Farnaz Azmoodeh | Director of Engineering @ Snapchat

About this video

Ferno, an engineering director at Snap, recounts a formative skiing experience where he pushed through fear and social anxiety to tackle an intimidating slope, and explains how that moment of embracing discomfort became a recurring principle throughout his life—from moving to the US for college, leaving a PhD program to join Google, and later transitioning to Snap—illustrating the value of deliberately stepping outside one’s comfort zone to grow.

Key takeaways

• Ferno credits a pivotal skiing experience with a steep, icy slope as the moment he became more comfortable with looking clumsy and foolish in front of others, which shifted his mindset about risk-taking and personal growth.
• He intentionally applies this lesson by recognizing when he’s plateaued and mastered a skill, then deliberately seeking new challenges—whether changing countries, leaving academia, or moving between jobs—to remain in a learning mindset rather than coasting on competence.
• Ferno emphasizes that the ability to recover from mistakes when living in developed, opportunity-rich contexts means the cost of trying something hard is relatively low, making the decision to push outside comfort zones a calculated risk worth taking.

Episode details: published March 12, 2018 · 3.2K views · 9:35 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The business ideas, figures and results discussed are the hosts’ and guests’ own claims, shared as brainstorming and entertainment — not verified facts and not investment advice.

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