At YC one of the key insights is that craftspeople (not idea people) should be CEO and cofounders

1/ Today is the 4th anniversary of the original GPT-3 paper—"Language Models are Few-Shot Learners" Some reflections on how the last 4 years have played out, and thoughts about the next 4 years

All true dedication to a craft comes from wanting things to be a certain way. To be particular in this respect is a virtue. Not everyone can tell. But you can tell. And making it so is all that matters.

I believe in mindsets over frameworks. For instance, during Discovery we want to embrace inclusivity, playfulness in approach, opportunity focus, curiosity, going broad/divergence over convergence… Change your mindset and you’ll change the culture & approach.

Good designers are prolific, meaning that they’ve explored many answers and/or many angles and frames to the problem. This helps them to clearly articulate the whys and trade offs within the range of intent, behaviorial drivers, scope, outcomes, modularity and scalability.

I’ve seen time and time again what users say they’ll do is sometimes different than what they actually do (attitudinal vs behavioral). One reason is that they are not placed within the context, and the incentive model is missing. Framing narrows the context & why.

At Swarm, we partner with former startup founders and senior tech leaders from Fortune 500 companies, now consulting teams we call Hives. They are led and managed by hive leads, award-winning experts in AI, Software Engineering, and Design.

Taste isn’t going to save you if the core business isn’t sound. Most of what we design & build is services. Unless you are building a physical device or experience, taste isn’t the first reason why people chose your product.

The role of design in emergent tech products is part researcher and (can be) part visionary. You have to articulate hypotheses about expectations, trust, quality in AI powered experiences. UX framing & IXD provides focus for R&D & solve for quality issues in automation.

An abundance mindset is the surest sign of true inner confidence.

YouTube is eating podcasting

There is possibly no stronger position, than wanting everyone to win... ...and knowing in your gut that you'll win too if you just do what you're capable of. No comparison or insecurity - just a strong walk forward.

Be quiet, work hard, and stay healthy. It’s not ambition or skill that is going to set you apart but sanity.

There are 3 levels of "excellence" to achieve as a startup employee. 1. You execute exactly what is asked of you, on time and well done. Strict orders ---> Strict Execution

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See you at UX+! :)