If one is in the space of AI startups, one is mostly busy understanding the latest algorithmic approach to improve model training throughput, or connecting developer centric workflow tools into an AI enabled machinery to increase some other performance characteristic of deploying inference in cloud-native apps (insert cool technology here), or of course - if you are consumer-facing - it's about the latest application of AI to our everyday lives: generation of images, answering queries, doing wo...

Lately, I’ve been thinking (and ended up discussing) a lot about people management and leadership in this space. I’ve been exposed to multiple “schools of thought” if you will and thought it is time for me to put it down in words what I believe, mainly so I can work through my thoughts and get clarity. This is what personal blogging is all about, isn’t it? First of all, the one school of thought around this I have been exposed to mostly is what I would call a “militaristic” attitude towards peo...

In the early days of my professional life, computer systems were mostly static. It was a relatively simple setup: one would install a system of some kind, give users access to said system, and that is that. Most of the demands of business were not (yet) put on computers and most of the business logic and processes had not been digitized. In fact, the Internet was nascent and companies had not fully embraced this new technology; fax machines were the way to send documents from point A to point B....

Patience is a virtue was always my least welcome adage. I never felt I was good at it, but at times I apparently exceeded expectations in my performance; and when I lose it, the consequences feel disproportional to when the same happens to others. It’s worth digging into, because my son has the same demeanor, and he experiences the same. It goes something like this: throughout the day, folks make all kinds of comments, are in your face without any good reason, and you usually just take it, becau...

Some time ago, I watched a TED talk about "grit". The speaker, Angela Lee Duckworth, links perseverance in the face of adversity to long-term success. I want to write about resiliency, instead. The two words mean almost exactly the same thing, but resiliency has another, secondary definition that I find interesting. Grit is the firmness of mind or spirit: unyielding courage, per Merriam-Webster. Resiliency is the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. So far...

Today I had a very stressful day. Although in general, and in comparison to other days It wasn’t as bad, for some reason it just got to me. A sense of feeling that my career was at its peak, that there was nowhere else to go from here. I understood then that while I may be feeling down, really what I was lacking was perspective. Now generally, when people ”get perspective”, it is really an exercise in managing one’s expectations. It’s like every Country song there is about how great life is in ...

TLDR; It basically comes down to: lack of trust lack of endorsement lack of leadership Note, I am making an assumption that one really is a high-performing individual. If that is a true statement, only you can tell about yourself. Lack of trust It is easy to start something green field. It's either never been done before, so you get to try things to see if they work, and your intellectual brilliance and be applied in full force: here is what makes sense based on first principles, we're all...