Readme

A user manual to operating Eugene Yan. A work in progress, just like me.

A short intro

• I’m from Singapore; spent most of my life and met my wife there. Now in Seattle.
• I’m an introvert and prefer to spend my weekends reading, hacking, gaming at home. Nonetheless, work and public speaking has trained me to be a pseudo-extrovert.
• I got into DS & ML because I’m curious about how people perceive, decide, and behave.

My work experience so far

• Data Science @ IBM (Supply chain, anti-fraud, workforce analytics)
• Machine Learning @ Lazada, an e-commerce start-up; acquired by Alibaba
• Machine Learning @ uCare.ai, a Series A healthtech start-up
• Applied Science @ Amazon (current)

What are my super powers? (Based on >5 years of feedback)

• Empathy: I care a lot about doing the right thing for customers, the org, and teams.
• Beginner’s Mind: I’m vocally self-critical and feel the need to keep learning/growing.
• Simplicity: I prefer to solve (complex) problems with simple and pragmatic solutions.
• Application: I apply theory and research to build practical systems and products.
• Communication: I’m told I write and speak more articulately than most folks in tech.
• Provider-Teacher: Based on the StandOutAsssessment from 2024. (I’m surprised too).

What are my growth areas?

• Not consulting others early enough. I spend time thinking, researching, prototyping, etc. before sharing my ideas (to build more confidence in them). Thus, when I share them, there’s not much room for others (who know a lot less by then) to influence or collaborate on it. Learning to share and seek comments earlier, even if it’s halfbaked.
• Not thinking big or long-term enough: I’m impatient for customer feedback and bias towards simplicity. Thus, I focus on solutions that solve short/medium-term problems for the customer and org. Learning how to step back and think how to help multiple orgs, or solve multi-year problems, even if it means slower/longer feedback loops.
• Take failures too hard: I take my work too seriously. Major hiccups, as inevitable as they may be, show too clearly on my face and body language. This causes mostly unnecessary worry for the team and leadership. Learning how to be more chill and not let it affect me as much, or at the very least, have a better pokerface.

What are my quirks?

• Chronic Imposter Syndrome: I’m surrounded by people much better than me; the Internet makes this easy. Thus, I never feel good enough (and value learning).
• I find faces distracting: When we talk, I’ll often be staring somewhere above your head—this is how I focus. Please don’t be offended.
• I poke fun a lot: It’s my 2nd love language (after feeding people). If I’m poking fun at you, it means we’re close and I trust you can take it, but let me know if I should stop.

What do I value most?

• Working hard: I’m grateful to be able to choose work that’s my calling, craft, and play. Thus I think that not giving my 100% at work is just a waste of what little time I have.
• Learning & Discovery: I get a rush from learning and building on the edge of what’s barely possible. For example, how to build LLM-based systems and Semantic IDs.
• Helping others: I find meaning in work such as helping customers discover and get more out of books (Amazon), or helping sellers make a living online (Lazada/Alibaba).
• Sharing knowledge: Most of my writing is motivated by this, where I want to share something interesting I learned, or the tribal knowledge accumulated over years.
• Fewer, stronger relationships over many weak ones: I’m introverted and low social energy, thus prefer fewer close, long-term friends over many meetup acquaintances.
• Living well: Anchored on Stoicism (my fav book), focused on peace, health, and joy.

What do I enjoy working on?

• Prototyping: To quickly confirm if something can (or cannot) be done, learn what works and what doesn’t, and get early feedback and data.
• Writing: For ideas that can’t be prototyped like vision, strategy, culture, etc. Writing clarifies thinking, is easy to share and get feedback, and lasts longer than memory.
• Figuring out the right problems to work on: I think deciding what to work on—and what not work on—is higher leverage than generally solving problems well.
• Creating space for and scaling through others: I get a lot of joy from seeing talent with potential do well, grow, and surpass me (so I can figure out new challenges).

How do I prefer to work?

• Starting with intent (Why is this important? Why now?), desired outcome (What does success look like?), and boundaries (What can’t we do?). I can work with stakeholders to answer these qns, then figure out the How (methodology, implementation, etc.).
• My energy and focus is highest in the morning (8am-12pm), and wanes past 3-4 pm. Thus, I prefer Deep Work in the morning, and meetings after. Brain-dead at 6 pm.
• I’m intensely in-person and returned to office before it was a thing. The creativity and productivtity from in-person work is unmatched—do you have 2 minutes?
• I love all feedback: What should I do more of or start doing? What should I do less of or stop doing? What else can I improve on?
• I work best as an individual contributor: Been a manager twice (Alibaba, uCare.ai) and I think I’m more effective, have greater impact, and have more fun as an IC.

How am I like to work with?

• I’m not always on email or messenger. I usually check once before lunch, and once before end of day. If you need me, don’t hesitate to @eugeneyan or call on the phone.
• I default to openness and complete trust—it’s just easier to work this way.
• A good leader only needs to do 3 things: Provide (training, motivation, resources, opportunities, etc.), remove (blockers, confusion, politics) and get out of the way.
• What makes a good leader? I like a16z’s definition: Vision (Steve Jobs), Caring for people (Bill Campbell), Execution ability (Andy Grove)—at least two out of three.

How do I prefer to communicate and get feedback?

• “Do you have 2 minutes?” I ask for 2 min to share an idea or rubber duck. “2 minutes” usually takes 10-15 min. Asking for “15 minutes” means there’s a serious problem.
• In-person or face-to-face for serious or sensitive matters. Writing just doesn’t convey the message well enough—the facial expressions and tone matter.
• Crocker’s Law: I believe all feedback is a gift and will not take offence; I don’t need the shit sandwich around it. I will change my behavior if the feedback is valid.
• When giving others feedback, I prefer a 1-on-1, in-person setting, within 24 hours of the behavior that led to the feedback. But I need to trust the receiver will take it well.

What do I not have patience for?

• Politics: I detest empire building, backstabbing, stealing credit, and other power plays. Customer > Org > Team > Individual; if this equation is not respected I will act on it.
• Bullshitters that try to fake it till they make it—most never succeed legitimately.

Favourite quotes?

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle

“No. 1 predictor of success for a very young startup: Rate of iteration.” - Sam Altman

“Failure is an option. If things are not failing, you’re not innovating.” - Elon Musk

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” - Alvin Toffler

“Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.” - Edsger Dijkstra

“The world wants you to be typical - in a thousand ways, it pulls at you. Don’t let it happen. You have to pay a price for your distinctiveness, and it’s worth it. … but don’t expect it to be easy or free. You’ll have to put energy into it continuously.” - Jeff Bezos