Everyone is an idiot, especially me
Growing up, I had Asian parents so I was taught I was an idiot. Objectively, as a 4 year old, this is true. A 4 year old’s model for the world is woefully inadequate for the reason that many probably want to be giraffes and think the meaning of life is to pick one’s nose. Fortunately, this mentality has stuck with me through life and I find it a useful mental model. In the summer of 2010, the iPhone had been out for ~3 years, the mobile boom was starting, Uber had just been founded but at the time had not been ubiquitous. Along highway 101, Cisco advertisements, Intel’s headquarters and the shining California sun. It was really my first time spending any serious time in the US (I am Canadian). At the time I was an electrical engineering student and I had looked up to all of the world changing history that had been made there. The industrialization of the transistor, the invention of the mouse, user interfaces… there are quite literally millions of innovations that have been made in th