Hey you, jiayou!

Man, has it already been 4 months? 

4 months since taking the big leap of faith to take on a complete different role - to drive AI. 

One that I have limited background in, zero network with and many uncertainties about. 

But yet, I was somehow bolstered by the prospect of being able to learn something from scratch. It’s no doubt daunting to switch field after 10 years but then again, I was telling myself, this is not new, I’ve done this before, eg did mainstream schooling for 10 years then switch to sports school, then did sports for another 10 years and switch to smth completely non-sports related. Every of this transitions at that point of time was “risky” and I wouldn’t know if I’ve made the right choices. The fact that I turned out fine, I suppose it’s not so much of whether the decision was right, but more of whether I believe in my choice and try my best to maximise my path. 

And to ensure that I start this path with my best, I actually did a pep talk via a private journal piece for myself before I officially took on this role. And here’s the part where I wanna put it here as well to serve as an open reminder: 

5 Apr 2025

“What I’ve and should take away is the values and knowledge/skillsets of how to create things from scratch, including creating a good team, a good product. And most importantly, to take away the belief that I can do this because I have done it before, and I can do it all over again, but of course in a different & better way. 

Because after all, all goodness starts from accepting nothingness, exploring the bad, and having the humility to learn and patience to slowly improve. It’s okay to be slow, it’s okay to seem like you’re starting from scratch, cos truth is, you are not, you are still moving.. 

Jiayou chen. The role at htx will not be an easy one. You will be treading in foreign waters, dealing w people who have all very different experiences and expectations from you do. You will be made to feel lousy that you’re incompetent or not good enough, it’s okay. Accept that you’re new, give yourself the time to accept and hear how else you can learn. Your only job that is to learn as much as possible, a new stream of knowledge that you believe will complement your current knowledge of human behaviours”

4 months on, I’ve learnt so much, a lot of different tech terms, how they actually have very interesting names to help explain complicated systems. Learning how to appreciate the interlinks between engineering, tech, architecture and how AI in fact, takes a lot after how human mind functions, eg how we process information to derive at a decision. 

Then, there is also the exposure to a very different culture, one that moves a lot quicker, spans a lot wider and involves a lot more stakeholders from multi-disciplines. It’s like a whole new universe that I just entered into - so amazing yet expansive and it’s constantly evolving. 

It’s like one day I feel like I’ve finally learnt a new tech concept, but next day I realise, holy, it comes with another 10 new different terms and they are all distinct but related to each other. Hahah And then with AI, the pace of innovation is just wow. Every now and then we are hearing releases of new AI functions changing the way we used to work. It’s like imagining psych therapies changing almost every month? This month you’re doing CBT, then next month, someone invented a more formidable CBT plus and you have to quickly upgrade your knowledge to incorporate that into your work. 

And this is how fast tech is moving and because of how progressive tech is, I’ve experienced first hand its immense ability to revolutionize how we work. 

Ngl, this learning curve is steep, with the additions of constant moving targets, there are indeed many times where I feel lousy and incompetent, always wondering what else can I do better as there’s simply too much that I don’t and wouldn’t know. 

But I suppose, rather than just questioning myself and mopping over the lousy times (which I alr did 😔), it’s probably more effective to do smth about it by going back to the basics - Read more, learn more, ask more and DO more. 

And I thought to have this post, for reminder. 

Jiayou chen, maximise this path!