Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
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.
01:22:34 · G2 Patel, Lenny Rachitsky
[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. [01:23:11] S1: I 100% agree with that. Interestingly, when you watch AI work, it's just like, partly the reason it's so good is it just keeps trying. It's just like, "Okay, this didn't work. Let keep going. What else can we just keep trying? Just give me half an hour, I'll figure this out. Okay, last question. So when you were younger, you worked at Sizzler Steakhouse making $4 an hour is what I read. [01:23:33] S0: 2.25, not four. It was below minimum wage 2.25, but we got tips. We got tips though, so that was- [01:23:43] S1: Okay. I see. Did you have a favorite dish at Sizzler, is my question?
01:23:43 · Lenny Rachitsky, G2 Patel
[01:23:43] S1: Okay. I see. Did you have a favorite dish at Sizzler, is my question? [01:23:46] S0: Yes. They used to have this Malibu chicken dish was like magic. And then it was probably, I don't know if people know this, and I know this is rapid fire, but I used to stutter when I started working at Sizzler and Sizzler is what allowed me to break out of my shell and not stutter. Because something changed in my brain, but I'm like, I have to entertain people and if I don't, then they're not going to give me a good tip. And so the stuttering went away at Sizzler, and so I have an immense debt of gratitude and I think everyone should work in hospitality for a while in their younger years. And I'm kind of sad that my daughter has no interest in doing that because I'm like, "I wish she just worked as a waitress somewhere for a bit." And it's just so important to just, there's so many lessons on, I cleaned toilets at the restaurant. I actually washed dishes. I actually waited on tables. And it was the best experience I had. It shaped me for what was to come in the most profound way. [01:24:58] S1: Jeetu, you're just endlessly full of wisdom. Two final questions. Where can folks find you? Where do you want to point people to learn more about you, what you're up to, and how can listeners be useful to you?
01:24:58 · Lenny Rachitsky, G2 Patel
[01:24:58] S1: Jeetu, you're just endlessly full of wisdom. Two final questions. Where can folks find you? Where do you want to point people to learn more about you, what you're up to, and how can listeners be useful to you? [01:25:07] S0: Where you can find me is ... I tend to ... A lot of people will ask the more success you encounter or the more people want to get mentored by you and learn from the experiences you've had, and I have run out of cycles to be able to do that on a one-on-one basis. So what I try to do is do a lot of that on LinkedIn and Twitter, but largely I do a lot of that on LinkedIn. And so find me on LinkedIn. I tend to be very open about not just the work stuff, but the non-work stuff to do that. How can people be useful to me? Was that the question? What was the last question? [01:25:48] S1: That is, how can listeners be useful to you?