Notes

If you could go back to being 18, would you do it? But there's one catch: you can't change anything about your life. You'd have to go through everything you've been through all over again, exactly the same way. Would you still want to?

Both my part-time internship at an AI startup and this semester’s Product Management Lab class, where we’ve been working with Walmart, have taught me: Understanding customers’ unmet needs is the most essential, yet also the most difficult, part of building products. There are six reasons why:

1. Customers are too busy to think deeply about or share their needs.
2. Customers often don't know what they want or can't clearly articulate it.
3. Customers aren't always honest about what they really think or need.
4. Liking doesn't mean paying. Customers may not know their willingness to pay until they experience the product's value.
5. Customer research can be biased. The loudest voices don't necessarily represent the majority.
6. Even when customers clearly tell you what they need, you may choose not to listen. Instead, you ignore their feedback due to your own assumptions and biases.

It's not whether you're right or wrong. It's how much money you make when you're right and how much you lose when you're wrong, and how confident you are that you're right. It's about how much you should really press a bet when your confidence level is extremely high.

Prioritization. 1. I put off important things because they seem hard or I've never done them before. Instead, I choose to do easier, less important things. I've realized that I have a deep fear of doing things that are difficult or unfamiliar. How can I overcome this fear? 2. I prioritize the wrong things. I spend too much time on things that may benefit me in the long run while neglecting urgent problems that need to be addressed now.

Time Management. 1. Plant crops to keep weeds from growing. Plan meaningful things to do ahead of time so you don't waste time. 2. Say no to people.

The heart of downtown Palo Alto is basically one street that you can walk from end to end in about 15 minutes. I come down here for a walk almost every morning and evening, sometimes with friends, sometimes on my own.

There’s a tiny fountain along the street that’s always surrounded by people during the day, and at night, the space is mostly taken over by homeless people. I like Blue Bottle Coffee and Goodthing Coffee. I even ran into a friend from New York at Blue Bottle one day. It really is a small world.

There are all kinds of restaurants here, from an Indian restaurant that doesn’t look Indian at all, to a Japanese place with a 5.0 rating, to regular pizza spots. There’s also an ice cream shop that always has a line out the door at night. For most of the restaurants I’ve been to, I’d say the atmosphere is better than the food.

After 10 p.m., most places start closing down. Only a few bars are still packed and lively.

There’s also a farmers’ market here on Saturday mornings, with fruits, vegetables, bread, and flowers. Though, as it turns out, not everyone selling there is actually a farmer. The guy I bought corn from told me he gets his produce from somewhere else.

It reminds me a lot of the morning markets I used to go to in China, except there’s usually a much wider variety of food back home. Walking through the market brought back memories of going to one with my mom and dad last year. But now, all I can do is take a video and tell them, “Look, they have markets in America too.”

Huge trees line both sides of the street. Most people probably wouldn’t notice the leaves. Their leaves are shaped almost like open hands, reminding me of the maple leaves back home, which my hometown is actually famous for.

The blue sky, the dry air, the cool breeze, the warm sunshine, the narrow streets, and the pace of life that feels peaceful but still just a little lively, it all feels so much like summer back home.

In a place so far from home, that gives me a small sense of familiarity.

Resilience. When we’re building an early-stage startup as nobodies, we have to get used to the whole world questioning us and keep a positive mindset through it all. We face pretty much the same questions and doubts every day. And we actually already know what the problems are, we just don’t know the answers yet. No one will believe us until we prove it.

Perseverance. Building a startup is absolute grueling work. 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of the main challenges is how long a founder can sustain this level of intensity. You really don't know how demanding it actually is until you build one yourself. As a founder, there's no rest. Speed is life. I really want to ask: How strong does a founder's desire to make it succeed need to be? How much perseverance does a founder need to have to keep going?

“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.” — Francis Bacon

Leadership, constructive feedback. Praise first, criticize second. Give a carrot before the stick. Don’t give the stick before the carrot. If we get poor-quality work from our team, we need to criticize the work, but first, praise them. Let them feel good first, then point out what they did wrong. If we criticize them first, they’re going to be pissed. They already put in a lot of effort. They’ll feel like you’re overlooking all of that. And if we praise them afterward, they’ll just be like, “Oh, now you’re just trying to make me feel better. Too late. It doesn’t work.”

Staying simple and pure is a choice, and it takes wisdom. Working with excellent people of integrity is essential to making that possible.

I suddenly realized that I’m doing exactly what I wanted to do when I was a teenager. I made a lot of mistakes along the way and took plenty of detours. But after everything I’ve been through, the things I love doing haven’t really changed.

To love and to grow.

A founder’s three jobs are to recruit great people, raise capital, and set the direction. Without money, it’s hard to build a team. Without a team, it’s hard to make money. Solving this chicken-and-egg problem takes extraordinary leadership.

GTM is incredibly hard for a startup, especially in healthcare. Even if our AI product can make people 10x more efficient, even if we’re going after a market with less than 1% penetration, and even if we offer the first month for free, customers still don’t necessarily buy. We ask, “Would you be open to trying it?” They say, “Sounds interesting. Let me think about it and get back to you.” And then we never hear from them again. Why? Because people don’t like change. The old way may be inefficient, but at least it works. From the customer’s perspective: Why should I spend time talking to you? What if implementation takes forever and wastes my team’s time? What if something goes wrong? Is it HIPAA-compliant? What if patient data gets leaked? And why should I trust a tiny startup I’ve never heard of? That’s the huge education and trust-building cost of GTM, especially in healthcare. We have to find a problem that hurts so much that customers are actively looking for a solution and are willing to pay to solve it right now. Just as importantly, we need to find someone strong in sales and marketing as quickly as possible.

Reducing information asymmetry is one of the best ways to avoid being misled. The more you know about the other party, the better your decisions will be. Also, Don't accept vague answers. Ask for specifics, numbers, and follow-up questions until things are clear. That's not being rude. It's part of the job. I recently watched a founder get deceived because he took "I have a lot of resources" at face value. Had he simply asked, "Which resources?" he would've realized there weren't many.

Failure will come sooner or later anyway. It's better to experience it early. The sooner you fail, the sooner you learn. Just take action and don't worry too much about the outcome.

One of the fastest ways to recognize and correct our own mistakes is to see the same mistakes in someone else. We often don’t realize how wrong we are. If we can't see ourselves clearly, look for someone who is similar to us in this area. After observing a Silicon Valley VC’s daily life from an outsider’s perspective and reflecting on it seriously, I felt I could see the career more objectively.

When evaluating startup opportunities, don’t assume Big Tech will always be slow, but don’t assume it can reinvent itself and outperform startups either. Core researchers from Meta FAIR and Google Deepmind said AI is moving too fast for large companies to keep up, largely because of top-down decision-making and organizational complexity. That creates opportunities for startups. But a TikTok HR leader said the company is redesigning its organization around AI agents and project-based pods to make it much more agile. Whether that transformation will actually work is still an open question.

In the tech industry, the closer our roles are to the core technology, the greater the potential payoff tends to be, whether we want to become senior executives or found startups. This is because we should join companies whose success is heavily driven by the function we perform, and also because technology increasingly drives companies’ growth, value creation, and competitive advantage. Rough ranking: Researcher > Engineer > PM > other roles like Corp Dev, Strat, and Finance. Interested in investment or finance? Join an investment firm or a finance-driven business, unless we’re just using the role to build experience for something else.

Also, whenever possible: choose the most advanced, fastest-growing sectors; join the leading companies; work on the teams most critical to companies’ future growth.

One of my former managers just raised a ~$300M Series B for his AI company, and they'll probably go public next year. Here are a few things I learned from this: 1. People who understand technology benefit the most in this era, disproportionately so. Even people without a technical background should learn technology as much as we can. 2. But success on this scale is hard to replicate. In tech, you can spend years working in a tiny niche. If that area suddenly gets a breakthrough, all the knowledge and work you've built up can turn into massive value. If the breakthrough never comes, the outcome can look completely different. 3. Never quit. If a startup fails, go get a job, learn more, and start another company. This is already about the fifth company my former manager has built.

Someone who initially likes us might later change their mind. But in my experience, the reverse is much rarer. If someone seems to dislike us from the start, even a great deal of effort is almost unlikely to make them genuinely like us. The chances of turning someone who clearly dislikes us into someone who likes us are extremely low. So, if we have shown warmth and enthusiasm but the other person consistently shows little interest in getting to know us, it may not be worth spending too much time trying to win them over. Doing so can leave us emotionally and physically exhausted. The exception is when the person plays an important role in our lives or careers. In those cases, it may be worth putting in extra effort.

We must accept being disliked or ignored, and not feel too disappointed or hurt. It does not mean there is anything wrong with us. Our focus should be on finding the right people rather than trying to change how others feel about us. We should meet more people and find those who value us and genuinely want to be our friends.

Silicon Valley might end up being my favorite place outside of my hometown. First, it's a great place to build a career. You're surrounded by talented people who want to achieve something meaningful. Compared to people working in tech in Beijing, people in tech here seem to work only about two thirds as many hours, or even less, while earning three times as much. Second, it's a great place to live. I love the climate here, the sunshine, the dry weather, and all the beautiful plants. There are no mosquitoes. It's also perfect for outdoor activities like hiking, skiing, and golfing.

我需要改进的4个地方：1. 过度准备，以致于错失机遇。不要完美主义。速度有时比质量重要。一个粗糙的开始就是最好的开始。但也不要止步于现在不好的版本，先出一个粗糙版，然后不断迭代。其他人更会关注之后的成果，而且会被你的进步impressed。2.没有足够自信和勇敢去把真正想得到、但是竞争最激烈的事情做为target。3.做事情没有计划，无论是大的步骤还是日常每天的进度，做到哪里算哪里 4.没有清晰的目标，当做每一件事情时，不要忘了这个目标，我们把全部努力都要围绕着这些目标，比如做的事情、认识的人，能帮助我们实现这个目标的不要错过。

Treat everyone with respect and kindness, regardless of their title or social status. Doing so earns us more friendship, goodwill, and support. Of course, I don't think most people treat others with respect because we expect something in return. We do it because we're naturally kind and don't want to cause hurt through disrespect or rudeness.

Stay honest. It's the easiest option for me. I'm really not very good at lying. I'll make something up one minute, forget about it the next, and end up giving myself away.

Taste matters. It shows up in the career they choose, the hobbies they pursue, the life they build, the people they choose to spend their time with, including friends, colleagues, and partners, the things they pay attention to, and the way they think, speak, and carry themselves.

The Three Sources of Investor Edge

1. Information Edge: You have access to better, earlier, or more private information than others.
2. Analytical Edge: You are better at analyzing information and making judgments.
3. Behavioral Edge: You are better at controlling your emotions and making independent decisions.

1. Be selective about whose advice we take. When we're making a big life decision, only take advice from people we actually want to be like and from the very best in the field. Don't take advice from people we don't want to be like or from people who haven't achieved the results we want.
2. Once we've made our decision, ignore the noise. Don't let anyone's doubts stop us, no matter how successful or respected they are. When Elon Musk started SpaceX, even some of the rocket scientists he respected most thought it couldn't be done.

Strategy + Execution

Concensus: AI. Non concensus: who gonna win in AI?

I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.

One of the most important life skills is learning how to judge people. It determines who to work for or with, who to invest in, and who to marry.

At the end of the day, whether it’s choosing a career or a city to live in, the most important thing is the people we surround ourselves with.