Lance Yan

I live in California and work on Traverse, which makes frontier AI faster and cheaper for enterprises. I grew up in Canada and studied CS at UWaterloo.

Email:

Some things I believe:

• Learn from people better than you
  • It's hard to absorb anything while you're trying to act smart
  • Keep your ego low, be a lifelong student
• Don't borrow your worldview from others
  • Too many people are ok with just "going with the flow"
  • Jump out of the box, question your constraints
  • Be opinionated and develop your own worldview
  • The right path often looks wrong to everyone else
• Self-deception is a disease
  • Smart people are the best at fooling themselves
  • Work on the things you genuinely care about
  • Chase down and eliminate every bit of cognitive dissonance
• Ask far more people for advice than what feels natural
  • People are much more willing to help than you'd expect
  • Life is a long journey of learning from others
  • Don't get married to your ideas; the best idea should win, even when it isn't yours
• Nobody gets a veto over what you say or do
  • Not your job, not your school, not anyone
  • Other people's opinions are a bad reason to (not) do something
• Grinding work 24/7 is propaganda
  • Speed is incredibly important, but not all work is great work
  • Your health, family, and dearest friends matter most
  • Don't isolate yourself; go for walks
  • Don't fully let go of your kid tendencies, play, and have fun
• Finish things
  • Unfinished things keep living in your head
  • Viciously prioritize, be intentional, and fully commit
  • Knowing when to pivot, and pivoting fast is a great skill
• Your social life matters
  • Humans are nothing without each other
  • Reputation compounds
  • Kindness is easy
  • Being transactional is a short-term strategy
• People care less about the truth than you'd think
  • The world runs on abstractions and biases, not on what's right
  • At a high level, intelligence is the rate at which a mind can find the truth
  • Truth is important, and is still worth putting above all else

Elsewhere: lance116 on GitHub; lanceyyan on X; lance-yan on LinkedIn.