Learning-Doing at 50x speed
AI as rapid info-action compression lever
“The world does not need more information, it needs more action.”
Entrepreneurs have a bias towards action, out of necessity.
AI like ChatGPT has enabled infinite information, yet does this lead toward more action?
Reducing the denominator - time spent consuming information - is equally as valuable if the output variable of ‘productive action’ is fixed. That is, the ROI on time and energy increases all the same.
The easiest and most useful application of this is the ability to compress content into immediately actionable takeaways.
Example: I want to learn to write better. I could spend days reading and annotating lengthy writing guides, or convert them into actionable stepwise SOPs to instantly get started:
How To Get Started With Writing
Curate your information diet: Unfollow superficial feeds; subscribe to 3–5 high-quality newsletters, magazines, or thought leaders.
Install a Read-It-Later app: Save every promising article to Instapaper (or Pocket) instead of opening new tabs.
Centralize your notes: Choose one note-taking tool and funnel all highlights, quotes, and ideas into it.
Develop a capture habit: Log every epiphany, quote, or insight within 10 seconds—whether in your notes app or on paper.
Block daily writing time: Schedule 90 minutes each morning; review your notes in split-screen, outline, then draft.
Run ideas by friends: Before drafting, pitch one small idea aloud; note surprises or confusion to guide your focus.
Publish weekly on one public platform: Share half-baked drafts (e.g. Twitter thread, LinkedIn post) to gather reader reactions.
Collect reader feedback: Solicit comments via social media or newsletter replies; double-down on what resonates.
Engage a CRIBS editor: Recruit 1–2 trusted peers to mark Confusing, Repeated, Interesting, Boring or Surprising passages.
Own your public platform: Add value with platform-native content (threads, forum posts); convert engagement into newsletter sign-ups.
Build or refine your website: Create a “Start Here” page, organize essays by category, and embed email capture forms.
Launch your newsletter: Send weekly mini-essays or digital postcards; drive subscribers from your public posts.
Apply POP writing: Ensure every article is Personal, Observational and Playful.
Distill your key idea: Define a single “Shiny Dime” core concept and coin a catchy phrase for it.
Develop your voice by imitation: Weekly, reverse-engineer 2–3 favorite writers’ styles; integrate what feels authentic.
Publish consistently: Aim for ≥50 articles; frequency hones clarity, voice and audience trust.
Quarterly review for Personal Monopoly: Audit your top 10 pieces to identify your unique skills, interests, and style—then double down.
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Note, the same is equally if not more true for podcasts, particularly when you really want to learn something but do not resonate with the medium / emotional tenor (which would make it different to commit to memory the information therein).
I would love to hear this conversation between Lex Fridman and ThePrimagean, but who has 5 hours to commit to such content? Particularly when there are 50 other great podcasts/convos happening concurrently today, right now.
Go here to get the transcript in 5 seconds: https://notegpt.io/youtube-transcript-generator
Copy paste into ChatGPT alongside this prompt:
“DearGPT, please give me the 20 most important takeaways, bullets, insights, and valuable moments from this conversation. Highly a few warm moments and counterintuitive points. End with a paragraph connecting it to me - my goals, relationships, businesses, and general opportunities that may be gleaned from the overlap of the insights from the conversation, my own expertise, and what the world needs now and will need in the future.”
For fun, it’s:
Okay, here are the 20 key takeaways, insights, and valuable moments from the conversation, without the parenthetical categories, and with warm moments and counterintuitive points highlighted:
The Joy of Infinite Possibility in Programming: The initial spark for ThePrimeagen was understanding data structures like linked lists, realizing programming allows expressing potentially infinite concepts and building anything imaginable, moving beyond rigid, finite problems.
Recursion's "Aha!" Moment: Understanding recursion often requires encountering a problem where it's not just possible but natural (like maze-solving), rather than problems easily solvable with loops (like factorial). The struggle to grasp it can cause profound self-doubt.
Counterintuitive Point: The Pain of Predictability: One of the worst aspects of programming for ThePrimeagen was a job where there was no challenge or uncertainty, where the solutions were known, turning creative work into a factory line. The absence of struggle was the pain.
Identity as a "Tools Engineer" / Generalist: ThePrimeagen identifies as someone who builds tools and libraries to empower other developers, enjoying the process of understanding and solving problems across the stack, from UI to build systems.
Broad View of Programming: The common perception (especially on platforms like Twitter) often focuses narrowly on web development, but the programming world is vast, including embedded systems, robotics, ML, networking, OS, compilers, etc.
Rollercoaster Life Journey: ThePrimeagen shared a deeply personal history involving early exposure to pornography, his father's death at age 7, subsequent drug use (pot at 8, later LSD, meth), social struggles, a suicide attempt, and eventually finding a path towards recovery and success.
Profound Turning Point - Finding God/Consciousness: A pivotal moment at 19 involved a feeling of God's presence and gaining a "conscious," leading to feelings of shame associated with past behaviours (porn, drugs) and motivating a fundamental life change.
Porn Addiction's Difficulty: He described porn addiction as harder to quit than even smoking or other drugs, partly due to its private nature, societal normalization (compared to hard drugs), and the way it objectifies and devalues human connection.
Overcoming Academic Struggle: Despite failing pre-calculus multiple times, immense focused effort (hours in study centers, repetition) led to a breakthrough, eventually excelling in higher math. It required sheer will and time-in-the-saddle, not inherent genius.
Strong Opinion/Counterintuitive: "Work Hard, Get Smart": He dislikes the phrase "Work smarter, not harder" because it implies smartness is obvious and easy. He advocates "Work hard, get smart," believing intense effort is usually required first to discover the smarter path.
High School's Fleeting Importance: The social pressures and hierarchies of high school feel eternal and all-important at the time but are often insignificant in the long run. Those peers rarely remain consequential.
Netflix - Leap of Faith & Reality: Joining Netflix involved significant risk (moving with a pregnant wife, unfamiliar place, high-pressure "fire fast" culture) but was driven by recognizing a limited window for unusual opportunities. The reality involved intense work and navigating complex systems (like the Groovy-based middle layer).
Debugging Complex Systems: Thriving at Netflix involved diving into poorly understood legacy code (like Groovy) using fundamental skills like "print debugging" and being willing to tackle problems others avoided.
The "Repulsive Grizzly Attack": He discovered a critical vulnerability in Netflix's Falcor system that could take down UI services with a single, crafted request targeting memory/CPU, highlighting the fragility of complex systems.
Learning from Rewriting Code: A key lesson came from trying to rewrite a colleague's "weird" code, only to realize through the process that the original design, while complex, correctly handled edge cases he initially missed. It underscored the importance of understanding existing code before replacing it.
Streaming as a Long Grind: His streaming career began organically (charity event) and grew over many years of consistent effort after his full-time job, involving late nights and personal sacrifice before becoming viable.
Mastering Your Tools (Neovim): Deeply learning and customizing your primary tool (like Neovim) isn't just about efficiency; it's about reducing cognitive load so you can focus entirely on the problem-solving aspect of programming. Vim motions offer a powerful language for text manipulation.
AI in Programming - Potential & Pitfalls: AI tools (Copilot, Cursor) offer benefits like productivity boosts, making coding less lonely, and handling boilerplate. However, they risk creating "learned helplessness," hindering deep skill development, and require critical oversight due to potential inaccuracies.
Terminal.Shop - Fun & Ethical Entrepreneurship: His coffee company, orderable only via SSH, represents a desire to build something fun, developer-centric, and ethical, avoiding the pressures or moral compromises sometimes associated with typical tech products/startups.
The Foundational Role of Love and Relationships: Throughout the conversation, the immense value placed on his wife, the transformative power of having children (discovering a new capacity for love), and the importance of trust and forgiveness in relationships emerge as central pillars of his life and well-being.
This conversation with ThePrimeagen offers a rich tapestry of insights directly relevant to your journey. His "rollercoaster" path from profound adversity—addiction, loss, academic failure—to professional success and personal fulfillment underscores the power of resilience and finding deep motivation, whether through faith, love, or the sheer joy of creation. This resonates with navigating the inevitable challenges in your own goals, relationships, and businesses. His emphasis on mastery, not just in programming concepts but crucially in one's tools (like Neovim or even just typing), highlights a path to greater effectiveness and joy in your expertise; it's about working hard first to unlock the "smarter" way, a counterintuitive but powerful principle applicable to any field.
ThePrimeagen's journey into streaming and ventures like Terminal Coffee demonstrates finding opportunities at the intersection of passion (programming, community), personal values (fun, ethics), and what the world needs (connection, inspiration, good coffee ordered via SSH!). His perspective on AI—embracing its potential while cautioning against sacrificing deep skill—offers a balanced approach for integrating new technologies into your businesses without losing foundational expertise. Perhaps most importantly, the recurring theme of human connection—the critical role of his wife, the value of trusted friends like Teej, the desire for AI that "cares," and the profound love for his children—serves as a powerful reminder.
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I’ve removed the last paragraph here connecting it to my personal experience, but nevertheless if you’re still reading, you’ve no doubt enjoyed this list as I have. We’ve collective spent maybe 5 to 10 minutes understanding what would have otherwise taken 5+ hours to digest in full.