Sara's Weekly Update #1

Welcome to my newsletters first edition! Hope everyone in US had a good thanksgiving weekend. We were invited to one of our friends place for dinner & had a good time. Below are my thoughts for this week.

Generative AI (#tech)

In the past few weeks I been hearing about this Generative AI more frequently. First I heard from Jensen (CEO, Nvidia) in our internal quarterly all hands. He mentioned this is the moment for the AI, next decade is going to be AI era, it’s the era of Large Language Models. And just right after that I got the Professor Galloway’s weekly newsletter about Generative AI. And a call for Generative AI startups from Sequoia capital, a leading VC firm, Generative AI: A Creative New World. And obviously in my youtube feeds.

I do feel like Generative AI is getting main stream, it no hype, it’s actually out there now and serving others. Why I say this confidently? I do use it in my work. I been using GitHubs copilot from beginning of this year and I was blow away by its suggestion. It doesn’t feel like it’s going to replace programmers anytime soon but definitely it augments us and helps to be more productive. It’s the same way for Artists too. In fact this blog & my previous blog used the cover image generated by the DALL.E (AI created picture from the text).

Neuralink Demo (#tech)

Neuralink Demo looked interesting, but there are some criticism as well. We have to wait and watch how this is going to be useful for us. But nice show & tell from the monkey :-)

Tesla’s Semi Delivery (#tech)

Couldn’t believe its been 5 years since he showed the Semi for the first time. When we go to India we have to take a road (thoppur kanavai road) which is known for trucks smashing into the cars due to brake failures in the downhill & it is scary. Regenerative breaking in electric trucks looks like a better alternative here & makes it safe for everyone on the road. Performance & efficiencies are very impressive, wish to test drive these one day :-)

Oath Keepers Leader Convicted (#us-politics)

One of the top guys got convicted. It’s going to be a long process to fix the extremisms in US, but I think it’s a good start.

“Today the jury returned a verdict convicting all defendants of criminal conduct, including two Oath Keepers leaders for seditious conspiracy against the United States,” Garland said in a statement. “The Justice Department is committed to holding accountable those criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy on January 6, 2021. The prosecutors and agents on this case worked tirelessly, with extraordinary skill, and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.”

Jury convicts Oath Keepers leader of seditious conspiracy

China - Zero Covid Protest (#china-politics)

China has been following zero covid policy for long time, it is hard on people for sure. I could not stay at home even for a month during our covid episodes. On one side covid cases are rising & on the other side people are protesting, it’s a challenging time for CCP to balance the both. Hope China will cross this tough winter & relax the measures in coming spring/summer.

Note: I do have exposure to Chinese stocks, so I follow whats going on there.

SBF Interview after collapse (#finance)

Managing Success is another thing, it gets to your head and sometimes makes you arrogant & its will be a great downfall from there. Looks like thats what happened here. He’s not looking at him in the eye & responding, is he lying? Looks like he do know that FTX user’s funds are transferred to Alameda. Consumers should beware that Crypto space is not regulated and it’s going to be wild wild west out there and accept these kind of risks.

Note: I don’t own any crypto, but like to follow whats going on in that world.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

SBF was bad at League. Nuff said.

How To Raise Successful People (#book)

This video came in my youtube feed few weeks ago & caught my interest, so started reading this book from last week.

So far I am interested & nodding with many things she said in the book. From my ~7 years of parenting with 3 kids, I believe Parents cannot be around the kids all the time to help them or make the decisions for them all the time. So better to make them independent as early as possible, make them learn to trust their decisions & be confident to keep up with this fast changing world. It’s like same concept as compounding in finance, the key is to start early. And I think it’s just going to get better as they age and will be ready to venture out in to the world by themselves confidently. I do the mistakes of doing so many things for them due to my impatient, but after reading few chapter in this book, I realize what kind of signal I am giving to them, I am giving signal to them that “only I know to do the things correctly & his/her way of doin things is wrong”. What will happen if I keep giving the same signal for 10-15 years, it might not help their confidence. I need to learn to trust them & take some deep breaths & let them do things their way & just be there to help if they ask for it.

Below are some of the highlights from the first few chapters I read this week

One of the biggest mistakes we make as parents is to assume personal responsibility for our children’s emotions. As Dr. Janesta Noland, a respected pediatrician in Silicon Valley, argues, “Parents are so compelled to hold their child’s happiness . . . they feel like they are responsible for it, and that they control it.” We’ll do anything to prevent our children from struggling or suffering, which means that they never have to deal with hardships or adversity. As a result, they lack independence and grit, and they’re fearful of the world around them instead of empowered to innovate and create.

Another big mistake: We teach them to focus almost exclusively on themselves and their own performance—because they must have a perfect grade point average, must be selected by a top-tier college, must find an impressive job. They are so busy focusing on themselves that they rarely have time to consider how they might help and serve others. Kindness and gratitude are often overlooked, even though these are the qualities that research shows will make us most happy in life.

To make it easy to remember in all walks of life, I call these values “TRICK”:   TRUST, RESPECT, INDEPENDENCE, COLLABORATION, AND KINDNESS

There is no perfect parent, spouse, or child. We all try our best. What you want to do is use the TRICK values consistently and not give up. Don’t beat yourself up when you make mistakes. The first person you need to forgive is yourself. Life can be complicated and difficult. If you do something counterproductive as a parent, recognize it and try to avoid it in the future. You may make the same mistake again. And again. It takes time to learn as parents as much as it takes time for our children to learn. Focus on creating intimate relationships with your children, and raising them with the values of TRICK so that you’ll be proud of the people they become. We all want to raise good humans.

If children aren’t empowered with trust, if they don’t feel trustworthy, they’ll have a very difficult time becoming independent. The main problem is that they don’t learn to trust and respect themselves.

It pays to start early. Letting kids take the lead when they’re young is important training for parents. It gives us the skills we need to deal with more, should I say, advanced tasks once they’re older. Finding out who you are can be a messy and inefficient process. When kids are leading, they take all kinds of detours. Few find their passion right away. Honestly, most kids go through a period where they don’t know what the heck they’re doing—but I promise you eventually they’ll figure it out.

As the poet Kahlil Gibran wrote: “Your children are not your children. / They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. / They come through you but not from you. / And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.” Respect is what we want to give our children, but sometimes we are held back by our own insecurities. As parents, this is one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome, but we’re all capable of treating our children respectfully if we keep the basics in mind. Honor their wishes and interests, which may be different from our own. Challenge them to be their best at whatever activities they choose. And above all, give them love and support so they gain the confidence they need to pursue their own path.

Family Updates (#family)

Made some mulled wine for the first time, it’s a nice warm drink for cozy winter.

Also went to Top Golf with kids as weather was better & it was a long weekend here. We couldn’t play much with just managing the kids & also we didn’t get couches in our bay, instead got a bar height table & that didn’t help us much with little kids. But kids had fun for sure, even Deva wanted to get his turns :-)

Did some holiday puzzles

We watched Avatars to get ready for “Avatar: The Way of Water”.

Also watched ”The Swimmers”, we all liked it.

From war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics, two young sisters embark on a risky voyage, putting their hearts and their swimming skills to heroic use.