How I Try to Stay Relevant When Everything Is Changing

One challenge of working in the technology industry is the sheer pace of change. There is always a new model, architecture, company, or idea to understand.
For the last 30 years, I’ve made learning part of my daily routine.
My approach is simple.

I pick a topic I want to understand deeply. I break the topic into smaller daily topics. Those chunks aren’t fixed in advance; they evolve as I learn, discover new questions, and identify areas where I want to go deeper. I usually spend 30 minutes learning in the morning, let the ideas swirl around during the day, and come back for another 30 minutes at night.

I roughly split my learning 50/50. Half is curiosity-driven. Recently, that has meant topics like AI model distillation, open-weight models, and model architecture.

The other half comes from my work with product marketing clients—things I need to understand to help them. Right now, I’m digging into Databricks architecture and how it compares with other data management products. Or Gen AI firewalls.

I also learn while driving or walking through podcasts like The a16z Show, Odd Lots, Fresh Air, The Economist, How I Built This, Empire, and Lenny’s Podcast.

And I’m learning in another unexpected way: watching my daughter launch and run her startup. It has taught me a lot about how startup CEOs think—making decisions with incomplete information, balancing risk and opportunity on a different scale, and sometimes making gutsy calls. (https://lnkd.in/g9-jSskt)

Every few months, I also try to build something. My last project was an LLM-powered cybersecurity maturity assessment, which forced me to learn how to build a RAG application from scratch.

I’ve come to believe: Reading helps you understand something. Building forces you to understand it.

I’ve used some version of this approach for 30 years. The tools have changed—library books, magazines, and Gartner articles have given way to LLMs, podcasts, and online subscriptions.

But the habit hasn’t changed : Pick something important. Go deep. Stay curious. Keep learning.