Things That Don’t Change and Things That Will
Hi everyone! Thank you for tuning into Tom’s Top 3, a weekly newsletter where I share the three things that tickled my fancy on any given week. This could include blog posts, books, podcasts, products, YouTube videos, you name it. I’ll include links and a short description about why I found something particularly interesting. I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to share with a friend!
- How Netflix builds a culture of excellence – Lenny’s Podcast
- Description
- Lenny interviews Elizabeth Stone, who was recently promoted to CTO at Netflix. Elizabeth’s promotion made headlines at the time, given her background. With a PhD in economics from Stanford, Elizabeth’s route came through data science rather than engineering. Fun fact, Elizabeth worked at my former employer, Analysis Group (an economic consulting firm), prior to going into tech.
- A couple of things stood out to me from this interview. For one, I was unaware of Netflix’s culture around candor. Rather than having a formal performance review process, Netflix encourages employees to directly express when their coworkers are not meeting their bar for operational excellence — which is notably a high one at that. She described the “Keeper Test,” where she would imagine how she would feel if the employee handed in their resignation today. If she doesn’t feel like she would have to convince that person to stay, or if she might even feel relieved by them leaving, then it might be an indication that she should have a conversation with that employee to see if they should part ways with the company. I found this rather shocking and a little bit harsh, but I guess you can’t question given Netflix’s track record.
- The second aspect of the interview that I found interesting was how Elizabeth explained that her background in economics in some ways made her more prepared for her current role. She explained how data science and engineering share many similarities. Economics also largely deals with the implementation and effects of incentives, and Elizabeth explained how understanding incentives has helped her advance in her career and relate to her coworkers. Elizabeth also credited Analysis Group for giving her experience with relaying complex technical analyses in a digestible way.
- Takeaway
- Listening to this interview really illustrated for me how long and winding careers can be. No path is linear, and what matters most is doing good work and following your genuine curiosities. Elizabeth is walking proof of this. She explained how she was motivated most through people, and she always wanted to do well by her team. That kind of team-first mentality allowed her to make lasting, deep relationships and move up quickly in her career.
- Description
- Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli
- Description
- I’m currently reading Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger, and he talks at length about how it is important to understand the foundations of the major disciplines. He says that doing so builds out a latticework of mental models, upon which you can test assumptions and make decisions. I was inspired. In a world that increasingly encourages and rewards specialization, here was one of the most successful investors claiming that there is immense value in exploration. In fact, pursuing these generalist curiosities can even further sharpen your specialized craft. One of the major disciplines that Charlie discusses is physics. I loved physics in high school, but today, my understanding goes about as deep as a Marvel movie explaining time travel.
- Carlo Rovelli is an incredibly talented writer, able to distill esoteric theory and math into lovely and memorable stories. I had loved reading one of his other books, Reality Is Not What It Seems, so he was the first source I went to when trying to venture into the intimidating world of physics to get that lattice to work. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics is exactly as advertised: 81 quick pages on topics such as general relativity, quantum mechanics, and gluons. Rovelli does a great job of tying together the physics with the history and people behind it, and I highly suggest it for anyone searching for an approachable introduction to physics.
- Favorite Quote
- When his great Italian friend Michele Besso died, Einstein wrote a moving letter to Michele’s sister: “Michele has left this strange world a little before me. This means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction made between past, present and future is nothing more than a persistent, stubborn illusion.” (pg. 60)
- Description
- How a Hollywood Director Uses AI to Make Movies
- Description
- In this episode of the “How Do You Use ChatGPT” podcast, Dan Shipper interviews Dave Clark, a director that has had recent success creating short films using AI generated images and clips. Dan and Dave talk through Dave’s process of embracing the technological innovation of AI and how it fits in with his workflow. Since this podcast is on video, they present a demo of the tools that Dave uses, which was my favorite aspect of the interview. During this demo, Dan and Dave create the foundation of a short film about Nick Cage making a deal with demons to resurrect his career.
- Takeaway
- I loved how Dan and Dave choose to have fun with this, and the excitement that the two get as they create something silly and new continually brought a smile to my face. After seeing these tools secondhand, I am simultaneously excited and terrified for how this technology will change the future of filmmaking. This podcast didn’t even touch on Sora, the revolutionary text-to-video tool just released by OpenAI. As this space continues to develop, filmmakers will have more tools at their disposal that will drive down the costs of filmmaking. It was exciting to see that come to life with the demo of Dave’s process.
- Description