Several years back, I sent a monthly emailed titled “Let’s Get Coffee.” The premise was simple—a periodic update of what I’m working on, thinking about, and reading across the internet.
Inspired by other bloggers like Melanie Richards, Belle B. Cooper, and Matt Webb (e.g. weeknotes), I’m bringing back the concept, just in blog form rather than email. I’m also shamelessly borrowing Melanie’s “Learning Log” title!
Here we go…
Over the years, Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays. You get the crisp fall air without much of the excitement and business that surrounds Thanksgiving or Christmas. This year was a bit of an exception. Our boys went trick-or-treating four separate times. It felt like we were continually in costume! Totally worth it though—we all had a blast.
Job Hunting
I’m continuing to seek out my next role. This month, I built a fair amount of momentum and interviewed at a number of companies. I’m very excited about the opportunities currently in motion, and I’m feeling more hopeful my search will be wrapped up by end of November. I’ll share more thoughts on the job search once I find my next role!
Digital Gardening
Inspired by Joel Gascoigne of Buffer, I dove headfirst into note-taking. In particular, I set up Zettelkasten system with Obsidian. At first, it seemed like overkill to spend so much time organizing, linking, and summarizing information. After further reflection, I believe it’s 100% worth the effort for two reasons:
- As a knowledge worker, your effectiveness compounds year after year as you develop a catalog of frameworks, examples, and references to rely on. By writing this all down in a “second brain” of sorts, you’re creating a much more reliable memory. You’ll thank yourself later on!
- I read a lot of articles and books. Previously though, I didn’t actually take the time to digest them—pull out the interesting nuggets, add my own comments, and see how nodes connect. This greatly amplifies the effect you get from reading!
I’ve been spending ~15 minutes at the start of my day tending to my “digital garden” and finding it very rewarding.
A.I. and Projects
This month, I listened to several podcasts from Klaus about the future of AI and Customer Support. Similarly, I listened to Paul Adams (CPO of Intercom) talk about AI on Lenny’s Podcast. My two takeaways:
- A.I. has already created a massive shift in many areas and will only continue to do so.
- I need to spend more time reading, learning, and playing with A.I. tools on the market.
I use ChatGPT as part of my day-to-day, but I’d benefit from spending more time in this area. That’s a focus for November! Feel free to email me links and resources – jeremeylduvall [at] gmail.
Reading/Listening
- Regarding books, I read Die With Zero, Good Inside, and Reykjavík. If you’re a parent, Good Inside is a worthwhile read. Reykjavík fit the bill for a Halloween-esque mystery.
- Reforge’s new-ish podcast “Unsolicited Feedback” is great
- Julian Lehr’s posts on E-commerce – Part 1 and Part 2.
- Two posts from Jason Cohen: The “Great” Product Manager, a.k.a. The Impossible Product Manager and Pricing determines your business model.
- I discovered Will Larson and particularly enjoyed two pieces—A forty-year career and Meeting people.
- I’m continuing to dive deep on personal blogging. This month, I found Dave Rupert and Rach Smith. I also enjoyed this post from Tyler Cowen (a prolific blogger) titled “My Personal Moonshot.“