Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
01:05:07 · Ian Silber, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:05:07] S1: Not necessarily, other than I think trying to sum up how I felt about all of this is have fun with it and just try stuff. And I think don't feel like... I've never felt like you have to fit into a specific box and know that it's perfectly all right to be very fluid about the way you work or the way you think about things. And I don't know, be flexible and adaptable. But yeah, it's not quite a life motto, more of a vibe of just trying to have fun with it and build great stuff. [01:05:42] S0: I should shift this question to what's just the vibe. The vibe that's been helpful to you because I love that. It's very a Sam Altman in terms of just you can just build stuff. [01:05:50] S1: Exactly. Yeah. [01:05:52] S0: Okay. Last question. Something I love about your career history, if you look at your LinkedIn, you were a designer at Groupon. I love that you were a Groupon and now you're heading design for essentially super intelligence. What's something you learned at Groupon that is maybe helpful these days building super intelligent AI?
01:06:10 · Ian Silber
[01:06:10] S1: I love that. Groupon was a really fun company. Andrew Mason was a really incredible CEO in just that he brought such character to the product. It was kind of a brand-led product. And there was a comedy team. They were a writer team, but they were all comedians basically. And the product really did not take itself seriously, at least in its early couple years. It didn't take itself seriously. And I think that the brand really stuck out. You weren't signing up for Groupon because... Of course the daily deal was great. You were getting 50% off something, but people loved that email because it was really well written and it was funny and it had character. And I thought that early on, the company did a really good job with brand and sort of embracing that side of things. And I think the other thing, if I were to carry that forward is I found that every company that I've worked for has such unique DNA. And the way you have to work maybe changes a little bit based on that. So Groupon was run one way. Then I went to Instagram, which was this very design and creativity focused. And Kevin Systrom was really an incredible designer and he sort of saw himself or worked in that way with us, which was really cool and it just created a different way of working. And then you have Sam Altman, who's a completely different way of operating, and OpenAI being a research lab. And so learning that companies have these really different DNAs and understanding how to embrace them and leverage that to your, or help empower that or I guess lean into that has been something that I've learned a lot from moving around and getting the opportunity to work at very, very different companies.
01:08:26 · Lenny Rachitsky, Ian Silber
[01:08:26] S0: And also just to add to that, it's also important to realize you're not going to change that. You're not going to come in and change that culture because that's very hard, especially if it's very founder-oriented. [01:08:36] S1: I think it's about finding like, oh wow, at OpenAI, yeah, sure. We spent more time... At Instagram, we definitely moved slower. And I would say that we changed the product less. And that actually worked really well for most stages of Instagram. But I don't think that that would work in the current stage of where we're at with OpenAI in that way of working. Of course, I bring a lot to that. And I think at Instagram we have this motto, do the simple thing first, and we always use that and we really embrace that. I've tried to carry that through to the way I think about building product at OpenAI, but that's not the only way I think of working. Sometimes it's actually not necessarily the right way to think about it. Sometimes we actually do throw some things out that we're still experimenting with. And so just being really... I found that having to be flexible and not necessarily trying to change it, but trying to help round it out maybe.
01:08:36 · Ian Silber, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:08:36] S1: I think it's about finding like, oh wow, at OpenAI, yeah, sure. We spent more time... At Instagram, we definitely moved slower. And I would say that we changed the product less. And that actually worked really well for most stages of Instagram. But I don't think that that would work in the current stage of where we're at with OpenAI in that way of working. Of course, I bring a lot to that. And I think at Instagram we have this motto, do the simple thing first, and we always use that and we really embrace that. I've tried to carry that through to the way I think about building product at OpenAI, but that's not the only way I think of working. Sometimes it's actually not necessarily the right way to think about it. Sometimes we actually do throw some things out that we're still experimenting with. And so just being really... I found that having to be flexible and not necessarily trying to change it, but trying to help round it out maybe. [01:09:37] S0: Ian, what an incredible place you have in the world right now, just being on the inside of such cool technology, such cutting edge stuff that's happening. And I feel very fortunate that you found time to chat with us and share what you're seeing and where things are heading. Two final questions. Where do you want to point people if you want to plug anything? And how can listeners be useful to you?
01:09:37 · Lenny Rachitsky, Ian Silber
[01:09:37] S0: Ian, what an incredible place you have in the world right now, just being on the inside of such cool technology, such cutting edge stuff that's happening. And I feel very fortunate that you found time to chat with us and share what you're seeing and where things are heading. Two final questions. Where do you want to point people if you want to plug anything? And how can listeners be useful to you? [01:10:00] S1: Where do I want to point people? I mean, I think that please I guess have fun with the stuff we're making with ChatGPT and Codex and fire away feedback and thoughts. I'm on Twitter. I love to talk with designers about all sort of stages or not just designers, engineers, PMs, whatever. That's probably where I'm most reachable and accessible. I think to be useful, again, I love when people do show off the way they're working and how that's shifting. And that's a great way for us to learn how we can build better products, both internally at OpenAI, but just as a design community, maybe showcasing a little bit more of our process because it is becoming a little bit more opaque. Well, how is it working? I think sharing that is such a gift to the community. So doing more of that. [01:11:01] S0: Also point people to your website, which I have here now, and I think my face is probably changing colors because the site has all these crazy colors. So if you go to iansilber.com, you could see this insane website, the personal website. [01:11:14] S1: Yeah, that's a deep dive into all of my past work. You can see there. Yeah.
01:11:14 · Ian Silber, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:11:14] S1: Yeah, that's a deep dive into all of my past work. You can see there. Yeah. [01:11:21] S0: And the trick is you'll have to discover the Easter egg where there's a game involved. [01:11:25] S1: That's right. See if you can set the high score. [01:11:28] S0: Yeah, this high scores are out of control. I don't know what's happening. Someone's found a cheat code. Ian, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for doing this. [01:11:36] S1: Lenny, this was awesome. Super fun. [01:11:38] S0: Same. Bye everyone. Thank you so much for listening. If you found this valuable, you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Also, please consider giving us a rating or leaving a review as that really helps other listeners find the podcast. You can find all past episodes or learn more about the show at lennyspodcast.com. See you in the next episode.