Mayur Mahajan

Customer discovery conversations at 36000 ft ✈️ Person sitting next to me was battling problems with delayed feedback -- iterating on ML solutions become even harder when the feedback loop is ~6 months; e.g. $ lending decisions ended up discussing few options around: - starting with periodic retraining on historic data - using proxy metrics for quicker feedback - consider online learning with delayed updates (eg SGD with delayed update) - survival analysis to model time-to-event outcomes (e.g. survival models treat these as censored observations) - using reward shaping Spending a week in San Francisco 🌉

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A 40-year-old engineering manager was laid off by the very algorithm he once helped code to optimize layoffs. Back then, he urged everyone to "respect the algorithm" — until it turned on him. He had given 11 years to the company, working so hard that he developed diabetes. When it was someone else, it was just business. When it was him, it felt like betrayal. This dramatized story from the Chinese film Upstream isn’t far from reality. Algorithms shape more of our lives than we realize, for both gig and tech workers. These decisions aren’t just about money — they’re also about dignity. Sometimes, a little kindness makes all the difference. If someone you know once flaunted their Meta perks — gourmet meals, company swag — but is now laid off, resist saying, “Now who has the last laugh?” (Yes, I’ve seen that written before.) Losing a job is hard enough without an audience keeping score. I once spent a day shadowing a Gojek rider, from daybreak to after sunset, to understand her life. She had left a white-collar, air-conditioned job for the freedom of the road. Her goal was to save enough to run her own fashion e-commerce store. At lunch, she invited us into her tiny rented room — where I saw not just resilience, but self-respect. She took pride in her work, in her future, in herself. As a kid, I lived in cramped spaces too. For a while I slept under the dining table instead of a bed. But I never felt ashamed — because no one made me feel that way. It was an adventure. In a world where capitalism optimizes relentlessly, we don’t have to. If we can give — money, time, small gestures — we should. If we can’t, we can still give respect. A tip for a delivery rider or a taxi driver. A Chinese New Year red packet for the garbage disposal crew. A cold Coke to an e-commerce courier on a scorching day. A box of donuts for the hotel front desk staff. The smiles of surprise you get in return? They’re worth it. I’ve lost my temper at service staff over trivial things many more times than I’d like to admit. But I try to do better — to pause before reacting, to not let the stimulus of frustration turn into rudeness. (Credit to Susan David’s Emotional Agility book for articulating this clearly.) Apps may reduce a delivery rider to an ETA. Algorithms may bind us to the calculation of an EBITDA. Labels like ‘customer’ and ‘staff’ can trick us into thinking certain behavior is acceptable. But the distance between us doesn’t have to be so wide. Even as the world gets more complex, we can still choose to see each other. Say thank you. Offer help. Show respect.

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