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My Book

I wrote a book, Peculiar: Lessons from Amazon’s Leadership Principles! Most companies want to be like Amazon but can’t figure out why their attempts fall short. My book pulls back the curtain on how Amazon actually works — from the Leadership Principles that drive its culture to the business wisdom you can apply anywhere. Peculiar is a practical, human, and humorous guide to one of the world’s most fascinating companies.
Buy it at Amazon.

My Substack

I’ve created a Substack newsletter, AI for Poets, about using AI to be more human. It’s not about mastering the tools or keeping up with the hype. Rather, it’s about what happens when you actually sit down and play with AI, and what it reveals about language, creativity, and how we think. Come explore with me.
Subscribe at aiforpoets.substack.com.

About Me

I’m a devoted husband and father to an awesome family. For work, I’m currently an Executive Director at JP Morgan Chase focusing on internal tools to help our technology organization be more effective. I’m a Product Manager who looks at the goals of the business and uses technology to deliver those business and customer goals. In the past, I’ve driven transformational change at Citi, AIG, and Amazon Web Services. For more information about what I do at work, please visit my LinkedIn profile.

My Blog

I collect stories. There are so many amazing things happening every day. I need to spend some time writing them down before they slip away. Some of these ideas are so powerful that they hit me like a bolt of lightning. It’s my job to capture that lighting and put it in a bottle to share it with you. I want to capture that feeling that Archimedes had when he had an insight sitting in the bathtub screamed “Eureka!” and ran naked down the street. I know that I’ll rarely if ever make it there, but that won’t keep me from trying!

Here’s some of my latest posts:

And here are some of my posts about AI and ChatGPT:

Blog Highlights

Here are some highlights from 2024

One of my favorite topics for the last few years is writing about AI. I explored it from a number of different perspectives:

Exploring ChatGPT’s “Mind”: I wrote about how ChatGPT seems to “think” in a way oddly similar to humans. I also also explored how good AI is at pretending that it’s human, and how it “feels” about the deception. On a lighter note, I let ChatGPT channel the imagination of a 7-year-old to create playful excuses for not brushing its teeth—showing a concerned mom how her child wasn’t lying about not brushing her teeth, just confabulating.
Some Ways I’ve Used ChatGPT: I turned it into a museum tour guide and used it as an illustrator for my blog posts.
How ChatGPT Differs from Standard Computing: I investigated how ChatGPT reframes basic computing concepts, like exploring how small I can compress an idea and examining how AI security combines computer security and social engineering.
Letting ChatGPT Just Be Itself: Sometimes, I just let ChatGPT have fun, whether bragging about its facility with words compared to mere mortals or when it waxes philosophical about how it will be central to everyone’s future lives.

ChatGPT has helped me quickly turn ideas into complete blog posts and respond in real-time to things I’ve encountered. This year, it made it easier to explore a range of interesting topics like:

Walking through the office cafeteria, I noticed a new brand of iced tea that bore a striking resemblance to Honest Tea. Curious, I did some quick research and discovered that after Coca-Cola discontinued Honest Tea, its founders recreated the brand as Just Ice Tea.
Another time, while listening to the Acquired podcast, I was struck by how Howard Schultz, uniquely among corporate leaders, does not want his company, Starbucks, to be a tech company.
I also explored how large drugstore chains, once considered untouchable by online retailers, are now being driven out of business by Amazon.

With ChatGPT, I learned to capture the small, wonderful moments of my life in writing. It’s like catching a lightning bug in a jar—preserving fleeting beauty to reflect on later. I was able to write about appreciating the sunrise, visiting a classic movie theatre owned by Netflix, and how to turn a nighttime drive into a light show.

Finally, I spent some time writing about self-improvement. Some of my favorite pieces were about the importance of asking for help and practicing self-control. Surprisingly, I even learned a valuable lesson about communication from AI—it’s programmed to respond with honesty, helpfulness, and harmlessness, qualities we humans could aspire to as well.

My Virtual Library

I wanted a place to put all the stuff I think is awesome. Growing up, I always wanted to have a great library in my house. I remembered the excitement when I learned that I could buy the entire collection of The New Yorker in bound volumes and put them in my house. I’d imagined that I would collect great encyclopedias from the past to peruse whenever I pleased. They would live in mahogany bookcases that looked like they’d belonged to JP Morgan. Then I realized that a New York City apartment doesn’t have the space for a physical library. So I did the next best thing. I’ve created a virtual library that includes lots of the things I enjoy, like my favorite books, words, and humor. You can check it out on the menu at the top of the page.