Hey, Iโm Daniel, and I usually go by Olshansky ๐
My Mission
My mission is to enable every human being to achieve their full potential.
As a 5'7 guy, being an NBA player is not within my potential, nor is it really a goal. But, a lot of other things are.
Whether it’s a lack of capital, focus, intrinstic motivation, neural plasticity, a physical accident, insufficient time, misalignment of priorities, or anything else, everyone should be able to achieve their full potential if they want to.
Mantras I live by
I live by a few mantras:
- Anything can be learnt and mastered with enough time, effort and focus.
- Figure out what you want-to do instead of what you want-to want-to do. Now do it.
- Learn your limit, push yourself to the limit, up your limit. Rinse and repeat.
- Live a life such that your future self inspires your present self.
- Expertise is building a toolbox of skills. Experience is having the intuition of knowing which tool to use.
- Strive to create generational impact while staying kind to the people around you.
Where am I from?
Born in ๐ท๐บ Moscow, grew up in ๐ฎ๐ฑ, and spent my formative years in ๐จ๐ฆ before moving to the ๐บ๐ธ to pursue my career.
I’m not a nomad, but I do move around a lot, so I’d classify my nationality as a North American Russian Jew.
That said, I connect with people and ideas rather than geographies or backgrounds.
What drives me?
Iโm a lifelong learner ๐งโ๐ with a goal of creating generational impact.
Founders and generational brands inspire me to do my best work. I need to do the same for future generations.
How do we do it? Human relationships. Personal connections. Surrounding yourself with the best people. Being in the right environment at the right time. Technological breakthroughs. Precise Engineering. Hard work. Operational excellence. Cultivating culture that pushes and enables individuals to do their best work. Finding a balance. Taking a break every once in a while.
Where did I work?
I’ve worked across engineering, research, distributed systems, social, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, crypto and construction.
None of it has (yet) moved the needle on a global scale, but I see all the work up until now as milestones to set me up for the future.of.
- 2010 - 2014: University of Toronto; Engineering Science; Nฮจ 1T4
- 2014 - 2015: Twitter; I worked on ๐ฑ and shipped things like Gif Search. I learnt how big corporations operate and what it means to design systems.
- 2016 - 2020: Magic Leap; I helped build a shareable digital world for cross-reality experiences. I learnt how to navigate politics, what too much premature money can do, and how to innovate on the technical front.
- 2020 - 2022: Waymo; I built data science infrastructure for the Planner Eval team. I built intuition around AI, ML, evals and how the smartest people in the world think.
- 2021 - 2022: GetSoils; I built a construction soil marketplace. I learnt how hard it is to sell to old industries.
- 2022 - Present: Grove & Pocket Network; I led a small team and a large ecosystem in the R&D of a blockchain that enables decentralized access to data and API discovery. I learnt that EQ is much more important than IQ when it comes to leadership.
What do I believe is very important?
The mind-body connection.
Training, reflection, writing, building, eating, working, talking, etc… Mastering the mind body connection is so critical.
Being able to train, eat, think or work intuitively is more powerful than anyone believes.
I’m still working on my weaknesses: I burn out, Iโm impatient, I have high standards of myself nad those around me. I’m working on my EQ. I’m somewhere on the spectrum with ADHD, but I can’t do much about that.
The things that bother me most: laziness, incompetence, lack of appreciation, lack of humility.
Who inspires me?
The individual who continues to show me, day in and day out, that there are no bounds to what one can do is Rahul Goel, founder of NordSpace. People say that Jeff Bezos was always able to think long-term (really long term), and I’m privelaged to have a friend who is no different. Whatever you dream, you can do. It won’t be easy, it’ll take time, it’ll be painful, but there is no limit.
If I could have dinner with anyone alive today, it would be with Peter Thiel to discuss all the contrarian thoughts he comes across.
If I could spend a month working with anyone, it would be Elon Musk, to see what intensity is really like.
Other people I learn from and who inspire me on a regular basis:
- Dharmesh Shah โ A big-time hacker
- Tobias Lรผtke - A big-time builder
- John Carmack โ A big-time legend
- Andrej Karpathy โ The clearest thinker
- Vitalik Buterin โ The weirdest thinker
- Ilya Sutskever - A monk at heart
- Mitchell Hashimoto โ Your friendlist open source developer
- Simon Willison โ There’s no better RSS feed
- Stephen Wolfram โ The definition of a polymath in modern times
- Edward Thorp โ Mathematician, investor, and blackjack pioneer
- Richard Feynman โ Physicist, teacher, storyteller
I donโt put any of these people on a pedestalโtheyโre human, flawed, but deeply impactful. I study them because theyโve carved unique paths, thought differently, and created enduring value.
What do I do in my spare time?
- Go to the gym focusing on movement ๐๐ฝ๐คธ๐ช
- Spend time outdoors on short hikes and lakesides ๐ฅพ๐ฒโฐ๐๐
- Reading and writing ๐โ๏ธ
- Tinkering and experiments ๐ค๐จโ๐ป
- Calls and walks ๐๐ถ
- Long dinner conversations ๐ฝ๐ฃ
- Periodically networking at events ๐ค
- Watching Movies & TV shows
What do I want to do more of:
- Take part in improv classes ๐ญ
- Go to comedy clubs ๐ค
- Work on new physical skills ๐คน
- Podcasting ๐
- Reflecting ๐
- Meditating ๐ง
- Executing on my next big idea โก
Some of my favorite quotes
“Humans over machines.”
“Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the future.”
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
“The future is already here, but just not evenly distributed.”
โMost people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.โ โ Bill Gates
Links & Resources
Interesting Content
- Presentations & Talks โ A YouTube playlist of all my talks and presentations
- Publications & Research โ My Google Scholar profile
- Snipd Podcast โ A collection of short-form podcast episodes
Writing
Social
- Reddit โ r/u/Olshansk
- LinkedIn โ Professional profile
- Telegram โ Direct messaging
- Instagram โ Visual updates
- Strava โ Fitness activities and runs
- CV โ Professional resume
Reach Out
I don’t like meetings. I love voice notes. I’m also down to do an adhoc call.
Send me a voice note on WhatsApp or an email to olshansky.daniel@gmail.com.
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