miscellaneous
I'm a big fan of listening to audiobooks and podcasts, and struggle to find the time to read the articles and PDF docs I want to prioritize that aren't available in audio format. I recently found (thanks to a sponsorship on the Daring Fireball blog) a
leadership
I found this podcast interview with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky (the transcript is available here) fascinating on how he considers organizational design at the enterprise level. He makes the point that if an organization wants a single, fast-moving flywheel (a cohesive set of priorities), they should have a lean,
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
A few weeks ago, I attended UVA Venture Capital Conference, which was in UVA Darden's (their business school) beautiful building in Arlington, overlooking the DC skyline. The event was great, but the session that really stuck out to me was the Investing in AI session -- the panel was:
lessons-learned
I recently read a longform article High Agency In 30 Minutes by George Mack, which was an incredible ride! In a world of infintite entertainment, so much of it so tempating (see Cal Newport's concept of Ultra-Processed Content), Mack's article was an emotional rollercoaster with
fun
Our family has been enjoying 3D printing as a 2025 adventure, which has been fun. I took our older kids to a 3D printing conference (https://3dprintopia.com/), after a friend mentioned it (he runs HueForge). Our older kids were excited to see the creations people made. Santa generously brought
lessons-learned
When you're asking for help (e.g., looking for career advice, asking for recommendations/referrals for a new job, asking to borrow something from a friend), make it as easy as you can for them to help you. For example: * If you're looking for a new
data
To become better at visually communicating (e.g., creating diagrams for technical documents, facilitating a meeting with a whiteboard or digital whiteboard), you should expose yourself to many different people visually communicate. This allows you to build a mental library of visual concepts you can use. Some examples: * Lucidchart has
lessons-learned
While we live in an era of impressive Generative AI capabilities regarding graphics (ChatGPT and other GenAIs have some capabilities here and Napkin looks impressive regarding diagram creation), my recommendation when you're trying to think through a conceptual graphic is still to use PowerPoint to explore different diagram
lessons-learned
Way back when Netflix would mail you DVDs (I'm sure my children have no idea what a DVD is), there was a research study (Mixing Virtue and Vice: Combining the Immediacy Effect and the Diversication Heuristic) that illustrated procrastination well -- people had to select movies to watch, and
leadership
I used to have a star employee, who I, and other senior leaders, kept adding more and more to his plate, but he was such a strong performer -- he ensured things were done well, and on time. I used to half-jokingly comment that he was a victim of his
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
ChatGPT, the Generative AI platform, recently (late February 2025) moved their Deep Research capability down from their $200/month plan to their $20/month a plan. While you should always be wary of what Large Language Models (LLMs) tell you, verifying what they say (to avoid looking bad for being
leadership
New leaders often struggle in holding people, especially when they were recently peers, accountable to perform at a certain level. This is especially hard in organizations that don't have clearly defined success criteria for a role or specific leader. As a new leader, it's important to