Johann Van Tonder
@jvt
20 years in ecommerce, now CEO of a CRO agency. Probably doing analysis in R or building stuff with AI. Or walking on the beach. Yeah, probably that.
Johann Van Tonder
The company is an extension of my psychology as the founder. All my strengths and knowledge get amplified and extended, but so do my weaknesses and limitations.
- Tiago Forte on X
Startup Advice and
Writing is a critical skill — perhaps the most important — of all the skills required to analyze data. The only way to get better at writing is to write, ideally every day.
Rohan Alexander, Telling Stories with Data
data science and
the story-driven company is responsive to customers and prioritises having a clear sense of purpose and identity. It makes little reference to the competition and is intent on creating an impact.
Bernadette Jiwa • Story Driven: You don't need to compete when you know who you are
Even if LLMs don’t get smarter (though I suspect they will, and soon) new capabilities and modes of interacting with AIs, like agents and massive context windows, will help LLMs do dramatic new feats.
Ethan Mollick • Which AI should I use? Superpowers and the State of Play
Ethan Mollick
Your company will grow as quickly as your customers determine it will grow.
Sahil Lavingia • The Minimalist Entrepreneur: How Great Founders Do More with Less
Best-selling author Jack Canfield once said, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” And he’s right. But I’m going to take it one step further. Pain, discomfort, shock, boredom, impostor syndrome, awkwardness, fear, being wrong, failing, ignorance, looking stupid: Your avoidance of these feelings is stopping you from a life greater than
... See moreBenjamin Hardy • Willpower Doesn't Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success
Quotes and Motivation
When I go into a situation, I try to keep a mindset of baseline optimism.
Problems will inevitably arise and I’ll deal with them as the situation demands, but my preference is to assume I’m ... See more
- When starting the day: It’s going to be a good day.
- When meeting someone new: I’m going to like them.
- When trying something challenging: It’s going to work out.
Problems will inevitably arise and I’ll deal with them as the situation demands, but my preference is to assume I’m ... See more
James Clear • 3-2-1: On hats, haircuts, and tattoos
Weird GPT token for Reddit user davidjl123, “a keen member of the /r/counting subreddit. He’s posted incremented numbers there well over 163,000 times. Presumably that subreddit ended up in the training data used to create the tokenizer used by GPT-2, and since that particular username showed up hundreds of thousands of times it ended up getting it
... See moreAI skepticism and
Thinking clearly is a conscious act that writers must force on themselves, as if they were working on any other project that requires logic: … doing an algebra problem.
Good writing doesn’t come naturally, though most people seem to think it does.
On Writing Well, William Zinsser