A Learning a Day

After a point, looking back and rehashing the scars of the past is only useful if it is helpful in generating forward momentum.

Over the past year, I tried multiple AI tools – spending most of my time on Perplexity and Claude. I have, however, come back to ChatGPT. It works for me.

My workflow on ChatGPT has evolved quite a bit since I first used it. 3 of the biggest changes have been –

1. Projects: I use projects a lot – including projects that involve work, travel planning, health and so on. I embed a fair amount of context into the project so it is just picked up in each chat. For example, the travel project has examples of past trips and what we liked most.
2. Audio: I use audio to transcribe thoughts from time to time. Very useful.
3. Pictures: I’ve also used pictures for work around the house. I can, for example, take a photo of a plant and ask it what I should do differently to make it healthier. It is amazing how good it is.

Every time I reflect on ChatGPT, I realize my favorite feature is the lack of any growth hacks. There is no gamification, no streaks, and no notifications. I use it every day for the simple reason that it is… useful.

It is an inspiring reminder as someone who builds technology products for a living.

Useful is all we need.

It is the ultimate goal – the one worth building for.

PS: I just read that Open AI crossed $10B in revenue, 2.5 years after the launch of ChatGPT. A by product of a good product.

I wrote about conviction and evidence in the Good Energy approach yesterday. It’s worth calling out that this framework of conviction and evidence is applicable in most things that matter in this life.

I think of it every day in my daily work as a product manager. Good products show up when we first have conviction in an idea and pour effort into bringing that conviction to life.

If that conviction is borne out of a deep understanding of the user’s problem and if our follow through involves that magical combination of good decision making/judgment, taste, and systems thinking, it is likely we’ll see evidence backing up that judgment.

If we see evidence, we should invest further. If we don’t, we should stop investing.

The role of good leadership is to build conviction in novel approaches to solving problems early. You do that enough and you reap the benefits that come from leading your domain.

Bad leadership, on the other hand, seeks evidence without taking the time to build conviction in the right things.

I’ve written a lot about “Good Energy” in the past year. When I wrote about the book, I wrote about cleaning up my act and revisiting every aspect of my lifestyle – from diet to movement .

All of this came from conviction in her recommended approach.

Conviction is useful. But the sign of conviction in the right things is when we have evidence.

The first bit of evidence came from a close friend who shared that he’d gone from being pre-diabetic to normal in a matter of 3 months by making these lifestyle changes. That was great to hear and validating.

However, there was one wish I had.

Over the past 15 years, every time I’ve gone in for routine bloodwork, I’ve emerged with a key ratio looking off – the ratio of Triglycerides to HDL or High density Lipoprotein (commonly called good cholesterol).

My ratio has consistently hovered between 3-4. The optimal is 1-1.5 and 2 is considered normal. I’ve had rare moments (after a set of smaller lifestyle changes) when the ratio has been closer to 3. But it’s never sustained and typically hovers around 3.5.

I’ve been off on both of these numbers by quite a bit. The ideal HDL for men is in the 60-80 range (I barely touched 40) and the ideal Triglycerides number is 40-60 (I’ve typically hovered around 130).

Going into this set of lifestyle changes 8 months ago, I hoped I’d see an improvement in these numbers. But, admittedly, it felt like one of those half-hearted hopes where I didn’t have confidence in myself and expected to be disappointed.

I’m pleased to report that my latest numbers show a 63 mg/dL HDL and 43 mg/dL triglycerides. I’ve swung from “at risk” to optimal in one go – a ~6x improvement in that ratio.

4 reflections –

(1) I think the process of building confidence in ourselves is when we know we have the ability to follow through with action. I’ve gained confidence over the years that I’ll be able to follow through on what I say I’ll do. I just didn’t have any strategy to improve these specific metrics. And I’m grateful to Dr Casey Means for the strategy.

(2) Speaking of strategy, this is the biggest gripe I have with Dr Peter Attia’s Outlive. His immediate solution to this ratio being off was to recommend statins. For all his focus on medicine 3.0, it felt like a medicine 2.0 quick fix solution. Dr. Means’ approach of fixing lifestyle first resonated tremendously.

(3) I’ve written about the lifestyle changes I’ve made in a combination of other posts. But I’d like to share a summary in case you find it useful –

• Sleep 7 hours minimum
• Start the day with a quick drink of water soaked with a few spices (coriander, cumin, black seeds, carrom seeds, fennel)
• 30 min workout – 10 mins mobility, 5 mins strength, 15 min run with sprints up 2 hills.
• Protein shake for breakfast with a scoop each of whey + orgain protein, 5 mg Creatine, mix of leaves – spinach + chard + kale, mix of berries, and a mix of seeds – chia, flaxseed, hemp. And some avocado.
• Lunch – start w/salad, some protein, veggies, and rice
• A green tea when I remember a few hours after
• Dinner – start w/nuts, some protein, veggies, and a small quantity of rice. And end with a fruit if possible.
• Lots of walking – walking through the day and definitely walking after dinner for at least half an hour. My average step count this year has gone up to ~12000 from ~8000 last year – with little hacks like parking half a mile away from the office.
• Reduced toxins/chemicals – more natural soaps, detergents, deoderants, and fruits from the farmer’s market.
• Weekly – twice a week strength training for 45 mins with a trainer, once a week 70 min soccer game

I’m not regimented about all of this. I’ve had to take breaks when traveling and definitely skip Saturdays. I have a sweet tooth – so I’ve binged on plenty of white chocolate and Indian sweets along the way. But I’ve attempted to be consistent more often than not in the past 6 months. I just didn’t know if it would all show up in the results.

(4) That brings me to the final note. I’ve felt better than ever since making these changes. Unless the blood work showed a worse situation, I’d have continued doing these anyway.

But it is always heartening when we keep getting evidence that good results do follow good process.

A collection of Canadian researchers published a seminal study following a set of 889 individuals after they underwent chemotherapy for colon cancer.

Over a 3 year period, half the participants received health education materials and half the participants underwent a structured exercise program with a coach. The coach met with patients every few weeks for three years, helping them establish and maintain an exercise regimen including walking, biking, kayaking, skiing, swimming, or running. They aimed for the equivalent of at least three 45- to 60-minute walks each week.

Eight years on, the intervention group saw a 28% reduction in cancer recurrence and 37% fewer deaths (study summary).

One of central tenets of Peter Attia’s book is that exercise is, by a distance, the most effective drug we know for a healthy life.

It is heartening to see randomized controlled trials that push for exercise-based interventions like this – and, of course, wonderful to see the results.

A few months before I got married, I spoke to a family friend. He’d been around the block and shared a reflection about marriage and careers.

He shared that the effect he’d seen was fascinating as it was binary more often than not.

After marriage, strong performers either became superstars or went through a severe regression in their performance.

In effect, 1+1 was either much greater than 2 or it was..0.

I’ve thought about that reflection over the years – in marriages and in teams.

Strong teams are generally a sum of their parts. The complementary skill sets come together to make them great.

And, in most other cases, you can’t help get the feeling that the team’s performance is less than the sum of its parts.

All in all, a useful rule of thumb. Teams/partnerships either work great… or not.

There’s rarely middle ground.

“If come from inside you, always the right one” | Mr. Miyagi, referring to decisions that come from listening to ourselves.

The quieter we become, the more we’re able to listen to the answers that emerge within.

I work on the jobs marketplace and the jobseeker experience on LinkedIn.

In a labor market like the one today, there’s definitely a lot of frustration flying around.

There’s no doubt we have a lot of work to do and a responsibility to our users to make things better. And, given my role, I’m at the receiving end of some of that feedback and frustration.

Every once a while, I get thoughtful and considerate feedback. It is so lovely when people do that.

Often, though, they’re worded in a way that is intended to hurt.

I’ve learnt two lessons over time –

(1) Remove the emotion and answer the question/comment. When I first received these notes, I used to feel the emotion surge as I tried to keep my cool. I’ve gotten better at removing the emotion. It isn’t personal and it is sometimes easy to lose that perspective.

I do my best to help outline the challenges (especially with requests that aren’t realistic) and set expectations. And, of course, if it is offensive, I remind myself that I can choose not to respond.

(2) The feedback is a privilege. I would have given a lot a few years ago to get to work on a problem like this. The feedback is just a reminder of the work that lies ahead to make things better.

That again is a reminder to remove the emotion, acknowledge the privilege, and just try to be of help.

It is, of course, a lesson that is relevant in other scenarios as well. It is good to be able to remove the emotion and just answer the question.

I hope to get better at doing so over time.

When you learn to play the guitar, you know to expect multiple cuts and calluses in your fingers.

Lifting weights, on the other hand, means dealing with soreness.

Public speaking means learning to deal with stage fright.

Pain in the learning process is required to help our bodies and minds adapt to new challenges.

Many say they want to accelerate their learning curve. The real question is if they’re willing to lean into the inevitable pain that comes with that.

If you’re expecting every person you work with to agree with your decisions or to like you along the way, it is highly likely you won’t get much done.

This doesn’t mean you can get away being a jerk for long. There’s a balance – too often though, we get caught up in our desire for affiliation. It is nice to be liked.

But that’s not the job.

The job is about getting the important things done. Ideally in a way that brings the people that matter along for the most part.

That in turn often means choosing to be the kind of person who is respected for sound judgment.

Everything else is gravy in the long run.