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001. Career, career-breaks, and identity, with Shu Huang
April 16, 2025. On the first episode of Public Conversations, Ben chats with Shu about career breaks, generalisation versus specialisation, and finding one’s own identity outside of a career. We also talk about the impetus behind the podcast, and what we’re trying to do here (in this room, and on Earth).
Shu once taught at a university—until he took a career break. What began as a conventional pause to rest and recharge gradually turned into something deeper: a break not just from work, but from long-held ideas about career, identity, and self-worth. It became an unexpected unraveling of income from purpose, productivity from value. Follow him on Instagram @theshulution
Ben talks about movies on his film podcast at https://deepcutpod.com, and writes about film at https://thekinetoscope.com. He lived a past life working in film production. Find him online at https://benjaminyap.me
Links:
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/identity-transitions-accepting-that-you-are-not-just-what-you-do
https://www.ricemedia.co/ashish-kumar-was-singapore-top-psle-scorer-now-retiree/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPQdFWCHDPA
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/farming-volunteering-dancing-why-some-employees-are-micro-retiring-in-their-20s
The Space
This episode was recorded in a Public Living Room, a crowd-funded community space in 195 Pearl Hills Terrace. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to help us keep recording, please support the Stranger Conversations crowdfund. This supports their mission to build a third place at the intersection of self-exploration and collective good. You can follow them on Instagram @strangerconvos or go to linktr.ee/strangerconvos where you can find links to the crowdfund and find out more about what they do.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
2:13 - Shu’s relationship to the space
7:32 - Out of office
12:23 - Shu's career break
22:51 - Career and identity
26:59 - Specialisation vs generalisation
37:32- The value of learning about others
41:51 - Fear of failure
48:46 - Making his career break work
55:12 - Early retirement
58:24 - Who are you outside work?
1:04:04 - Iron ricebowl of questions
View all episodes
By Benjamin YapApril 16, 2025. On the first episode of Public Conversations, Ben chats with Shu about career breaks, generalisation versus specialisation, and finding one’s own identity outside of a career. We also talk about the impetus behind the podcast, and what we’re trying to do here (in this room, and on Earth).
Shu once taught at a university—until he took a career break. What began as a conventional pause to rest and recharge gradually turned into something deeper: a break not just from work, but from long-held ideas about career, identity, and self-worth. It became an unexpected unraveling of income from purpose, productivity from value. Follow him on Instagram @theshulution
Ben talks about movies on his film podcast at https://deepcutpod.com, and writes about film at https://thekinetoscope.com. He lived a past life working in film production. Find him online at https://benjaminyap.me
Links:
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/identity-transitions-accepting-that-you-are-not-just-what-you-do
https://www.ricemedia.co/ashish-kumar-was-singapore-top-psle-scorer-now-retiree/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPQdFWCHDPA
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/farming-volunteering-dancing-why-some-employees-are-micro-retiring-in-their-20s
The Space
This episode was recorded in a Public Living Room, a crowd-funded community space in 195 Pearl Hills Terrace. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to help us keep recording, please support the Stranger Conversations crowdfund. This supports their mission to build a third place at the intersection of self-exploration and collective good. You can follow them on Instagram @strangerconvos or go to linktr.ee/strangerconvos where you can find links to the crowdfund and find out more about what they do.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
2:13 - Shu’s relationship to the space
7:32 - Out of office
12:23 - Shu's career break
22:51 - Career and identity
26:59 - Specialisation vs generalisation
37:32- The value of learning about others
41:51 - Fear of failure
48:46 - Making his career break work
55:12 - Early retirement
58:24 - Who are you outside work?
1:04:04 - Iron ricebowl of questions