Eugene Chung

Solipsism & the Singularity. Spatial Troubadour. @WEF YGL. @GreemKim’s Photographer

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

HBS 15-Year Reunion. There is a particular heaviness to this stage of life that I don’t think we talk about enough. Aging parents. Young kids. Fertility issues. Demanding work. Health scares. Losses. Marriages. Divorces. Companies built, companies buried. Dreams that came true, dreams that changed shape, dreams that quietly disappeared when no one was looking.

And somehow, there everyone was.

Dancing. Laughing. Hugging. Comparing notes. Sharing truths on Spangler lawn. Introducing kids. Remembering ridiculous class lore. Admitting what was hard. Celebrating what was beautiful. Being human, which is somehow still the bravest and most underrated thing.

It was incredible to see so many people doing so well. But it was even more moving to be around people willing to be open about the parts that are not simple. The invisible things people carry. The strange math of adulthood. The way joy and grief and ambition and fatigue and gratitude all seem to coexist now, whether or not we gave them permission.

No one can make new old friends.

That is the strange gift of a reunion: lives unfolding in front of each other over time. People you knew before so much had happened. Before the plot twists. Before the full weight of responsibility. Before life had made all of us more ourselves.

I’m grateful I got to spend part of my life in this strange, intense, formative place, and even more grateful for the reminder that time moves, but some connections remain.

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

HBS Magazine @HBSAlumni invited me to write about freediving, failure, and what the ocean taught my mind after winding down the company I had built over a decade.

https://t.co/i5owmutlVy

I posted the full essay here:

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

https://t.co/2sHx1Q2uzL

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

https://t.co/2sHx1Q2uzL

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

San Francisco lately.

Old friends. New friends. City light. Ocean air. Big ideas. Good people.

Finding signal.

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

A year ago, in April 2025, I got sober.

After a decade of startup grind, I have come to understand that agency, health, and self-command are not separate from leadership.

They are part of the foundation.

This was never an abstract subject for me. My grandfather died from alcoholism-related complications when my father was young. The story I was told was that even after surgery had taken much of his liver, he still demanded and drank copious amounts of soju.

I’ve had a complicated relationship with addiction.

I didn’t drink through most of college. But in my early career in New York, alcohol became an easy escape from the grind. I thought I could handle it. I thought: this time is different.

Addiction is a quiet, pernicious snake. It weaves its way into your life over years, and then, in the darkness, binds you.

For years, I knew I had a problem. But I told myself I was functioning. From the outside, I seemingly was. I was working hard, leading, producing, keeping things moving.

But functioning is not the same as being free.

Over time, the degradation of my health and mind became obvious. And by then, I feared it was too late to escape.

Last April, at the urging of @GreemKim , I quit.

I was afraid I was losing something that defined my happiness — the thing I thought kept me sane in this insane world.

But I was wrong.

Instead of losing something, I got something back: myself.

Not quickly, nor all at once. But slowly, softly, bit by bit.

My mornings came back.
My body came back.
My energy came back.
I could start to hear my own thoughts again.

The joy in the quotidian came back too. Sunlight through leaves, a quiet walk, a meditative afternoon.

My sense of agency came back: the feeling that I’m not just being pulled around by impulses, habits, substances, moods, machines, or old stories I tell myself about who I am.

I’ve been quiet here for a while. I needed space. And I didn’t want to perform a version of life I was no longer interested in living.

With time, I hope to share more again. Not as a highlight reel, but as field notes from the path: rebuilding, health, discipline, creativity, technology, embodied practice, and the kind of human future I want to help create.

Because in an age increasingly designed to capture our attention, automate our choices, and mediate our sense of meaning, self-governance is not merely a private virtue.

It is how we stay human.

And I believe this even more deeply now: if you cannot govern yourself, you will struggle to govern anything else with clarity.

Self-command is not merely related to leadership.

It is one of its foundations.

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

Black tie in the Bay. Thanks to our hosts Silvia Console Battilana, @Stanford President Jon Levin, and Nobel Laureate @Pmilgrom.

Congrats to the Auctionomics team on the Emmys!

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass | iPhone 17 ProRes RAW Open Gate | 5 Oct 2025, SF

feat. music @DesertHollow

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

Not the Metaverse we were promised, but maybe the one we deserve 🤯. Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, & Fishstick dancing on a Choppa.

@Fortnite #Delulu Early Access LTM

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

Fortnite taking a page out of VRChat’s book

Delulu early access 🤓

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

Reenergized from the YGL Annual Summit in Geneva—a joy to see old friends and meet new ones. This year I felt even freer to synthesize ideas & connect dots. Thanks @YGLvoices & @wef. Onward to tangible change.

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

Officially a Master Freediver (AIDA 4). One breath took me 36 m / 118 ft into the ocean, along with a static pool hold of 4 min 19 s.

For the first time in a decade, I hold minimal responsibilities and am intent on living day-to-day. A casual lunch “You should try freediving again” turned into a spontaneous signup. What was meant as a refresher turned into a journey through every level, and I became my instructor’s first student to reach Masters in one uninterrupted shot.

Progress wasn’t linear — equalization, depth plateaus, ego checks — but the ocean rewards patience. Freediving isn’t adrenaline; it’s underwater meditation: total mind / body awareness, total surrender, deep peace.

Years ago in Cebu I hit 27.8 m / 91 ft on my second day ever, then went back to quotidian life in the U.S. This time I kept going. Training on Bali’s sunrise lines I’m humbled daily — buddies casually tagging 50 m from shore, 70 m+ off the boats — and our cardinal rule rings louder than ever: never dive alone.

This feels like step one in a journey, and I’m grateful for every instructor, coach, safety, and buddy.

One breath at a time, I’ll see you in the blue.

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

Greetings from #UnrealFest Bali 2025

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

Celebrating #AITownHall

[0xMarioNawfal @RoundtableSpace]

https://t.co/mzzf11nBzD

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

Taking a breather: #AITownHall is on hiatus while I tackle life shifts. Immensely grateful for every insight, question, and laugh you’ve shared. Stay curious—I’ll let you know when the next chapter begins. Thanks for being part of the conversation. 🙏

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

@Web4Door 🔥

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

@explorersofai @penrosestudios Thanks so much for being part of it @explorersofai 🔥

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

After an unforgettable decade, we have decided—together with our board and shareholders—to close @penrosestudios.

In the early days a handful of believers crowded my SoMa apartment, convinced that stories could surround us. Over time we pushed technical boundaries and crafted experiences that shaped the still-nascent art of spatial storytelling, earning recognition from audiences, peers, and juries—including the inaugural Lion for Best VR at Venice for Arden's Wake.

Amidst the winter of our industry's discontent, acclaim alone never blossomed into sustainable scale. What endured was commitment: teammates who burned midnight oil, investors who backed uncharted frontiers, partners who opened doors, and explorers who slipped on headsets to enter our worlds. My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you.

As we complete an orderly transition, I am working with colleagues to steward the studio’s archives and light a path for those who come next. Afterward, I hope for a true breather—family, fresh air, and reflection.

To everyone who shared this ten-year journey: thank you for proving that a few trillion pixels, arranged with heart, can move the human soul.

- EYC

[Penrose @penrosestudios]

Today we announce that Penrose Studios will wind down this month, closing ten remarkable years of adventure. Even after milestones like winning the first Venice Lion for Best VR, the market for spatial storytelling has yet to reach the scale we needed to thrive.

What began with a single dev kit grew into worlds that wrapped around audiences and hinted at the next era of narrative. We’re proud of every moment—and endlessly grateful to the teammates, partners, investors, and audiences who brought those visions to life.

As we complete our wind-down, we will be looking to preserve our work so it can keep inspiring new dreamers.

With full hearts, thank you for believing in bold ideas and stepping into our worlds.

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

@Azadux @penrosestudios Thanks so much @Azadux 🙏

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

@SpatialBiggs @penrosestudios Appreciate it! With thanks to your posts about Unreal & VisionOS, we were lucky to see some of our VR movies on Apple Vision Pro. Grateful to have shared this journey with fellow pioneers. 💫

[Eugene Chung @eyc]

@Scobleizer @penrosestudios Thanks for sharing in that joy—it helped keep us building.