Augmented Intelligence for Engineers, Feynman Technique, FX Carry Trade | Quick Bits #1

Augmented Intelligence for Engineers

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• How to adapt to AI as a Staff Engineer

  • Use AI as a tool, but stay human and keep doing the work.

  • Let it free you up to focus on learning, thinking, creating.

  • Don’t use it to write for you - writing is the best way to improve your thinking.

• Using AI for learning and augmenting your thinking

• Focus on AI for distillation to go faster rather than for generation

  • Summarization, searching - process information faster

• Amplify your human strengths by still doing the thinking and the work

• I use Perplexity.ai for search now

Feynman Technique

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• Explain something in simple terms with no jargon to show you understand it well

• Iterate through writing it down, teaching it someone, and filling the gaps

• Simple is a sign of expertise

• Boil a complex topic down into it’s simplest form to learn something deeply

FX Carry Trade

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• Currencies are traded in pairs. You buy the “base” pair and sell the “quote” pair.

• The carry trade profits from being long a higher yielding base pair and simultaneously short the quote pair.

• The USD was yielding close to 5% while the JPY was much lower near 0.25%, so investors holding the USD-JPY pair profit from the difference here.

• This week the Bank of Japan raised rates again and the FED hinted at cutting rates, so the carry trade suddenly looked less attractive.

• Research paper on Carry Trade

Personal Growth

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Quote from Sahil Bloom:

When you're on your journey to growth, some people won't like it. They'll tell you to be realistic, laugh at your ambitions, and say things behind your back.

Recognize one truth: This is fundamentally not about you.

Your growth, focus, and improvement are exposing something in them: Their insecurities, their fears, their lack of ambition.

You can show them empathy and love, but ultimately, you are not responsible for how your journey to self-improvement makes others feel.

• Sahil’s newsletter

• It’s hard trying new things, but your vulnerability muscle grows

• Do what you want, you’ll find supporters but don’t get discouraged by lack of support

Brilliant App

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• Duolingo for the sciences

• Brilliant (not an affiliate link)