Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
01:12:42 · Lenny Rachitsky, Tara Seshan
[01:12:42] S1: All comes back ambition. On the Odyssey, I'm still trying to get tickets. It's so hard. I slept on it and now it's impossible for a month, there's no seats anywhere. [01:12:53] S0: Kevin Klock got us tickets at 10:00 PM at the Metreon earlier this week. It was so good. [01:12:58] S1: Next time call me. I'm in whenever you see it. [01:13:02] S0: For sure. [01:13:02] S1: Oh, man, I have bots running on it. I have a person working on it. I have a friend. We're all trying to find a seat. [01:13:07] S0: It's amazing. You're going to love it and I can't wait to hear what you think after you see it. If you agree with me that it is about AI and the collapse of morality. [01:13:15] S1: Okay. No spoilers. Hopefully by the time this comes out, I have seen it, but if not, if anyone has hookups, please tell me. And I'm trying to do the IMAX full power Metreon sort of thing. Yeah. Okay, next question. Favorite or interesting AI product that you've recently discovered? Ideally not OpenAI product, but you can also go there if you want.
01:13:15 · Lenny Rachitsky, Tara Seshan
[01:13:15] S1: Okay. No spoilers. Hopefully by the time this comes out, I have seen it, but if not, if anyone has hookups, please tell me. And I'm trying to do the IMAX full power Metreon sort of thing. Yeah. Okay, next question. Favorite or interesting AI product that you've recently discovered? Ideally not OpenAI product, but you can also go there if you want. [01:13:37] S0: Ooh, I mean, of course my favorite AI product is ChatGPT and using cool Sites and Visualize stuff in Codex, which is amazing. But outside of OpenAI products, my favorite AI products are products that my friends make for me. Because now, actually people can do that. I think that's so cool. I'm such a huge fan of the cozy software movement where you make software tools for five of your friends and you guys use it together. And so I have a friend named Sebastian who made a really cool AI app that turns anything into a podcast and puts it in a little podcast app for you. And he also made a really great private social network for our friends, and it's called GATS. It is exactly what I think the future should be, which is people should make software that exactly meets their and their friends' needs. [01:14:26] S1: What does GATS stand for? Is that some inside joke? [01:14:28] S0: It is not, or at least if it is an inside joke, I don't know it. It's like private Twitter maybe for a small group of friends, and I learned the most interesting things on that product. [01:14:42] S1: It's like a WhatsApp in that, like it's [inaudible 01:14:43]. [01:14:43] S0: Yes, exactly, exactly.
01:14:43 · Tara Seshan, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:14:43] S0: Yes, exactly, exactly. [01:14:46] S1: The podcast app is interesting, but I feel like the version that I would love is it's actually podcasts in your feed of podcasts and then just new episodes get added of things you want to read or whatever- [01:14:56] S0: Yeah, that's what it does. [01:14:56] S1: ... versus a separate app. Oh, okay. [01:14:58] S0: It drops it in your Apple Podcast feeder or wherever you watch. [01:14:58] S1: Oh, amazing. I want this. [01:14:58] S0: It's great. [01:15:04] S1: Really, help me subscribe to this app. [01:15:05] S0: For sure. [01:15:07] S1: Okay, amazing. Okay, two more questions. Do you have a favorite life motto that you find yourself coming back to often in work or in life? [01:15:13] S0: Ooh, my life motto that I come back to all the time in work is actually Toni Morrison's three takes on work. Let me pull it up really quickly. [01:15:20] S1: Amazing. [01:15:22] S0: Okay. It's four things. It's from her essay, The Work You Do, The Person You Are. The first one is whatever the work is, do it well, not for the boss, but for yourself. The second is you make the job, it doesn't make you. The third is your real life is with your family. And the fourth is, you are not the work you do, you are the person that you are.
01:15:22 · Tara Seshan, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:15:22] S0: Okay. It's four things. It's from her essay, The Work You Do, The Person You Are. The first one is whatever the work is, do it well, not for the boss, but for yourself. The second is you make the job, it doesn't make you. The third is your real life is with your family. And the fourth is, you are not the work you do, you are the person that you are. [01:15:45] S1: I got tingles. Wow. So good. And I think that's what you have pinned to your Twitter profile because I remember seeing that. So cool. Okay. Maybe we'll show that on screen as you're talking about that. I love that. That's a great way to remember something. Just stick it to the top of your Twitter, because every time I go to Twitter. "Oh, there it is again." Okay, final question. You were a Thiel Fellow back in the day. Thiel Fellow? Thiel or Thiel? [01:15:45] S0: Thiel. [01:16:11] S1: Thiel. Thiel, yeah. What an alumni group. Holy moly. It's such a great idea and program. Any story from that time that might be fun to share? Something that's like, "Oh wow, that was crazy." I don't know. Any other Thiel Fellow that you're proud of? What was the interview like? I don't know, anything along those lines.
01:16:11 · Lenny Rachitsky, Tara Seshan
[01:16:11] S1: Thiel. Thiel, yeah. What an alumni group. Holy moly. It's such a great idea and program. Any story from that time that might be fun to share? Something that's like, "Oh wow, that was crazy." I don't know. Any other Thiel Fellow that you're proud of? What was the interview like? I don't know, anything along those lines. [01:16:30] S0: Yeah, the Thiel Fellowship was an inflection point in my life. I wouldn't be where I am without it. Maybe to the point of there are key moments where you can tell people to elevate their ambitions and they do, and that changes them. That was a moment where someone came to me and elevated my ambitions and said, "No, you can do this. You don't have to take the path that you were on." And truly, I'm eternally grateful for them being able to do that. One of the Thiel Fellows that I get to work with all the time now is Ari Weinstein, who founded a company called Sky that was acquired by OpenAI. And prior to this, he founded and worked at Apple for a while because they acquired his previous company. Ari is just one of the most creative thinkers I've ever seen and is truly the expert on, what are all the cool things you can do on a Mac? And so Ari leads a lot of our computer use stuff at OpenAI, and he's shipped a whole bunch of great things for computer use. But yeah, his creativity and his joy in what he does and his love of his craft really inspires me. And Ari's a cool guy. But I'm trying to think what is a good story from that time that feels [inaudible 01:17:45].
01:16:30 · Tara Seshan, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:16:30] S0: Yeah, the Thiel Fellowship was an inflection point in my life. I wouldn't be where I am without it. Maybe to the point of there are key moments where you can tell people to elevate their ambitions and they do, and that changes them. That was a moment where someone came to me and elevated my ambitions and said, "No, you can do this. You don't have to take the path that you were on." And truly, I'm eternally grateful for them being able to do that. One of the Thiel Fellows that I get to work with all the time now is Ari Weinstein, who founded a company called Sky that was acquired by OpenAI. And prior to this, he founded and worked at Apple for a while because they acquired his previous company. Ari is just one of the most creative thinkers I've ever seen and is truly the expert on, what are all the cool things you can do on a Mac? And so Ari leads a lot of our computer use stuff at OpenAI, and he's shipped a whole bunch of great things for computer use. But yeah, his creativity and his joy in what he does and his love of his craft really inspires me. And Ari's a cool guy. But I'm trying to think what is a good story from that time that feels [inaudible 01:17:45]. [01:17:44] S1: As you think about it, I'll explain the Thiel Fellowship for people that don't know this, and correct me if I'm wrong. Basically, Peter Thiel's like, "Hey, people shouldn't go to college. Instead, they should just try building something that they want." And you get $100,000 to not do college and instead just go follow your ambition. Is that roughly correct?