Naidoo Notes

What I Learnt From Running 5km Every Day for 100 Days

As I laced up for my first 5km run under the warm South African sun, I couldn't help but feel daunted by the prospect of 99 more runs over the next 99 days. The challenge, introduced by Ben, our CEO and Founder at BX, was not just a

February 19, 2024 - 5 min read

10 Principles for a Game-changing 2024

In June 2022, after nearly 8 years as Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Unibuddy and successfully growing it to a market capitalization of over $100 million, I decided to move to a pure board member role and remove myself from the day to day operations. Over the past 18

December 31, 2023 - 4 min read

AI won't replace you - a person using LangChain will

The truth is that AI won't replace you - a person using AI, specifically frameworks like LangChain, will. AI is a tool, and like any tool, it requires someone to use it effectively. The ability to use generative AI tools is a game-changer for anyone in practically any industry.

September 15, 2023 - 6 min read

Embracing the Power of 1% Gains: The Power of Thinking Small

Intro It's tempting to want to make big changes to your life, career, diet, routine or anything else that you're unhappy with or want to improve. I'm going to put forward an argument that thinking small can lead to more transformation than thinking big.

May 31, 2023 - 4 min read

Living at the Edge of your Comfort Zone: How to Identify Local Maxima in Your Career

“Don't fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” — Bruce Lee — Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) November 11, 2020 Recently, I've been reflecting mainly on three things: 1. Understanding my "Circle of Competence" (as Warren

March 31, 2023 - 4 min read

Perfection by Subtraction: An operational playbook to identify flawed systems in your company (and life)

Let's add this tool. Let's add this process. Let's add this meeting. Let's hire more people. Let's add this department. Add. Add. Add. Sounds familiar? I've found that as startups grow they become bloated and inefficient if all

February 05, 2023 - 5 min read

ChatGPT is a Glorified Summarizer - Here's Why

Over the past few weeks, unless you've been living under a rock, you might have noticed people across Twitter and other social media talking about the new AI chatbot, ChatGPT, which was released by OpenAI a few weeks ago. In the short time it's been out,

December 16, 2022 - 3 min read

Using a Responsibility Knowledge Base to Manage Cognitive Load in Your Team

Cognitive overload is a state of mind where team members are so overloaded with cognitive tasks that they cannot complete them effectively

October 08, 2022 - 4 min read

Building Resilience & Psychological Safety in Engineering Teams

💡This post is adapted from a conference talk that I've given multiple times, originally at the 0111 CTO Conference in San Diego, California in 2021. It's been revised and updated many times - this is the latest version which I keep up to date. Being an

March 21, 2022 - 12 min read