's a skill I learned. You know, kind of talking like in this type of setting.

I met. Oh, now this reminds me of like our the first episode we recorded. It was so bad. I was remember I was like I just couldn't talk. You know how many people send me a message like, dude, I don't understand what Peter's saying. He's saying, oh, man. I know. I was like, oh, guys, like, whatever, you know, like, and then you got really good at this thing. Yeah, it's definitely a skill you need to learn. I think, you know, I mean, I'm not saying everyone should start a podcast But I think it's just I saw this thing about the prof G Scott Galloway, yeah, you don't know he he I saw a reel of him saying professor was that oh, yeah

I know a professor and then he was saying the most valuable skill he would like his children to have would be Storytelling skills. I don't know if you saw that one. Yeah, I think it is You know, I don't want to go into too much detail But I think storytelling kind of applies to everywhere because we are human we're social animals we have to tell each other stories and you know, I hopefully Tell us how the stories and you know, I hopefully Yeah, you know mostly two things but I think I I learned a lot of that through this journey And you know, I'm glad I could learn that skill. Yeah Yeah, I mean it's a soft skill that you need like we got every great CEO, you know, yeah essentially like Bezos dude

He he's like well spoken tells a story build this thing and stepped away from Amazon. You know yeah Working on Right maybe origin and he's our own you're going on to your blue origin You know he's he's I'll say he's our eyes a little better than mine, but yeah It's pretty good. you know we didn't put that much money into the thing and we returned something so yeah you know the return on investment ROI is pretty high. Yeah yeah you're right. Return on our time probably that's not the hot spot. But yeah definitely. By and large ROI was pretty good Yeah. And I'm really excited for you, man.

Thanks, man. And I want everyone to know who's listening, that there's zero ill will. We never had any beef. It was like the most pleasurable experience working with you for the last three years on this thing and our history. You came to the dojo right after college. Right after college. I got my first job in New York.

Going through a toxic breakup, dude. That's right. And I was a young man. You were like, you're like, you're not that much older than me. I was like, young man, you got to get rid of this girl. I know it was like, yeah, you got to cut this shit off. Yeah, man. I remember that.

It was like it was like a very formal of years for me. And I'm I'm glad we are still best friends. And I see your growth becoming a dad and everything. And I'm glad that you're part of my life. I'm still kind of doing the same shit I was doing back then. Not that much growth on my side. You are like a budding teacher, but now I think you've grown as like a wise teacher. Like, you know, like you're like, people listen to you, like the wider audience and I think it's...

That's true. Yeah, it's YouTube also, that stuff is very validating, you know, yeah man we don't do great yeah I hope that it keeps on going thank you to our sponsors by the way yeah now we have Elijah Jason Levon Drew if you have business you have churn haqueen.ai thank you very much guys for all your support you too can support us on patreon and now the patreon has shifted a little bit. It's gonna be about connecting with me. You could chat with me, you could video chat with me, you could do one-to-one mentorships. It is expensive, but you know, my time is expensive.

So find me on Patreon and support us, the show, me, all of it. And then, yeah, Peter, man, thank you so much for... Yeah, thanks Shintaro I mean all that you've done yeah it's I really I think we really complimented each other in this endeavor like your skill set my skill set and I hope you know you can find you know people who can help you out maybe you don't maybe maybe you're good to solo but I it's a best of luck man. I really hope this blows up. Thank you. And then if you're listening and you have some technical expertise that you could share to help us with the thing, that would be great.

Because I have no technical expertise and look, now this video is 720p. Thanks a lot Peter for that one. I thought I switched it for you, but yeah, well it it'll be fine. It'll be fine. Yeah. Cool. All right. Thanks guys You know keep in touch of you know, see you around, you know California, California baby. Give them lots of love. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks guys