Sunday Musings - Diminishing Returns, GPTChat, and Starting Anew

Mar 21

December 11th, 2022

Welcome to another Sunday Friends!

Here is your Sunday Musings, a quick dose of what I’m exploring and thinking about. Please feel free to forward this along to friends.

Diminishing Returns

I finished my last business trip in my position this past week. I don’t think I finished up and went to bed before 1am at all save once. It’s been hectic, fulfilling, sad, and exciting but I’ll save the exquisite details.

One detail I will go into is my Tuesday night. In the team’s classic style, we had a banger of a social. We usually kick it off around 5:30pm and usually lasts into the morning. Good food, drinks, chatting with friends and colleagues.

Early in the night (before food) everyone migrates over to some tables for an announcement. I figured it’s for the partners that are there, and we’ll thank everyone for the great planning session over the past two days. It’s my farewell. I hadn’t planned for that; I’m one of the leaders, but I’m not THE executive.

The team I have been with over the past 1.5 years gave me a touching farewell and a gift signed by each of them. It was great; then came the “Going away speech” requirement. Crap, I have always been terrible at these things, and they make me uncomfortable. This time it didn’t. This was a group of the most talented, passionate, and dedicated people I think I’ve ever worked with on a project. It was easy to tell them how great they were, how much I’m going to miss them, and how spoiled I’m going to realize I was when I take on the next projects.

We shook many hands, had some good food and drinks and then… I left early.

We had completed a major milestone, we were prepping for the next milestone soon to come, but I wasn’t going to be the guy for that next one. My next milestone is going on to be an executive officer somewhere else. I’d still be available for any outreach, and they for reach back from me; but that period is done.

The experience made me think about the Law of Diminishing Returns. Both the night and the time with them.

[Eric’s Morning Law of Diminishing Returns]

In life, like business, benefits gained will return proportionally smaller gain as more money or energy is invested in it. There’s always an inflection point where more of the same will provide less benefit than it did previously. Money to happiness, time researching to actions made, running to run times.

I’m glad I left when I did. Everyone had already said their goodbyes and thanks, our first couple hours were great to reminisce and promise to stay in touch (see last week’s emailer). I’m sure that as time went on, sleep caught up and mixed with spirits, and people were thinking more about the future, things would have become less fun for me.

I went to my hotel, thought about this entry, went to bed early, got up early and used the morning to write much of this segment.

There’s a balance to keep here with the Law of Diminishing Returns. I’m not saying you should leave every party early; but whether you’re thinking about a social engagement or a professional endeavor; keep it in mind.

What is the inflection point on investing the same thing into an endeavor? Maybe you should switch it up. Add weight training to compliment your running regimen. Something I definitely think about is in software product management, you can only upgrade something so many times before you ruin it; think about building version 2 instead of 1.1.2.22.2.3.

Have an amazing week!

-e

This Week’s Recommendation

ChatGPT - Free Research Preview from OpenAI

OpenAI has released ChatGPT to the public for a massive beta test. I recommend you go try it out either for education, or at least as a lark. As a large language model, ChatGPT understands and generates natural language. This gives it a wide gamut of assistance, answering questions, providing information, and even engaging in some interesting conversation. It’s getting more accurate and helpful over time. Lastly, because it’s a machine learning model, it processes large amounts of data quickly and provides tailored responses at scale. It could become an efficient and effective assistant for a wide range of applications.

The opportunities it presents are massive. First, you’re going to have to learn a bit of artistry and technician-like skills to frame good prompts. The better your prompts, the better your responses will be. If you harken back to my recommendation of 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Harrari; this is what we are referring to when we talk about being able to learn new skills and becoming more proficient as a manager of synthetic intelligence and machinery. Instead of asking “What is AI?”, something to the effect of “In 100 words, tell me what AI is and how it will help the average person from the point of view of a high school teacher”. The responses will be very different and enlightening.

It’s not going to cost you anything, go check it out and let me know what you think!

Technology I’m Looking At

AI applications to the battlefield and where the “cyber” war starts. I’ve written enough at you this week; next week look forward to a lengthy bit on this

Quote I’m Musing

“I made a prosperous voyage when I suffered shipwreck… well done, Fortune, to drive me thus to philosophy!”

-Zeno

Starting over is intimidating, even scary. Pursuing a new career, a new relationship (or status) or just something that is uncertain; it takes courage…or an event that pushes you into it willing or not.

You aren’t just starting from scratch, however. You’re getting the fantastic opportunity to start fresh and build something you want, but with more experience and better than you would have previously. Rebuild, or start fresh with the new skills you’ve built.

Recognize the opportunity that it presents. Just as Zeno saw his shipwreck as an opportunity to found Stoicism, starting over allows us to build something better. It lets us make improvements and learn from our past. Even in the face of adversity, there is the potential for positive change. So, if you have lost your job, gone through a difficult breakup, or been forced to start over in some other way, you have been given a remarkable opportunity through adversity. You now have the chance to build what you have wanted.

Well done, Fortune, for driving you thus.

I would love your feedback!

Which musing is your favorite? What else do you want to see or what should I eliminate? Any other suggestions? Please let me know. Just send a tweet to @erichaupt on Twitter and put #SundayMusings at the end so I can find it. Or, eric@erichaupt.com for long form email.

Have a wonderful week, I’ll see you Sunday.
-e