In this conversation Ben speaks to Youssef Ahres, the former Director of Data Science at Instagram. Youssef has since left Instagram to form his own start-up which is currently in stealth.

Youssef found himself at Instagram almost by accident after leaving Stanford University. He and Ben talk through his journey upwards from Data Scientist to Director and the signifiers that led him to move on.

They discuss compounding effects, and how continual small positive changes results in a vast amount of change over time. They also speak about how to identify our internal motivators, and what drives us to do our best work, whether it’s how we grow up, or what we can learn from people that interact with our work.