Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
01:16:05 · Lenny Rachitsky, G2 Patel
[01:16:05] S1: So going back to your framework, just to kind of close the loop there, it's really interesting that timing is the first variable you look at. This could be an amazing idea. You got the right team, amazing product that works really well, but the timing may just not be right. And no matter how awesome it is, it's not going to work. [01:16:21] S0: Steve Jobs put away the iPad because he thought that the iPhone was a better idea. And timing wise, he actually made exactly the right call. The iPad became successful because of the iPhone success. The reverse order might have not had the same effect, but he had to make sure that he focused on one thing and he actually puts the other, he said, "The timing's not right, but I'm going to get back to it." So by the way, when timing is wrong doesn't mean that you scrapped the idea. It just means that you might put it on ice for a bit. [01:16:50] S1: There's a lot of that happening right now where people try to do a thing and now AI actually makes it possible. And now they're like, "Oh shit, it was way too early."
01:16:50 · Lenny Rachitsky, G2 Patel
[01:16:50] S1: There's a lot of that happening right now where people try to do a thing and now AI actually makes it possible. And now they're like, "Oh shit, it was way too early." [01:16:58] S0: And the other thing you have to keep in mind is you have to also be good enough to know that when something is going to be ready in six months, you can't think about what it's doing today. AI is moving so fast right now. One of the things I tell my team is, fast-forward six months from now and anticipate what that's going to do and get prepared for that world. Don't get prepared for the world of today thinking that you're not going to be able to get there because in six months your assumption sets are going to be different. And please don't actually then bias yourself with the assumption sets you have right now to not move forward. One of the worst things I think companies do sometimes is they put too much emphasis only on solely on experience. And I think experience is good, but experience can actually be meaningfully bad in some areas where you get too biased. And so you almost have to say that I have to have the ability to unlearn. And combination of experience with complete inexperience is what creates the magic because the inexperience allows you to ask questions that you might have never had with experience. And the combo of those two gives you the best of the pattern recognition, plus the charting new territory that's never been walked on before.
01:18:10 · Lenny Rachitsky, G2 Patel
[01:18:10] S1: Yeah, this is a trend I've been hearing on this podcast that people worry about young people and people graduating out of college right now and jobs and AI. But they're the people that are most open-minded about what AI can do for them and how to harness AI and not code in the way people have always coded. It's just like, okay, this is the way it works now. [01:18:29] S0: Experience, Lenny, can jade us, and I always say when people say, "Oh, entry-level people will never be hired again." That's the stupidest thing a company can do, because now what you've done is you have completely shut the door to new fresh ideas. I cannot think today the way I thought when I was 19. There is just no way that I can do that. But what I can try to do is I can try to make sure I surround myself with enough amount of my time to get exposed to that thinking and then couple it with what I know and maybe have something better than what either of those two could have had by themselves. [01:19:04] S1: Yes. Well, with that, Jeetu, we have reached our very exciting lightning round. I've got five questions for you. Are you ready? [01:19:11] S0: All right. [01:19:12] S1: First question, what are two or three books that you find yourself recommending most to other people?
01:19:12 · Lenny Rachitsky, G2 Patel
[01:19:12] S1: First question, what are two or three books that you find yourself recommending most to other people? [01:19:17] S0: The Bible and Tech in My Mind, there's Innovator's Dilemma and Innovator's Solution from Clayton Christensen. I think you have to read that book and I'd say I'd recommend to people that read it every few years. And the other one that I love is Ben Horowitz's book. Hard Thing about Hard Things really talks about how you manage your psychology when things get hard. I think those are the ones, I am not a big believer that you keep reading thousands of books all the time because I think to me, retention really matters. And my brain's just not that big that I can retain that much. So, I tend to distill the essence of a few things quite a bit more, and at least as the older I've gotten, I've actually used that pattern more. [01:20:00] S1: Favorite recent movie or TV show that you've really enjoyed? [01:20:03] S0: I don't remember the name of it, but the Brad Pitt F1 movie that I saw that was pretty cool. [01:20:10] S1: Wait, it was a recent Brad Pitt movie? [01:20:11] S0: Yeah. [01:20:16] S1: Was it F1? [01:20:16] S0: It was F1. I think it was called F1, but it was pretty cool. [01:20:18] S1: For Best Fix- [01:20:19] S0: Zak Brown is a good friend of mine and we were big supporters of McLaren, and so it was actually pretty cool to watch that movie. [01:20:26] S1: Oh man, I bet. So many stories I haven't tapped into. Okay. Favorite product you recently discovered that you really love?
01:20:26 · Lenny Rachitsky, G2 Patel
[01:20:26] S1: Oh man, I bet. So many stories I haven't tapped into. Okay. Favorite product you recently discovered that you really love? [01:20:32] S0: I mean, it's cliche, but I feel like what ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have done, it's changed lives. It's changed my life in the way that I learn in some ridiculous ways. So I actually feel like when I got this new job to run all product for Cisco, there's zero chance I would've been able to do it if AI wasn't there. Because I didn't know anything about so many domains that we were in. And I had to get an accelerated training course within a matter of three months. And I mean, I worked around the clock during that time, but I could have worked around the clock without the tooling and I would've been nowhere near as effective. So I feel like those three have done an amazing thing. And Grok, even what you're seeing with Grok tied to Twitter is pretty amazing. [01:21:31] S1: Wow, that's a profound statement. I've never heard that before from someone at your level that you feel like you wouldn't be able to have done this job without AI. [01:21:39] S0: It's your chance. [01:21:40] S1: Especially for someone without the background in networking and hardware, that is so interesting. It's amazing how just at every level, AI is helping at the most bottom end and also in your level.
01:21:40 · Lenny Rachitsky, G2 Patel
[01:21:40] S1: Especially for someone without the background in networking and hardware, that is so interesting. It's amazing how just at every level, AI is helping at the most bottom end and also in your level. [01:21:54] S0: Most people don't realize, I fundamentally believe this is the reason that I'm able to enjoy some of the experiences I have. I was lucky enough that I had made enough money before this job. That was not the thing that was actually holding us back, but the reason I'm able to experience some of the things that this job afforded me to experience have not even been remotely possible without AI, no chance that would have happened. [01:22:23] S1: Unreal. Okay, two more questions. [01:22:25] S0: Yeah. [01:22:26] S1: Do you have a favorite life motto that you often come back to and work your own life? You already shared a couple, but is there anything else or you want to double down on one you've already shared? [01:22:34] S0: Stamina trumps intellect. I feel like it's very important to have smart people, but you can become smart if you have curiosity and hunger and staying power and persistence. And so I think that trait of learning to learn and constantly being hungry and having the stamina and persistence is far more important than the absolute measure of intellect that you might have, because that is very, very trainable and learnable over time and improvable over time. But hunger is very, it's not teachable is what I've found.