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:
- Life is a long journey of learning from others
- Surround yourself with great people and keep your ego low
- Being an idiot is great! It's hard to absorb anything while you're acting smart
- Don't borrow your worldview from others
- Too many people are ok with just "going with the flow"
- Your constraints are mostly self-imposed
- Other people's opinions are usually a bad reason to (not) do something
- Ask far more people for advice than feels natural
- People are much more willing to help than you'd expect
- Nobody is above the act of seeking advice
- But consider the source; a great programmer isn't necessarily a great mathematician
- It's a disease to get married to your ideas; let the best idea win
- Grinding work 24/7 is propaganda
- Speed matters a lot! But not all work is great work
- Your health, family, and closest friends matter more
- And never let go of your kid tendencies, play, and have fun
- Finish things or they keep living in your head
- Viciously prioritize, be intentional, and fully commit
- Knowing when to pivot and pivoting fast is a great skill
- Humans are just animals that have abstract wants
- Goals, ambition, identity are all just wants
- So a serious person can still be playful
- Most people want what they were told to want
- What do you actually want?
- We are nothing without each other
- Being transactional is a short-term strategy
- Your reputation compounds; being kind is easy
- Intelligence is the rate at which a mind can find the truth
- But people care less about the truth than you'd think
- The world runs on abstractions and biases, not on what's right
- Truth is still worth putting above all else
Elsewhere: lance116 on github; lanceyyan on x; lance-yan on linkedin.
