Growth Mindset on Nicolas Nowinski

Keys to a Successful Life: Groundings, Choices, Purpose

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 02:59:39 +0000

I wrote a piece back at the start of the year called 10 Choices For a Better Future that was largely focused on behaviorally based choices, I now realize. Just to be clear there is no big plan here I just write this stuff when I’m thinking about it and have time and have some motivation. And in discussing this with someone I occasionally mentor recently (okay a couple months ago) I realized that while that list was good from a choosing how to behave daily standpoint (which is what I writing it for) it didn’t really provide any thinking how to make choices about your life, and that’s a problem because you could apply everything in that piece and still make stupid unguided choices.

With AI, Written Language Matters Most

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 01:20:19 +0000

I’m not 100% certain I love this article. I made myself write it in less than one hour. It’s core point is supposed to be around written language being the dominant skill going forward which replaces today’s primary skill of knowing how to do stuff (visual skill). I will likely revisit this topic in the future as I think about it more.

For at least the next 5-10 years, professional work is going to become more language-based, not less. We are entering a period where being able to express yourself clearly in writing will be more critical than ever.

History Does Not Predict the Future

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 03:13:07 +0000

History is far less useful than many assume. It creates the illusion of predictability only once outcomes are already known.

10 Choices for a Better Future No Matter What Happens

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:23:53 +0000

I’m not a fan of traditional New Years Resolutions, as I wrote about here, but as we started 2026 I wanted to think even a bit more differently about the problem of improvement. First, I don’t think anyone can know what the future holds - and anyone saying they do know, is lying or delusional or both. And while there may be things that make sense to do now (and you should therefore do them) they won’t necessarily makes sense in six or eight months. So I don’t really think we should be building plans around the fact that it just happens to be January 1st any more than we should around March 8th or June 17th or August 22nd or any other random day. Further, I didn’t want to set a simple achievable goal because simple achievable goals don’t have staying power - they won’t usually be powering you years down the road. I wanted to create something that could be applicable forever (in theory) and wasn’t situation dependent, since I don’t know what the future holds.

The Human Blind Spot Around Non-Deterministic Machines

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 15:35:50 +0000

Why LLM’s will always make mistakes and we shouldn’t call them hallucinations

I saw a tweet from Paul Graham a while back about how as LLMs become better their hallucinations will become more convincing. And it makes sense, a smart confident person saying something wrong often sounds more reliable than a less confident person saying the right thing timidly. Even more so, as you get good answers from the smart confident person you become more trustworthy and are less likely to question and double-check their future answers. That’s both a reality of and defect of human thinking.

Building a Simple Game or Why AI is the Future of Software Development

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 21:45:27 +0000

I’ve been using GitHub Copilot, Claude, and ChatGPT to help me code for a couple of years now. But AI has always been in the assistant role – I was the one in the driver’s seat, asking technical questions or letting GitHub Copilot generate sections of code based on what I was writing. It makes you a more productive developer because it’s faster than Googling, but at the end of the day, I was still the one fundamentally coding, just with better tooling.

The Importance of Moving Averages on COVID-19 Tracking Dashboards

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 01:06:54 +0000

I get annoyed with the way COVID-19 data is reported. There is a lot of emphasis put on the number today and on the aggregate (total cases, total deaths, etc.) These make good headline numbers but don’t do much to help people understand the current trend - are we getting better or worse.

So I built a report using the COVID-19 Tracking Project at The Atlantic’s data feed and Power BI for visualization. You can access the dashboard at bit.ly/NNCOVID19DB. The data is automatically updated several times daily.

2020: Kubernetes, DevSecOps, and Cyber

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 15:01:00 +0000

2020 is going to be the year that Kubernetes (which really means containers) becomes fully ingrained in the enterprise. DevOps becomes the default model for building and deploying enterprise applications (full code, low code, and no code). Enterprise customers will increasingly want both custom apps and COTS products to fit to a Kubernetes and DevOps test/deployment/implementation model. Cybersecurity continues to grow and is a critical part of every conversation, it will be required that security is baked into every layer.

No Gogo: Gain Focus by Flying Without Internet

Sun, 05 Aug 2018 22:13:40 +0000

I used to have a monthly Gogo Wifi subscription. Then I got rid of it. Flying is better for me now, it’s more beneficial because it helps me to focus.

Not long ago I realized that Delta offered free wifi for messaging (iMessage, WhatsApp, etc.) Awesome. Now I can stay in contact but not get sucked into Apps and Internet world. I wish American offered this, but they don’t - so choose Delta if it’s an option.

Normality Is Not For The Future

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 15:30:45 +0000

“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”

― Vincent van Gogh Too many people spend their time seeking normality and the false security it provides. In reality, normality is a front - it makes you think you are safe, while providing no safety net at all. For when you need a safety net, normality will leave you there unprepared and inexperienced to change direction, take the other fork in the road, challenge the status quo, or make change happen.

Drop the New Year’s Resolution try the January Resolution

Sun, 31 Dec 2017 16:57:52 +0000

If you don’t “do” New Year’s resolutions or they work for you or really for any other reason this doesn’t apply to you, please ignore it.

This year skip your New Year’s resolution and make a January 31-Day Resolution, you are much more likely to keep that resolution and positively impact your life. And make it a real resolution — something both measurable and achievable.

Cannot Measure vs Can Measure

You cannot measure success against “losing weight”, “eating healthier”, “drinking less”, “liking your job”, “being a better friend”, etc. You can measure “lose 5 pounds”, “don’t eat processed foods”, “no more than 3 drinks a week”, “apply to three jobs a week”, “call someone you haven’t talked to in 3 months each week” etc. If you cannot measure your goal you cannot know if you are achieving your goal — i.e., it will be just a crap shoot hoping for the outcome you desire.

Gender, Pay, and Promotion in the US Federal Workforce

Mon, 18 Dec 2017 18:40:45 +0000

Interesting original research by Maria Droganova on the historical differences in pay in the US Federal Government (civilian) workforce and how it is impacted by the gender of leadership.

I found the significant impact of supervisor gender to be most interesting. From a manager/leader side it is a strong indicator that unconscious bias is real, and we must actively manage against it in how we manage. From the worker side, it might indicate that you should target having a same-gender manager to maximize rewards. I find that in offices where all supervisors are men, male wages are on average 10.6% higher than female wages. In contrast, in offices where all supervisors are women, the wage gap in favor of men disappears and becomes 3.2% in favor of women due to a 7.1% increase in female wages and a 6.7% decline in male wages. Also, the gender of an executive (a higher level supervisor) has a lesser impact on wages than the gender of regular supervisors. However, the gender of an executive has a greater impact on wages of supervisors than on wages of non-supervisors, which is consistent with the theory of mentorship. On a personal note, I’ve not found this to be my experience. Having had significant time under both male and female direct managers. My experience is just anecdotal and anecdotal doesn’t mean much, always look to the research.