Jason Liu is a technologist, consultant, and writer with a background in AI and a passion for creativity. He shares his transformative journey from machine learning engineer to exploring his identity after a hand injury. The discussion covers navigating authenticity in consulting, the balance between ambition and adaptability, and the evolution of personal motivations towards fulfillment. Liu also dives into themes of self-expression through writing and the impact of modern media visibility on personal identity, while offering insights into his innovative work with AI.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
The Exploited Consultant
Jason Liu made $30,000 by helping a company hire.
However, the recruiter made $160,000, highlighting the importance of focusing on the biggest possible outcome.
insights INSIGHT
The Freedom of Nobody
Jason Liu had a realization on an acid trip: trying too hard to be "somebody" is limiting.
Embracing "nobody-ness" is liberating and allows for greater exploration and experimentation.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
The Power of Iterating
Overthinking planning often leads to worse outcomes than necessary.
Embrace elasticity and abundance; trust your future self to handle unforeseen challenges.
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He spent the first part of his career as a machine learning engineer, mostly at Stitchfix, only to run into a wall: a hand injury that prevented him from being able to write any software for over a year. Fortunately, he's not so one-dimensional, and spent time reclaiming somatic experience in learning to free-dive, train Jiu-Jitsu, and return to the pottery practice he developed in art school, all while reckoning with big questions of ambition, purpose, and self-fulfillment. Since then, he's built a consulting practice helping modern AI companies better implement RAG (retrieval-augmented generation), avoid system design mistakes, hire elite talent, and build for an LLM-centric world. He maintains a large structured output library called Instructor with about 1m downloads per month, writes prolifically (which he does entirely via voice input with LLM editing, as we discuss), tweets semi-manically (he's grown to 30K followers on X with the simplest strategy I've ever heard anyone articulate—tweeting 30K times), and teaches courses on RAG and online consulting. Finally, my man can yap. He was a perfect first guest because he has no shortage of ideas but comes at nearly everything with a beginner's mindset.
Timestamps
(0:00): Intro to Dialectic
(2:55): Brick laying vs. capital allocating
(6:04): Acid Story: Trying so hard to be a somebody
(9:20): Planning, judgement, elasticity, and abundance
(11:28): Ambition and Trusting your future self
(14:20): Fear; Confidence is the memory of success
(18:46): Compounding psychology of risk taking
(21:30): Do you get what you deserve?
(22:32): Playing life on hard mode
(27:22): Agency, Taking Accountability, and becoming essential
(35:58): Consulting and Independent Contracting
(39:52): Ambition and “Manhattan Project” Appeal
(42:30): What are you motivated by?
(44:36): Challenge runs and side quests
(46:39): How to be prolific
(53:46): Mastery, complex games, and creative fingerprints
(57:47): Programming, animation, and style vs. cohesion
(1:07:56): Jason only writes with his voice--with some LLM help
Dialectic