Hidden Gems: Life Learnings #11 (5/13/24-5/26/24)

Welcome to Hidden Gems, a bi-weekly newsletter of my key takeaways and reflections from self-education.

You'll find actionable ideas and insights on leadership, sales, marketing, productivity, mindset, decision-making, and more.

Valuable AI knowledge: "What is an LLM?"

Ahmed Sadek and I asked Microsoft Copilot to explain Large Language Models (LLMs) to us like we're 5. This is what it said:

"Imagine you have a really smart friend who loves reading all the books in the world and remembers everything they read. Now, this friend is so smart that they can also write their own stories using all the things they learned from the books. That's what LLMs, or Large Language Models, are like. They read lots of things from the internet, learn from them, and then help people by answering questions or writing stories using what they've learned. They're like helpful robots that are really good with words!"

Your very own personal development mentor, free.

Copilot has been my go-to AI tool for about six months now. It has everything I need (idea brainstorming, image generation, and safety). Copilot (microsoft.com)

Simplicity

Complexity is hard to manage and takes a lot of brain space. Keeping it simple in my life has been rewarding but not always easy. The world gets more complex as time goes on, impacting the cleanliness of our homes, minds, and relationships. You accumulate stuff that you don't need and habits that aren't good for you. We all have them. This quote from James Clear says it well.

Here's a video that takes place shortly after Steve Jobs came back to Apple. Things have worked out pretty well since then.

"We looked at the product road map going out for a few years, and we said a lot of this doesn't make sense, and it's way too much stuff, and there's not enough focus, and so we?actually?got rid of 70% of the?stuff?on the product road map. I mean, I couldn't even figure out the damn product line after a few weeks, I keep saying "What is this model?", "How does this fit?" and I started talking to customers, and they couldn't figure it out either. So you're going to see the product line get much?simpler, and you're going to see the product line get much better."

Communication

Think about a recent conversation you had or a long email you sent. Do you think you could have said less and still have made your point?

I've written countless emails that I spent way too much time writing. Then come to find out that people won't be reading the whole thing anyway.

An incredible book that will change the way you communicate is Smart Brevity. A must-read for everyone. Bonus, it's short.

Even in 1940, when Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, he released this memo to his colleagues and staff about concisely laying out the real points. Check it out here: churchill_memo_on_brevity.pdf (harvard.edu)

Takeaway: Think about how you can shorten your written and verbal communication. Impactful, meaningful, and appreciated. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Effort

This is for all of you who are interning or starting full-time roles. Your effort is THE most important thing to focus on. Effort in learning the business, the role, how to do things better, trying new things, asking questions, meeting with people, and showing up. We recognize those going above and beyond.

If you're working in the right place, your manager should give you some grace to figure things out. The effort, however, is in your control.

Thanks for reading.

-Harley

My complete list of personal development resources and tools: Harley's Personal Development Resources

Interested in more? Here are the previous editions of Hidden Gems: https://www.dhirubhai.net/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7147326447806726145

Let me know if there is ONE thing you recommend to improve these moving forward: https://forms.gle/bKJeDZuA9rMHwhwd6