New year, New me

Introduction

The start of each year helps to drive forward new resolutions to a hopefully new and improved version of ourselves. However this time January 1st has a little more of a concrete step forward for myself, about 3 weeks ago I joined a new organization at the center of Artificial Intellegence, Large Language Models, and the use of AI Agents in real world scenarios. My experience thus far in the industry has been a great mix of professional applications, hobbyist side quests, and some consulting work that has applied LLM’s to their absolute limits. Taking these varied experiences and now sitting at the head of an organization at the center of this part of the industry is overwhelming and exciting all at the same time. That said, this post will talk less about the newness of technological advancements in my work but more about how I’m leveraging AI for my onramping into a new organization, system, and technological stack.

What am I working with:

  • Meeting notes, meeting notes, meeting notes (stored mainly in Google Docs)
  • Cursor
  • ChatGPT
    • Connected to Drive, GitHub, Google Calendar, and Gmail
  • Direct access to relevant code bases

Daily flow

I’ve utilized ChatGPT as my daily assistant in the morning and tutor in the afternoon. Both during my prep time for the day as well as the end of my day I’m utilizing the voice mode on ChatGPT. Unfortunately the voice assistant capabilities are going away on the desktop version so I’ve been leveraging the web client. While not my favorite it works.

In the morning I’ll ask my custom GPT to review meetings from yesterday, bubble up any action items that I haven’t marked as completed yet from each of my meeting notes, and help me prep for any meetings I have today. This includes asking it to come up with questions, areas of focus, and other items that might be helpful for me as I onboard.

During the day I’ll leverage ChatGPT to help me understand codebases I’m diving into, explain architectural decisions I’m encountering, and help me write code that aligns with the patterns and conventions of the new codebase. When I’m stuck on a concept or need to understand how a particular system works, I’ll paste relevant code or documentation into ChatGPT and ask it to explain it in the context of what I’m trying to accomplish.

In the afternoon, I’ll use voice mode to debrief my day. I’ll talk through what I learned, what questions I still have, and what I want to focus on tomorrow. ChatGPT helps me synthesize the information, identify patterns, and create a plan for the next day.

Key Learnings

The Power of Context

One of the most valuable aspects of using ChatGPT with integrations is the context it has access to. By connecting it to my Drive, Calendar, and Gmail, it can help me connect dots between meetings, emails, and documents that I might miss on my own. This has been particularly helpful when trying to understand the “why” behind decisions or when trying to piece together the history of a project.

Cursor as a Coding Companion

While ChatGPT helps me understand the big picture, Cursor has been invaluable for learning and understanding the codebase. As an engineering leader, it’s less important for me to contribute code directly. However, Cursor helps me answer questions by exploring the codebase myself, rather than always needing to ask an engineer.

Voice Mode for Reflection

The voice mode feature has been a game-changer for me. There’s something about speaking my thoughts out loud that helps me process information differently than typing. It’s also much faster for me to debrief my day verbally than to type everything out. The fact that it’s going away from the desktop version is disappointing, but I’m making do with the web client.

Challenges and Limitations

Of course, this approach isn’t perfect. AI tools can sometimes hallucinate or misunderstand context, so I always verify important information. There’s also a learning curve in figuring out how to prompt effectively to get the most value. And while these tools are powerful, they can’t replace the value of direct conversations with teammates and building relationships.

Conclusion

As I continue to onboard into this new role, I’m finding that AI tools aren’t just nice-to-haves—they’re becoming essential parts of my workflow. They’re helping me ramp up faster, stay organized, and make connections I might otherwise miss. But more importantly, they’re freeing up my mental capacity to focus on the things that truly matter: understanding the business, building relationships, and making meaningful contributions.

The “new year, new me” isn’t just about resolutions, it’s about embracing new tools and workflows that help me be more effective. And in a role centered around AI, it feels fitting to be using these tools to their fullest potential.

If you’re starting a new role or project, I’d encourage you to think about how AI tools might help you onboard more effectively. Whether it’s using ChatGPT to synthesize meeting notes, Cursor to understand codebases, or any other AI tool that fits your workflow, there’s likely a way to leverage AI to accelerate your learning curve.