My biggest takeaways from @sherwinwu: 1. AI is writing virtually all code at OpenAI. 95% of the engineers use Codex, and engineers who embrace these tools open 70% more pull requests than their peers, and that gap is widening over time. 2. The role of a software engineer is shifting from writing code to managing fleets of AI agents. Many engineers now run 10 to 20 parallel Codex threads, steering and reviewing rather than writing code themselves. 3. The average PR code review time has dropped from 10-15 minutes per PR to 2-3 minutes. Every pull request at OpenAI is now reviewed by Codex before human eyes see it, and Codex surfaces suggestions and catches issues up front. This allows engineers to focus on more creative and strategic work while dramatically increasing productivity. 4. The models will eat your scaffolding for breakfast. When building AI products, don’t optimize for today’s model capabilities. The field is evolving so rapidly that the scaffolding (vector stores, agent frameworks, etc.) that seems essential today may be obsolete tomorrow as models improve. 5. Build for where the models are going, not where they are today. The most successful AI startups build products that work at 80% capability now, knowing the next model release will push them over the line. 6. Top performers become disproportionately more productive with AI tools. AI tools amplify the productivity of high-agency individuals, so the gap between top performers and everyone else is widening. The ROI on unblocking and empowering your best people compounds faster than ever in an AI-augmented environment. 7. Most enterprise AI deployments have negative ROI because they’re top-down mandates without bottom-up adoption. Success requires both executive buy-in and grassroots enthusiasm. Sherwin recommends creating a “tiger team” of technically-minded enthusiasts (often not engineers) who can explore capabilities, apply AI to specific workflows, and create excitement throughout the organization. 8. The one-person billion-dollar startup is coming, but with unexpected second-order effects. As AI makes individuals more productive, we’ll see not just billion-dollar solo founders but an explosion of small businesses: hundreds of $100M startups and tens of thousands of $10M startups. This will transform the startup ecosystem and venture capital landscape. 9. Business process automation is an underrated AI opportunity. While Silicon Valley focuses on knowledge work, most of the economy runs on repeatable business processes with standard operating procedures. There’s massive potential to apply AI to these workflows, which are often overlooked by the tech community. 10. The next two to three years will be the most exciting in tech history. After a relatively quiet period from 2015 to 2020, we’re now in an unprecedented era of innovation. Sherwin encourages everyone to engage with AI tools and not take this moment for granted, as the pace of change will eventually slow. 11. AI models will soon handle multi-hour tasks coherently. Today’s models are optimized for tasks that take minutes, but within 12 to 18 months we’ll see models that can work on complex tasks for upward of six hours. This will enable entirely new categories of products and workflows. 12. Audio is the next frontier for multimodal AI. While coding and text get most of the attention, audio is hugely underrated in business settings. Improvements in speech-to-speech models over the next 6 to 12 months will unlock significant new capabilities for business communication and operations.

My top takeaways from executive coach @RNiederman: 1. The biggest skill gap in new leaders is knowing when to coach vs. when to tell people what to do. When you constantly provide answers, you train your team to bring you every problem instead of building their own problem-solving skills. The people you hire are experts in their domain—ask curious questions to help them reach their own solutions, which makes them more motivated and capable. Save direct advice for urgent situations or when someone genuinely lacks the necessary skills. 2. Use these four questions to coach someone to figure out the answer or themselves: When someone brings you a problem, use GROW: Goal, Reality, Options, and Way forward. Ask about their desired goal (what does success look like?), their current reality (where are you stuck?), possible options for a path forward (what could you do next?), and a concrete way forward (what will you actually do next?). These questions help people discover solutions they already have the context to find. You don’t need to follow this exact order; just use whichever type fits the moment. 3. In conflict, aim for mutual understanding, not proving you’re right. When you enter a difficult conversation trying to convince someone they’re wrong, they become defensive and armor up. Instead, focus on helping the other person understand your experience so they can empathize and see clearly what’s happening. This shift from convincing to connecting creates space for genuine dialogue where both people can be heard and find solutions together. 4. Burnout happens when you spend too much time outside your natural strengths, not just from working too hard. For two weeks, write down the five things each day that energized you most and the five that drained you most. Look for patterns. People burn out not just from working hard but from spending too much time doing things that deplete them—even if they’re good at those things. 5. Aim to spend 80% of your time in work that uses your natural gifts. Everyone will always have 20% of tasks they don’t enjoy, but this ratio creates sustainable energy. Design your role so that 80% plays to your strengths—this might mean delegating differently, hiring to complement your weaknesses, or even moving horizontally in your career rather than always climbing upward. It’s your responsibility to navigate your career toward your gifts, not your manager’s job to make your work interesting. 6. Co-founder relationships need scheduled maintenance time, like marriages. Sixty-five percent of startups fail because of co-founder conflict, not business problems. Set up regular check-ins—weekly touch-bases, monthly lunches, quarterly in-person reviews—to ask: How is this working for you? Are we aligned on vision and strategy? What am I doing that frustrates you? What’s gone unsaid? Without dedicated time, you’ll stay too busy to address problems before they become crises. 7. Use this four-step framework for difficult conversations: Observations, Feelings, Needs, Requests. Start with factual observations anyone could verify (not interpretations). Share your feelings without blame (I felt anxious, confused, disconnected—not “I feel like you. . .”). Name your underlying human needs (clarity, collaboration, connection). Make a small, achievable request the other person can actually fulfill. Stay on your side of the net—talk about your experience, not what you assume about them. This lets you be bold without triggering defensiveness. 8. Always ask yourself how you’re contributing to any conflict, even when the other person seems completely at fault. Leaders in conflict typically fall into three unhelpful patterns: playing victim (this is happening to me), blaming others (this is all their fault), or playing hero (I’ll just do it myself). Instead, ask yourself: How am I complicit in creating conditions I claim I don’t want? Taking responsibility for your part—while maintaining humility and curiosity—opens the door to actual resolution instead of endless frustration. 9. Ask yourself, “Would I enthusiastically rehire this person for the same role?” This binary question immediately reveals whether someone is right for their position. If the answer is no, you need to take action—whether that’s coaching, moving them to a different role, or helping them transition out. Your immediate gut reaction to this question tells you the truth you may be avoiding. If you wouldn’t enthusiastically rehire them, no amount of difficult conversations will likely fix the fundamental mismatch. 10. Active listening takes less than a minute to do but creates powerful change. Level 1 listening is internal listening: listening to your own thoughts. Level 2 is focused listening: you can repeat back what someone said. Level 3 is global listening: you notice body language, tone, and emotions beneath the words and can reflect back insights the person isn’t fully aware of. When you reflect back both what someone said and what you sensed they were feeling, they feel truly seen.