I had been behind on writing blog posts, and I took notes to write out in full when I find the time. I now declare ‘writing bankruptcy’, but I’d still like to share my notes.
A theme I’ve been coming across recently is “software is eating the world, but now AI is eating software”. It reminded me of this quote.
Technological advance is an inherently iterative process. One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken.
I spoke to a few early-stage startup founders, and I wondered how they thought about building a team around them. Cue Hank Paulson.
There is no perfect leader. Everyone is flawed and their strengths are usually the opposite of a weakness. The key ingredient I found for any of these CEOs that was just essential to success is the team they put around them. I called it "the right people in the right seats". You needed to play to your strength but you need to put people around you who you listen to, who can compensate for your weaknesses. If you didn't these big jobs always uncover your weaknesses.
I had been at law school in the early 2010s, and one summer I met up with a lawyer friend in London. I shared with her my disappointment in not getting an internship in corporate law.
Instead of offering words of comfort, she said something along the lines of “you have a tendency to speak your mind but as lawyers we often need to err on the side of being diplomatic; I’m not sure you missing out on internships is a necessarily a bad thing.”
Now I can tell her, she’s right. Working with software is not without its quirks, but I’ve yet to see someone describe their experience in the vein of the following excerpt.
There’s a saying out here. Every man has three hearts. One in his mouth for the world to know. Another in his chest, just for his friends. And a secret heart buried deep where no one can find it.