Key insights

• Balancing Learning and Productivity

  • 🐇 Seeking mentorship to avoid rabbit holes and assess problem complexity
  • 📈 Appreciating the process and setting clear goals with subtasks for long-term projects
  • 🤝 Using accountability groups to stay on track and motivated in difficult tasks

• Learning and Decision-Making

  • 🧠 Putting in effort to remember helps with retention
  • 📄 Printing papers leads to better focus than reading digitally
  • 👌 Distinguishing between good enough and optimized for better decisions

• Efficiency Techniques

  • 🍅 Using techniques like the Pomodoro Technique to manage energy
  • 📵 Minimizing smartphone usage and employing grayscale display to reduce distraction
  • ⌨️ Leveraging hotkeys and multiple screens for efficiency

• Productivity and Burnout Prevention

  • 🥇 Success depends on hard work and smart working
  • ⏸️ Building in time for breaks is crucial to prevent burnout
  • 📅 Operational tactics like time blocking and energy audit can improve productivity

• Procrastination and Motivation

  • 🍞 Leaving breadcrumb tasks for the next day can help in getting started quickly
  • 💪 Tackling the hardest thing first to make the rest of the day easier
  • 🔋 Lowering the activation energy to do a task can help break the procrastination loop

• Decision-Making and Action

  • 🚀 Prioritizing core decisions and setting a time budget for first launch
  • 🎯 Implementing highest value per unit time tasks first
  • 🔑 Taking action to precede motivation; use psychological tricks to get started

• Time Management Strategies

  • 💰 Assessing the value of time and the trade-off between money and time
  • 🔄 Applying the 'reuse, don't redo' principle in engineering and research
  • ⚖️ Delegating tasks based on their importance and urgency

• Efficiency Tips

  • ⏳ Emphasizes the importance of setting clear goals and aligning time allocation with those goals
  • 🛠️ Using tools like RescueTime to track productivity and align time allocation with goals
  • 📊 Organizing and building systems to improve productivity and efficiency

Q&A

• How does Mo suggest seeking mentorship and staying motivated in long-term tasks?

  Mo recommends seeking mentorship to avoid rabbit holes, staying motivated in long-term tasks through process appreciation, and using accountability groups to stay on track and motivated in difficult tasks.

• What tips does Mo offer for better learning, decision-making, and productivity?

  Mo recommends putting in effort to remember better, writing programs without references, printing papers for better focus, doing small tasks immediately, saying no more often, and time boxing decisions. He also advises being receptive to feedback and reading long-form content for further learning.

• What are Mo's tips for increasing energy, focus, and efficiency?

  Mo recommends techniques like the Pomodoro Technique, minimizing smartphone usage, leveraging hotkeys and multiple screens, scheduling meetings efficiently, and challenging imaginary rules. He also suggests using speech-to-text for faster communication and speed reading using apps like SwiftRead.

• What does Mo attribute success to?

  Mo attributes success to hard work, training, and smart working, rather than innate talent. He also emphasizes the importance of building in time for breaks and using operational tactics like time blocking and energy audit to improve productivity and prevent burnout.

• How can one stay motivated and overcome procrastination?

  Mo suggests leaving breadcrumb tasks for the next day, tackling the hardest thing first, and understanding the emotional aspect of tasks. He also recommends social accountability, such as doing tasks with friends, to prevent procrastination.

• What is crucial when deciding what to delegate to a framework?

  It is crucial to lock in core decisions in advance, prioritize highest value per unit time tasks, and ship quickly. Different frameworks (engineering vs. research) require different approaches to problem-solving.

• How does Mo suggest prioritizing tasks?

  Mo recommends assessing the value of time, prioritizing strategic decision-making, using the 'reuse, don't redo' principle, making decisions in advance, and understanding the important versus urgent framework for task prioritization.

• What are Mo's tips for improving productivity?

  Mo emphasizes the importance of setting clear goals, allocating time effectively, and using tools like profilers and RescueTime to optimize productivity. He also suggests prioritizing strategic decision-making and using the 'reuse, don't redo' principle.

• What is Mo's current role and background?

  Mo is currently an AI researcher at OpenAI, with previous experience at Facebook, in finance, and at Caltech.

• 00:00 The speaker, Mo, has had a successful career and is currently an AI researcher at OpenAI. He shares efficiency tips for engineers, emphasizing the importance of setting clear goals, prioritizing time, and using tools like profilers to optimize productivity.
• 07:15 Assess the value of your time; prioritize strategic decision-making; use the 'reuse, don't redo' principle; make decisions in advance; understand the important versus urgent framework for task prioritization.
• 14:35 The decision of what to delegate to a framework versus what is core to a project is crucial. Lock in core decisions in advance, prioritize highest value per unit time tasks, and ship it quickly. Different frameworks (engineering vs. research) require different approaches. Action precedes motivation, so just get started, and use psychological tricks like doing it for just five minutes.
• 21:33 Tips for staying motivated and overcoming procrastination, including leaving easy tasks for the next day, tackling the hardest thing first, and understanding the emotional aspect of tasks. Social accountability, such as doing tasks with friends, can also help prevent procrastination.
• 28:19 Success is attributed to hard work, training, and smart working, rather than innate talent. Building in time for breaks and using operational tactics like time blocking and energy audit can improve productivity and prevent burnout.
• 35:23 Tips for increasing energy, focusing, and improving efficiency: Pomodoro Technique, minimizing smartphone usage, using grayscale display, improving focus, leveraging hotkeys, getting more screens, scheduling meetings efficiently, creating documentation for frequent communications, challenging imaginary rules, speed reading, using speech-to-text, and memorizing common function names or theorems.
• 42:14 Tips for better learning, decision-making, and productivity: put in effort to remember better, write programs without references, print papers for better focus, do small tasks immediately, say no more often, distinguish between good enough and optimized, time box decisions, be receptive to feedback, read long-form content, recommended further reading, and feedback form on website.
• 48:52 Balancing learning and efficiency, seeking mentorship to avoid rabbit holes, staying motivated in long-term tasks through process appreciation and accountability groups