M&Ms: Good and Bad Models

The value of bad examples on the 102nd edition.

They begged, then argued, and then shoved.

I remember vividly the adults in my family pleading with one of our family members not to drive that night.

As a kid, I must've been maybe seven years old; you never forget commotions like that. Everyone dramatically tried to take the keys away and even stood in front of the car so they couldn't drive.

But in the end, our dear family member did not listen; they went out and drove in a terrible blizzard. And after they'd had a few drinks too. Completely confident they were an excellent driver, totally sober, and that nothing would happen.

Then they crashed the car and wrecked it.

That car was a rare and valuable thing to our family back then. Communism had just fallen, and people were finally allowed to own private stuff like cars. It may be hard to believe, but I grew up in a time and place with few cars around, and people were generally not good drivers.

But after the accident, people forgave and forgot; everyone was just glad that we didn't lose a family member that day.

And after many months, my family fixed the car.

But the lesson from stubbornness, how ego sabotaged someone I knew like that, never left me. It sucks to be poor. But it sucks even more to be poor and too proud to listen.

"Wise people learn from the mistakes of others; fools only from their own."

― Benjamin Franklin.

For me, there was a bigger lesson from all of this, too; I am so grateful I had good and bad models in my life.

And you should be, too, because it's expensive to learn only from your own mistakes.

"Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other."

― Benjamin Franklin.

Everyone wants great role models and mentors in their life, but sometimes bad models can be just as good. They can show us what we don't want.

And as Daniel says here, sometimes knowing what you don't want is good enough to have a great life:

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Three Things: The power of walking, Two Parent Households, Housing Bubble

Back when I was running a bunch of engineering teams and managing people, one of my favorite ways to conduct one-on-ones was on walks to get a coffee.

Then after the pandemic, with remote work, I took all my one-on-one Zoom calls on walks.

Now I pretty much do the same thing for most of my meetings, even with strangers I meet from the Internet.

I always knew that walking stimulated my brain, but now we have scientific proof that it is superior to sitting.

And I would wager outdoor walking does the most out of any activity for our creativity.

So, stop messing around and go on more walks.

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My family had its fair share of problems growing up, but I gotta tell you, I am so glad I had two parents at home.

And as a parent of two baby girls now, I am so grateful for my wife.

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Incomes for most people have not kept up with inflation like home prices.

Nick wrote a good thread here with strong opinions on how high rates will impact home prices. I am not sure I agree with all his conclusions, but he makes some great points.

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Two Memes: Targeting everybody, Multi-Monitor

The problem with targeting everybody in one picture.

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It’s unpopular, but I am a big fan of having one monitor.

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Small Update from Me:

Last week my friend Sairam (writesGradient Ascent) who has over a decade of experience in AI, and I ran an hour-and-a-half class for the Small Bets community titled "Just Enough GPT to be Dangerous."

In that class, I open-sourced an AI-powered discord bot I built on a weekend for the Small Bets community.

If you are interested in watching the recording, it's included in the Small Bets membership, along with all of the other material that is a part of the Small Bets community.

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As always, thank you for reading.

-Louie

P.S. You can reply to this email; it will get to me, and I will read it even if I can’t always reply in a timely manner.