Neighbors don't necessarily become friends, but Alex and I have gotten to know each other through family hangouts and working together on the board of our co-op building. I think of myself as someone who has a lot of energy, but from what I could tell, Alex is at another level. In addition to being a dad and working as a software engineering manager at Meta, Alex is the unofficial engineer-in-residence for our building; serves and was recently elected as Chair for Community Board 7, the community board that represents our portion of the Upper West Side; volunteers as a NYPD Auxiliary Police officer; and owns several side hustle businesses, including a direct to consumer shoe company, Skippies. And so I've wanted to have him on the show for a long time to ask him essentially one question: how do you do it? Where do you get the energy, motivation, mindset to do all the things that you're doing?

And then more recently, Alex went through surgery for cancer. I was worried about him and his family, and then a week or so later, he was back, almost like nothing happened. Observing this from the great distance of the apartment next door, this gave me one more question to ask him: how are you really doing?