Category: Turning Stories
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The privilege and point of writing
Last weekend, my good friend showed me how I could train an LLM to write blog posts just like me. The LLM generously assessed my voice and tone (which made me feel understood!), and then spat out a blog post that could’ve been a first draft for me. While I felt curious about it, I…
Herbert Lui
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Do you borrow from your future to pay for the present and past?
A ponzi scheme takes place when the schemer uses cash from later investors to pay returns to early investors. My friend Peter makes the case that when an entrepreneur borrows from their business’s future to pay off present and past obligations, they are operating it like a ponzi scheme. Peter’s framing of the situation resonated…
Herbert Lui
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Why you feel lost, what to do next
The story of The Courage to Be Disliked is told mostly in dialogue, between a student and a philosopher. Spoiler alert: While the student starts off opposing the philosopher, hellbent on proving the philosopher and their school of thinking—Adlerian psychology—wrong, he starts to come around. By the end of the book, the student’s intention has…
Herbert Lui
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Commit first, plan later
My former colleague at Figma, Claire Butler, recently wrote a really great post about what she learned working at Figma. The lesson that stood out to me most was this one, “When you’re stuck, commit to action. Strategy will follow.” In other words, if you’re making something new, planning too far ahead will likely just…
Herbert Lui
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Progress ebbs and flows
This was a lesson one of my bosses shared with me: most people don’t improve consistently every quarter. Instead, progress ebbs and flows. Sometimes—maybe many times—you might feel like you’re going through a plateau. Many other people would quit. If you remain confident you’re heading in the right direction, then you need to stick with…
Herbert Lui
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Don’t fight back, fight forward with forgiveness
A restaurateur speaks up publicly for what he thinks is right. The people who think he’s wrong take action. They vandalize his restaurant. Glass is shattered. Mirrors broken. Furniture destroyed. He had invited his father to town to dine at the restaurant. That can’t happen now that the restaurant is in such bad shape. He…
Herbert Lui
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Letting go of the scene
I live in downtown NYC. I wouldn’t consider FiDi a particularly cool neighborhood. Geographically speaking, I could probably be further from the scene—I’m not in the burbs!—but socially speaking, I haven’t broken in. To be honest, I could not be less interested. Yes, there is occasional FOMO. While I moved here for work, when I…
Herbert Lui
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Kinetic and energeial living
Kinetic life is focused on reaching a destination. You harness your drive to complete a journey. In this way of life, it naturally makes sense to find the shortest possible route and take it. Imagine it like a commute. If you were to choose between an express train and a local one, and you saw…
Herbert Lui
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Putting it out there
Brett Goldstein worked as a writer for Ted Lasso. As he worked on the scripts, he realized that he really understood one of the characters. He wanted to put himself forward for the acting role. “I also knew no one was thinking of me for Roy, so right at the end of the writers’ room…
Herbert Lui
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Why Ted Lasso gets away with not knowing anything about football
Imagine that you’re an American football coach that is now only going to coach European football (better known in the U.S.A. as soccer). And you know absolutely nothing about the sport. So on the pitch of 22 players, the kitman, the assistant coach, you know the least about the sport. That’s the premise of Ted…
Herbert Lui