Shower thought #1: it’s not surprising that we’re making progress in AI through GPUs that originated fast visual processing (that requires massive parallel computation)

Parallel computation is norm in brain and CPU-like deliberate, linear computation is an exception Shower thought #2: when people say it’s hard, they’re really saying ‘I estimate that it’s not worth my time, I have better things to do’

1/ Been thinking that there is no such thing as ‘common’ or ‘generally accepted’ knowledge. 2/ First, even if *you* think someone has figured out how black holes behave, unless *you* understand or follow the logic, it’s not knowledge you can claim to have.

What you don’t know but someone else knows is equivalent to what nobody knows.

Product positioning is like walking on a tightrope.

You want to communicate something that customers understand but you don’t want to communicate something that customers find obvious (which is an indicator of the entire market with competitors having similar positioning) Just realized that what I was talking about was something akin to "edge of chaos" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_of_c…

It's hypothesized that complex systems are neither too chaotic, nor too predictable.

1/ A short thread on ENTROPY, and its misapplications. 2/ First and foremost, know that there are two different things that are called entropy: one is thermodynamic entropy and the other one is information entropy.

Whenever someone is talking about entropy, ask which one.

1/ Currently reading Feyerabend’s Against Method and it has some really interesting observations on how science is done, and should be done. 2/ Unlike popular assumption, we don’t observe data first and then formulate theories. Generally, it’s the conviction of a scientist who formulates a new hypothesis and then goes about looking for data.

1/ Here’s a little (true) story of how technology + capitalism worsens life quality by converting people into commodities. 2/ Was traveling an Uber yesterday and driver said he works 12-18 hours every single day, 7 days a week.

120 hrs workweek is insane.

1/ At @wingify, we have changed our org structure several times.

A short thread on what I've learned about ORGANIZATION DESIGN in last 8 years. 2/ Startup founders have many biases. Some are classic cognitive biases that impact decision making invertedpassion.com/hacks-to-avoid… while others are specific biases that impact their product thinking invertedpassion.com/cognitive-bias…

To make more people interested in learning, we should surprise them by gently giving deep explanations for everyday problems.

- How to get a girlfriend/boyfriend? Teach strategy. - How to make tastier food? Teach chemistry.

- How to get job promotion / get friends? Teach human psychology.

1/ A thread on MACHINE LEARNING and why it's INEFFICIENT.

Let's start with a simple idea. Imagine we are asked to predict and our simulation overlords feed images of the following type to "learn" from.

What would you learn from white noise? Will you be able to extract patterns? 2/ In all likelihood, the alien world will be incomprehensible to us (as it would have a very different nature than our world).

Hence, whatever data is fed to us will seem RANDOM (as, in our world, we’d have never come across it before).

1/ A short thread on HOW EVOLUTION EXPLAINS EVERYTHING.

PS: I 😍 evolution precisely because it explains a majority of what we see around us! 2/ It’s hard to not get awed by a process that took Earth, a big rock full of chemicals, and gradually chiseled it to create humans, creatures full of complex emotions and behaviors.

1/ I’ve been trying to understand ENTROPY for the last couple of days.

Here is what I’ve learned + common misconceptions. 2/ There are two types of entropy: thermodynamical entropy and informational entropy.

These two are different things, and a lot of confusion happens when authors don’t specify what type of entropy are they talking about.

1/ THINKING IN ANALOGIES IS DANGEROUS, a thread.

From your high school classes, do you recall the image of an atom where electrons revolve around the nucleus (just like planets go around the Sun)?

IT WAS WRONG, and here's why. 2/ The analogy of electrons as tiny planets is so common that most people imagine electrons to be like tiny spheres. That’s utterly wrong.

Electrons are not tiny spheres. Instead, they’re like a cloud spread around the nucleus. In fact, even the cloud analogy is wrong

1/ A 20 year old entrepreneur asks for advice.

Here is what I told him. 2/ Something that pays > something that's cool (look for boring, unsexy, ignored problems)

1/ A thread on BUILDING MENTAL IMMUNITY against DEPRESSION and ANXIETY.

You take vitamins, follow a good diet and go to the gym for physical immunity. I urge you to do something to build mental immunity.

Here’s how you do it. 2/ Mental health issues were the primary cause of the recent deaths of celebrities such as Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, Avicii and Chester Bennington. I wish peace to their families/friends

I hope that these deaths don’t go in vain but serve as a wake-up call for the rest of us

1/ @wingify turned 8 yesterday.

Over these years, I’ve seen myself evolve from a silly little punk doing a side project to the Chairman position where I’m responsible for creating future leaders within Wingify.

Here's my advice on HOW TO BECOME A LEADER IN 10 HARD STEPS. 2/ 1. Everyone wants to progress, but only leaders are willing to sacrifice for it

We all know what’s good for us: exercising regularly, eating healthy food, quitting smoking, and meditating. Yet, how many of us have the willpower to follow through?

1/ A short thread on meditation.

This doodle summarises my experience of a 20-30 minute meditation session. 2/ I used to give up early as early on when you’re meditating ‘nothing seems to be happening’

Mind is full of chatter for the first 10 minutes and it’s frustrating because meditation is supposed to calm you down.

1/ LOVE reading SUCCESS STORIES?

A thread on how to CRITICALLY DISSECT a success story, to PREVENT you from NARRATIVE FALLACY and to HELP you POKE HOLES in ANYONE-CAN-DO-ANYTHING message that billionaires, Olympians, and famous actors love to throw around. 2/ Stories captivate us because we’re evolutionarily wired to seek stories. Our ancestors who told and listened to stories had a higher survival rate because stories bound them together. Stories helped form groups that killed Mammoths and take over the world.

1/ A (long) THREAD on how most of the HUMAN BEHAVIOR is SHOWING OFF VIRTUE or ABUNDANCE, and how our VIRTUES are mostly VICES in DISGUISE.

Reading @robinhanson and @kevinsimler's new book ‘Elephant in the brain’. Here are my notes and observations from the book. 2/ Human intelligence evolved as a result of arms race of getting ahead in social situations where two contrasting incentives always existed: to co-operate or to compete.

1/ A thread on COGNITIVE BIASES that lead to POORLY DESIGNED PRODUCTS.

If you are a startup founder, product manager or designer, this thread is for you. 2/ WHAT'S A COGNITIVE BIAS?

I like to define it as: a systematic error in perception due to the environment that one is embedded into.

1/ A thread for B2B / SaaS FOUNDERS with INSIGHTS from me, @pallavn (founder of @FusionCharts) and @varunshoor (founder of @Kayako) 2/ Two weeks prior, the three of us went on a mentorship call with five SaaS founders and here are the notes / insights

Questions were categorized in three broad areas.
- Product Roadmap
- Demand generation – top of the funnels and Gotomarket
- Focus – what to focus on

1/ A thread on INCREASING your CHANCES of STARTUP SUCCESS.

Startups become successful when multiple things 'click' together like a jigsaw puzzle. 2/ There’s so much more that has to go right for a startup that it shouldn’t be surprising that most startups fail.

More variables you tweak, the more likely that you’ll fail in solving the entire equation. This is because all these variables are dependent on each other.