Hello, I'm Jian Yang.

Never rush into identifying with something. An identity latches onto us like a piece of flesh. Once on, it is painful to strip away, so we leave it attached, even when it starts rotting or turns cancerous.

People who are too hasty to identify with groups, causes, or beliefs tend to absorb ideas from the community without filtering them. Identities are useful because they provide us with a sense of belonging. They give us comfort, knowing that we are part of a greater whole or cause, which likely stems from our primal instincts. We are incentivised to agree with the group because compliance is easy and avoids internal friction. The usual results are herd mentality and echo chambers. The longer you stay in one, the more deeply it embeds into your identity, the tighter its grip becomes, and the more agonising it is to shake off. Eventually, you may start justifying misdeeds committed by your community, or worse, joining in on them. Because critical thinking is not incentivised, you lose that as well. This closely parallels Stoic philosophy, particularly its warning against tethering our character and reason to external attachments.

Others identify heavily with their jobs or schools. They proudly wear their company’s logo or their school tees, and association with a reputable brand can indeed elevate an individual’s perceived status. However, it is vital to remember that these associations are fickle. A company might fire you the moment you stop providing value, and school prestige fades quickly in the company of people who couldn’t care less about credentials. Identities are a double-edged sword.

Good stuff from Li Lu’s talk at Columbia’s 36th Annual Graham & Dodd Event:

• All intelligent investing is value investing.
• AI serves as a great synthesiser and equaliser, rather than a replacement for human judgement.
• Great, competitive companies can often be found at attractive prices during stagnant periods by maintaining a rational investor perspective.
• Either you think the market is there to instruct you or to serve you.
• You get what you deserve in the end.

If software engineering and mathematics are representative of generic problem solving, the fact that AI is rapidly conquering them (the very fields closest to home for AI researchers, and thus trained on first) means the rest of knowledge work is likely to meet the same demise.

However, jobs with an element of human connection will become more important than ever before, with roles such as doctors and teachers thriving in the future. Since human connection will become the bottleneck in efficiency, those in companies most adept at human connection work will certainly experience an increase in value in the near future. In there somewhere, human connection companies disguised as software engineering companies will in fact do well, such as CSU (Constellation Software), whose main business is gaining trust among entrepreneurs looking to exit a business with a sticky customer base.

I feel like I’m sitting under an apple tree heavy with fruit, craving an apple, but too preoccupied counting ants.

In today’s world, it’s easier than ever to have an opinion.

Humans are social animals, and we feel most comfortable siding with the majority. Before we had social media or the internet, it was much more difficult to figure out if the masses agreed with you and whether the opinion you held was deemed “socially acceptable” at the time simply because we were exposed to so few around us. It was much more difficult to “borrow” an opinion from the masses as well. Today, people can wake up thinking they need to have an opinion about XYZ that’s trending, go online, read some comments, identify the dominant narrative, and side with it.

Having this newfound opinion feels good. It makes us feel as if we are siding with something greater than ourselves, that we are a part of a movement and we stand with the “cool, enlightened folks” who will shape tomorrow. Perhaps, it’s the silent hand of the media growing up that taught us in subtle ways to always side with those who seem “revolutionary” and to side with heavily emotion-driven narratives. The men in suits are always treated as evil; we learn to romanticise villains; we are taught simple implications i.e. X+Y->BAD! because that makes movies easier to understand. Nuance is far too often thrown out of the window because complicated plots don’t sell well and consumers are not satisfied with an indefinite outcome.

It’s much easier today than it was before the internet to identify with communities/groups who are riding the wave of popularity, side with them, and then feel as if we are part of a greater cause. It boosts the ego, makes us feel important, and gives us a rush of adrenaline. But it’s crucial to remember that the internet is guided by the ubiquitous hand of algorithms finely tuned to prey on your emotions and keep your attention — even if that means deviating you from a balanced view. It’s important for impressionable young folks eager to feel like they belong in a community, to learn when they are being used for their naivety and recklessness.

I think it’s fair to say that no one is truly altruistic. It just depends on whether what benefits you, benefits them as well. This could be as innocent as a mother’s love for a child, where seeing the child happy makes her happy. Or it can be as insidious as opportunists who weaponise that very hunger for belonging. When someone hands you a neatly packaged enemy and an easy banner to march behind, it could very well be that they couldn’t care less about the narrative that they are pushing. But it nonetheless serves as a very good tool to control the minds of crowds to do their bidding.

All you are rewarded with is a cheap dose of misguided moral superiority.

Emotions aren’t bad. They guide us toward what matters, but they are not the truth. Notice when you’re being fed a simplified narrative for clicks and outrage, lest you be played for a fool.

Emic is an insider’s view of a culture, while etic is an outsider’s scientific view. [1]

This is important for all market research. We need to think from the customer’s point of view.

Marketing has to address a concern or motivation that already matters to the target audience. Most don’t bother with how clever a solution is.

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

Many people use the fear of over-reliance as an excuse to avoid learning how to use AI properly, treating those who do with disdain and contempt. I disagree. That’s equivalent to saying we shouldn’t use cars because we will lose the skillset of taking care of horses.

I believe we should embrace and adapt to new technologies as they come, while being mindful of the downsides and using the latest technology to help us get better at achieving our goals in life. Back to the horse and car example, our goal is to get to our destinations, not to be overly competent at a sub-optimal alternative.