I Miss Thinking Hard

Every technology innovation is simultaneously a moment of de-skilling. Few people know how to ride horses any more, but a great many know how to drive cars. What happens when the innovation is cognitive, when the technology takes on the ‘thinking’ part of the job? A software engineer puts his thoughts down, self aware enough to know that core capability is atrophying through lack of use, even as output is scaling out. Terence Tao - by general consensus, the most intelligent human alive today - describes the use of AI with a beautiful analogy which is destined to be canon. Meanwhile, for those who want to dive into the academic side of skills atrophy by overuse of AI, this paper channels the late Daniel Kahnemann with Thinking - Fast, Slow and Artificial - How AI is Reshaping Human Reasoning.

Every Morning: No. Every Night: Maybe.

Lots of people post stuff on LinkedIn and probably as many complain about what is being posted 🤣. Brainfooder and SeekOut founder Anoop Gupta has taken an entirely new approach - sharing deep personal lessons from a life well lived. In an era where we need the human story more than ever - forget brainfood, this is soulfood. Follow Anoop.

Becoming a Research Engineer at a Big LLM Lab - 18 Months of Strategic Job Hunting

Fascinating retro from a non-CS job candidate who ended up getting a technical job at one of the leading frontier LLM lab. It’s a forensic breakdown of all of the important components of success: mindset, self development, consciously oscillating between tactical and strategic work. This is a great essay for anyone who is on the job search today, or planning out career with a 5 year plan in mind. It’s even a great piece of brainfood for any in-work person looking at achieving goals. A long read, but well worth it. H/T to brainfooder Martyn Redstone for sharing in the online community.

How Can I Influence Others without Manipulating Them?

Last week I spoke with 4 different training companies - and they all described the same demand curve: steep decline in training for hard, technical and steep increase for soft, intangible skills. One of the barriers in developing soft skills is the perception that they are forms of manipulation and therefore inherently immoral (!). Wonderful post on how to get over this perception, whilst not rejecting elements of validity in it. Read it folks, it’s very good. PS: might be worth doing a Brainfood Live on this - get a coach on, what do you?

How Recruiters Can Make More Money with Hung

I don’t think we ever answered the question in the title as we segued into personal territory and ended up talking about motivation, mindset, mental health and a lot of other things besides. Serious but fun conversation with brainfooder Chris O’Connell last year, now remastered as a cool looking Youtube video.

Path to Global TA Leadership

It’s brainfooder Yasar Ahmad on the path to global TA leadership. This is a fascinating interview with a person who has self awareness to make strategic career decisions, whilst holding the fort on the business as usual. Great listen.

Pocket’s Best Reads of 2022

If you aren’t tired of reading yet, then why not dive into Pocket’s Best Reads of 2022?Some fantastic long essays in collection, including several which are directly relevant to us here: how about a ‘Neurologists Guide to Save Your Memory’, ‘A Simple Way to Introduce Yourself’ or ‘The Time Hack Everyone Should Know’? Some great headline writing, which for once do not mislead.

This Mindset Will Change Your Life ...