What Sam Altman taught me this weekend about productivity.

It's impossible to argue that Sam Altman is one of the most influential and productive entrepreneurs in America.

(And frankly, one of the only ones strong enough to go head-to-head with Elon Musk)

This weekend, I "took the bait" on some YouTube clickbait around his productivity hacks.

And I'm so glad I did.

If you're interested in the full interview I listened to by David Perell , here it is. (by the way: I am a huge fan of David's work and particularly appreciate his perspective on the Bible as a former atheist)

HERE ARE 6 OF MY TAKEAWAYS:

• Use a spiral notebook to take notes.

I have personally struggled with finding the right "productivity system" for years.

Trello, Notion, Apple Notes, Day One, Plaud, ReMarkable, Freewrite, etc.

I've tried all of them. And constantly have found myself struggling to really settle into any one system.

Sam shares in the interview that he has done the same iterating, and arrived at a very simple solution:

Taking notes in a pocket-sized spiral notebook, with nice paper and high-quality Uniball or MUJI pen.

He likes the spiral notebook because it lays flat. And he can easily rip pages out to compare notes side by side.

(As someone who is OCD: I love the idea of a "clean slate" paper notebook every morning)

This week, I am taking his advice and going to try ripping out my pages each night and transferring them into Notion.

From what I could tell, he (or his housekeeper) is doing something similar.

• Spend time writing to understand and clarify your own thinking.

I tend to think about writing as a way to communicate my ideas to others.

Altman touches on the power of this.

But he also explains the importance of writing for clarifying his OWN thinking to himself.

For really processing things.

Most of us think of "essay writing" as something we used to do in school.

But this talk convinced me that essay writing should be a lifelong pursuit for ALL of us.

(David has some great content on this)

• Writing is a powerful way as a leader to communicate.

Re: the point above, Altman explained the importance of written documents to the culture at OpenAI.

While he didn't dismiss the importance of verbal communication of ideas, he seems to strongly favor using writing to drive cultural change and push projects forward.

This is very similar to the "Docs" culture that Jeff Bezos has created at Amazon. (every other day I am hearing Caleb Veth talking about Docs...and he has convinced me just how effective these are).

• Artificial intelligence is an aid. Not a replacement.

It's funny in this interview to see the CEO of OpenAI more or less dismissing the power of AI to "write on it's own."

He doesn't see good human writing going anywhere any time soon.

And at least for now, feels 100% AI writing is not even passable quality (seemingly, no matter how good your "prompt" is).

This reminds me of what my friend Timothy Brennan calls "having a human in the loop."

I just didn't realize that even the king of the AI movement felt the same way.

• Learn to work in imperfect environments

While Sam acknowledged the peace and serenity that comes with having a Saturday morning free to write...

Or the irreplacability of a good coffee shop as a productivity backdrop...

He mentions the importance of writing in bed, writing in the back of a car, etc.

Finding little blocks of time where you can.

I thought this was a great reminder.

It's easy to blame our lack of productivity throughout the day on our "imperfect" circumstances.

Sam Altman doesn't use this as an excuse.

• Burn the boats on Job #1

Altman touched on just how focused his life has become on building OpenAI.

And what he has had to give up by going "all in." (even compared to being the President of Y Combinator)

This is a great reminder: the more we say "yes"...the less any of our "yes" answers actually mean.

Focus wins.

IN SHORT:

The best aren't the best by accident. They work differently than everyone else.

And it's obvious to me why Sam Altman is making the impact that he is.

If you read this or watch the interview, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.