September 2023 Updates
Heads down building, poker nights, and being curious instead of judgemental
You’re receiving this monthly newsletter because you’ve been a valuable part of my life in some shape or form (or I’d like for you to be 🙂). See this video for context.
Let’s catch up sometime :)
What I’ve been up to 🌱
I’ve been heads down in Toronto for the past month, and man it’s a great feeling to be back to building. At Onova, we’ve been getting in front of a lot of new people who are interested in hackathons and GenAI work. We’re also making great progress with PokerGPT, which is very exciting.
Poker Thursdays. I’ve been running a weekly game with my friend Karist for young people in tech. It’s been super fun getting to meet a few other people, have some fun over poker, and build a little community around it.
Seeing my friends succeed :) It’s such a great feeling to catch up with friends over the summer: people who went away for internships, bet on themselves and started a startup, or have traveled to brand new places with tons of stories to tell. Seeing all of my friends grow in so many ways is truly inspiring.
What I’ve been thinking/learning about 💭
I’m being especially conscious of my capacity nowadays. I’ve always wanted to be at 95-100% of my max limit. If I wasn’t almost burnt out, I wasn’t doing enough - that was my (probably toxic) mentality before. I felt that it would help me push myself beyond my limits and expand what’s possible for me. Long story short, it’s not the case. I’ve been working with a 60-20-10-10 split right now, with 60% of my time being dedicated to work, 20% to personal (fitness, reading, deepening relationships), 10% for creative exploration, and 10% for reflection and silent time.
Since coming back from Asia, I’ve adopted the mentality of being curious, not judgemental. Previously, I’ve mistakenly only associated myself with people who I think can “make me a better person”. Since then, I’ve met so many random people with such unique stories everywhere - on the elevator to a conference, the concierge guy of my friends’ building, and a few random strangers at the grocery store. Striking that fine balance between having the humility to be able to learn from everyone, but also respecting my own time is something I’m still trying to figure out, but I’m a lot closer now.
Personal asks 🙏
I’m trying to chat or catch up with someone new every week. If we haven’t caught up in a while, drop me a line! I’d love to catch up.
What’s next for me ⚡️
Validating a product idea for deepening your friendships. If that’s something that’s up your alley, hmu!
More heads down building (launching our MVP for PokerGPT this month 💪)
Thanks for reading this month’s update. Would love to hear how I can help you this month (maybe I can make some intros, work through some thoughts with you, or otherwise). See you next month 👋
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Love it, great allocation of time. Very interested in trying out PokerGPT!
Love the reflections you've had on our relationships with time and other people! 🫶🏻