Month: January 2026

Learn In Public – week 04

A sense of humor is one of the most underestimated leadership skills

Following the recommendation in “The Great CEO Within” I listened to “The One Minute Manager”. In one of the chapters, they mention the usage of Humor as a leadership tool. It is not about becoming a comedian but rather showing up as humans. Humor is a powerful and often overlooked tool.
Why it matters:

  • Humor helps build trust and rapport – people are more likely to engage and collaborate when they feel comfortable and connected.
  • It can reduce stress and tension, boosting well-being and performance.
  • Humor makes leaders more approachable and memorable, signaling confidence and emotional intelligence.
  • Shared laughter fosters psychological safety, helping teams voice ideas and take risks.

Of course, balance is key – humor should complement clarity and respect, not replace them. Too many jokes or poorly timed humor can actually backfire, so think of it as a strategic leadership tool, not a default setting. It’s about knowing when a light moment can lower defenses, reset the room, or simply remind everyone that work is done by humans, not robots.

Related resources –

Tokens as Currency

Half-baked thought: Tokens will become currency.

Right now, the direction is obvious – more money buys more tokens.

But what if, in the near future, tokens themselves become a medium of exchange?

Consider this:

  • Microsoft is allocating tokens to support the maintenance of open-source projects.
  • Companies granting tokens in exchange for using their tools or infrastructure.
  • Open-source maintainers receiving donations in tokens instead of (or alongside) cash.
  • Platforms enabling distributed token usage across multiple accounts, almost like a modern SETI@home
  • Gift cards for Anthropic.

In other words, tokens are not just consumption units, but are tradable, transferable assets within an ecosystem.

Of course, this is far from trivial. Privacy, security, incentive alignment, and implementation complexity are all major hurdles.

But if I had to place one slightly outrageous bet for 2026, it would be movement in this direction.

Are we ready to start thinking of tokens as something you can “round up and donate”?

Learn in Public – week 03

I finished listening to “The Great CEO Within” by Matt Mochary and Alex MacCaw. A few thoughts:

1️⃣ A tactical cheat sheet
I view the book as a tactical cheat sheet: short, practical chapters you can skim for ideas. It’s great for quick exposure, and most chapters include references for deeper dives. For me, this book has excellent value for time.

2️⃣ Revisit in the LLM era
Two well-known ideas in the book are Getting Things Done and Inbox Zero.
Inbox-zero and productivity advice hit differently today. With LLMs helping triage emails, summarize threads, and highlight what actually matters, the principles remain the same – but the execution is far more automated.

3️⃣ Optimizing meetings
TL;DR: come prepared, use written communication in advance, and don’t deviate from the planned agenda.
The authors suggest holding all meetings, including 1:1s, on the same day. From my experience, for 1:1s that go beyond status updates and require real attention (e.g., feedback), stacking too many of them on the same day can be overwhelming for most people.

4️⃣ “The first thing to optimize is yourself”
One of my favorite quotes from the book. It emphasizes founders’ and leaders’ health, mental and physical, something that has historically been overlooked. A good reminder that sustainable leadership starts with managing your own energy.

The book also mentions principles of conscious leadership: listening to feedback and acting on it, and not being afraid to make (and admit) mistakes.
This week, I also read a blog titled “Reflection is a Crucial Leadership Skill”, which made these ideas more actionable and down-to-earth.

What should I read next?

Learn in Public – week 02

I started this week with deeplearning.ai’s course on semantic caching, created in collaboration with Redis. That sent me down a rabbit hole, exploring different LLM caching strategies and the products that support them.

One such product is AWS Bedrock Prompt Caching. If large parts of your prompts are static (specifically, the prefixes), retokenizing the prefix on every request is a waste of time and money. Prompt or context caching lets you process the prefix once and store it, reducing costs and improving performance.

Sounds great, right? Let’s check the pricing mode. If your requests are more than 5 minutes apart, your cache will be cleared. If your requests are short, caching won’t be activated; if the cache hit rate is low, you will pay an extra, non-usage-based premium for cache writes. I highly recommend reading the “How Much Does Bedrock Prompt Caching Cost?” section in the article “Amazon Bedrock Prompt Caching”.

AI Just Took a Big Step Into Digital Health

🚀 AI is moving deeper into digital health – over the past week, both OpenAI and Anthropic have introduced major features aimed at bringing powerful AI capabilities into healthcare and life sciences. Links in the first comment

🔹 OpenAI: ChatGPT Health
 OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Health, a dedicated health experience that lets users securely connect their medical records and wellness app data (e.g., Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal) to get more informed insights about their health and wellness. The feature is designed to help people better interpret test results, prepare for doctor visits, and navigate everyday health questions — not replace clinicians. Enhanced privacy protections ensure that health chats and data remain isolated and encrypted, and that users retain full control over connections and data.

🔹 Anthropic: Claude for Healthcare & Life Sciences
Following an earlier announcement regarding Claude for Life Sciences, Anthropic introduced Claude for Healthcare alongside expanded life science capabilities, bringing its Claude AI into regulated medical and scientific use cases. This includes HIPAA-ready infrastructure and connectors to industry data sources (like CMS coverage rules, ICD-10 codes, and NPI registries) to support tasks such as prior authorizations, claims management, and clinical documentation. Claude can also summarize medical histories and explain test results in plain language. On the life sciences side, new integrations with clinical trial, preprint, and bioinformatics platforms aim to accelerate research workflows and regulatory documentation.

Both announcements show the AI industry racing into digital health with different focus areas. OpenAI’s move toward personalized health guidance for individuals complements Anthropic’s broader, enterprise-oriented tools for providers and researchers. Together, they raise exciting possibilities and important questions about regulatory standards, data privacy, and the role of AI in care delivery.

Bonus – GrantFlow – a grant management platform that automates discovery, planning, and application workflows for researchers and institutions.