“What is it you do to practice that is analogous to how a pianist practices scales?” - Tyler Cowen Over the past 6 months, I’ve entirely overhauled how I learn. Previously, my system for learning was fairly unstructured. I aimed to read a book per week, with some other short-form content sprinkled in. I would either read what was interesting to me, or something that was very different from what I’d previously read. Beyond that, I didn’t have much of a process. I didn’t write book reviews, and...

“What is it you do to practice that is analogous to how a pianist practices scales?” - Tyler Cowen Over the past 6 months, I’ve entirely overhauled how I learn. Previously, my system for learning was fairly unstructured. I aimed to read a book per week, with some other short-form content sprinkled in. I would either read what was interesting to me, or something that was very different from what I’d previously read. Beyond that, I didn’t have much of a process. I didn’t write book reviews, and...

A poem on the impossibility of surpassing the speed of light“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” - Genesis 1:1-4, KJV“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considere...

A poem on the impossibility of surpassing the speed of light“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” - Genesis 1:1-4, KJV“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considere...

In product, time-to-value (TTV) is how long it takes for a customer to receive the benefit of a product after initially purchasing it. Products should aim for low TTVs to minimize user churn. Search and LLM products have a special case of TTV that I call time-to-knowledge (TTK), which reflects how long it takes for you to get some piece of information that you want. There are 2 main limits to how fast TTKs can be. The theoretical fastest TTK is using brain-machine interfaces. As soon as you w...

In product, time-to-value (TTV) is how long it takes for a customer to receive the benefit of a product after initially purchasing it. Products should aim for low TTVs to minimize user churn. Search and LLM products have a special case of TTV that I call time-to-knowledge (TTK), which reflects how long it takes for you to get some piece of information that you want. There are 2 main limits to how fast TTKs can be. The theoretical fastest TTK is using brain-machine interfaces. As soon as you w...

Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633Every once in a while, I’m asked why I use Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee as my profile picture. The honest answer is the same reason why I picked the pseudonym Trace, which is because I thought it seemed cool. But having now spent a couple years with the painting, I’ve grown a deeper appreciation for it, which I figured I’d share. Most of this analysis would make an art historian shriek, and is more a representation of my own thinking than...

Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633Every once in a while, I’m asked why I use Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee as my profile picture. The honest answer is the same reason why I picked the pseudonym Trace, which is because I thought it seemed cool. But having now spent a couple years with the painting, I’ve grown a deeper appreciation for it, which I figured I’d share. Most of this analysis would make an art historian shriek, and is more a representation of my own thinking than...

I’ve previously written that the formula for success is to leverage the multiplicative effects between convex dispositions and talent stacks. This article advocates for a new approach to starting one’s career based on that insight. Over 40% of the Harvard class of 2022 went into finance or consulting. Whether these students were building career capital, seeking status, or chasing money, the path is often justified in students' minds because they want to keep their career options open. By...

I’ve previously written that the formula for success is to leverage the multiplicative effects between convex dispositions and talent stacks. This article advocates for a new approach to starting one’s career based on that insight. Over 40% of the Harvard class of 2022 went into finance or consulting. Whether these students were building career capital, seeking status, or chasing money, the path is often justified in students' minds because they want to keep their career options open. By...