this break has been a blur. i sleep in too much, i reply to emails and it's lunch, and after lunch i feel dizzy and lethargic, and the inertia to stay home is overpowering. i was close to cancelling but something drove me to go anyways. i'm in sf, i have to do things that makes me feel uncomfortable.

i initially wanted to meet S just to chat and learn about what he does, but someone i lost my abilities to ask questions and i was feeling insecure the entire time about not being interesting enough to talk to. halfway into the conversation, Th showed up and things lightened up a bit for me. they're both interesting people passionate about notion, it was infectious. i would love to be so close to the product where my startup ideas are generated from what i do, and can be fed back into what i'm already working on. and watching Th talk about the problems he's working on and feeling excited about how to solve them was cool. it intimidated me that i couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying, but that meant i'm in the right place. search is an interesting problem to tackle, especially when it scales to trillions (of blocks). i find it funny how my blog chunk, embed, and search, albeit at a much smaller scale, is also applied at notion. i'm now hoping this chat ends up being an interview. working at notion would be fun. and i like fun.

a few lessons that i will bring into my next chats or meetups with people. stop talking about yourself or giving opinions on things you have no experience about, ask questions instead, be curious about the person, and NEVER EVER say anything negative. i talked about sam altman and his investments in AI for some reason. i cringed at myself. i've read so many articles about how to have good conversations, that it's hard to remember them without putting it into practice. next, do a bit more research before meeting someone, especially about the company as well. this is a good way to show your interest in their work and helps them gauge how much of a fit you are for the company, if the goal is to get your foot in the door. and if all else fails, and you can't think about anything, just say "tell me more!" or ask "what have you been thinking about lately?" and "what is your dream?"