In this episode, I reflect on career growth in tech after speaking with a group of students, along with a few technical topics I explored this week — from Cypher optimization to scaling graph databases.

Career growth isn’t linear — most skills come from experimenting, saying yes to opportunities, and building over time rather than formal training

Project ideas come from doing — exploring tools, creating content, and solving real problems often reveal what to learn next

Cypher optimization (GraphAcademy) — hands-on practice with EXPLAIN, PROFILE, and query tuning reinforces key performance concepts

Neo4j Infinigraph — a new approach to scaling graphs by separating graph structure from large property data, improving performance and scalability (plus, NODES AI website and NODES AI YouTube playlist)

A reminder that progress comes from building, exploring, and iterating — not waiting for the perfect plan.