Posts tagged: observation

A while ago I wrote about my values at work, and that if I had a choice, what would I choose. It is not often that I have that choice, but it is good to aim idealistic and expect realistic. So, in...

When gpt3 came out, I half-jokingly wrote:

I'm often interested in understanding why people believe the things they believe and why they behave the way they behave. Usually the former is a reason for the latter. Pondering these, I've realized...

Last night Ehssan sent me a post from a math professor that has been making the rounds. The professor loves research and hates grading. Who doesn't? But lately, he wrote, his research has started to...

I sat through a talk by Clair Sullivan about making a tech career layoff-proof by going solopreneur. I am still deciding how much of it I actually believe. This is my notes from that talk.

Every once in a while I have to revisit this question and this time I took a bit longer to answer it, trying to inform it based on multiple blog posts by Chip Huyen and Eugene Yan. As Maleknaz says I...

I keep finishing books and forgetting the things they teach. I've had the same issue with math and had looooooooooong discussions with Ehssan about what does it even mean to "learn"/"know" something?...

There are a few people in my life (mostly in the role of an advisor/mentor) that have given me a feeling that I haven't experienced anywhere else. These are people who are well accomplished and well...

I don't normally read the news. But with the current situation in Iran I've been reading a lot more. Something like 7-8 hours on some days. Reading that much bad news with that high of an impact...

Iran has had no internet for four weeks. Not slow, not restricted. Gone. The only app that works is Bale, made by the Iranian government. Everyone knows what it is. Everyone knows what it's for....

I asked Hadi, half-jokingly, whether Bach was the Justin Bieber of his time. Are we just listening to the most "popular" artists of the 1700s and calling it high culture? And the flip side: will...

You're at the lake with your 3-year-old. You want to fish. He wants to play with you. You brought toys, snacks, a little chair for him. He should be able to entertain himself for a bit. You set him...

I've been writing a series of thoughts recently in order to clarify a point of view of mine. These are the original posts:

After writing about how companies get distracted by competitive dynamics, I got some great feedback that helped me work through some deeper thoughts.

There's this pattern that keeps showing up in tech and beyond: companies get so caught up in matching what their competitors are doing that they lose sight of actually solving the underlying problem....

There are people who view everyone around them through a single lens of accomplishment. In professional circles, it's salary or publication count. In religious communities, it might be how many...

In a world flooded with information and competing claims, we like to think we evaluate ideas based on evidence and reasoned analysis. But beneath our conscious reasoning lie powerful psychological...

Someone was talking about this that these came up: - The Culture Map - Navigating ‘Ask’ and ‘Guess’ Cultures in a modern world

One of the most enlightening conversations I've had recently started with my friend sharing how his colorblindness influenced his life choices—even leading him away from a potential career as a...

For years, I’ve been particular about the cellphones I use. It’s not just about having a phone—it’s about finding one that genuinely solves my problems without forcing me into unnecessary ecosystems...

You call a company to book an appointment for their service,

> Oh, it's just an(other) excuse to dress up silly, get drunk, and not go to classes!