Carragee Consulting

Andrew Ng is my neighbor

How to be an innovator, article reflection

When I first moved to Palo Alto I saw Andrew Ng and chemistry laureate Carolyn Bertozzi on Cal Ave both while biking back from daycare in the same week.

I’ve been awestruck and felt imposter syndrome here that harkens back to high school when I felt I couldn’t hang with the intellect of my cohort.

Living on the fringe of Stanford’s campus prompted me to take my first R course. It reintroduced me to a high school friend and his kids. I’ve gotten to row on the Bay with Pelicans and harbor seals. It’s beautiful and has a lot of upside I do appreciate.

The cost of living here, and the unaffordability of home ownership supports the feelings of inadequacy and pressure to work all the time and to attempt to tackle big problems.

On 101 there is a billboard that says 1:3 kids is exposed to toxic stress here.

The mental health techniques required to try to constructively channel the energy, resources and wisdom of the residents here, without falling victim to the hedonic treadmill or unconstructive social benchmarks don’t come naturally to me.

Something from Ngs recent piece in MITs technology review struck me as useful here: that the best minds still generate unworkable ideas and benefit from collaboration.

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“In my younger days, I faced a lot of skepticism when starting most of the projects that ultimately proved to be successful. …

As I became more experienced, I found that more and more people would agree with whatever I said, and that was even more worrying….

Luckily, these days I am surrounded by people who will tell me when they think I’m doing
something dumb!”
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When nurses feel empowered to question Drs there are better patient outcomes and fewer errors.

Smart people do dumb things, and the smartest ones are open to criticism and willing to consider changing their approaches. They actually seek out counterpoint as part of their method of learning.

We can both respect someone and challenge their authority and ideas, but doing so productively is challenging and can take courage.