There's a particular kind of career advice that sounds almost too simple to matter, until it ends up quietly running your whole life. Perplexity AI founder Aravind Srinivas's video is exactly that kind of moment, crediting a short exchange with OpenAI's Sam Altman for the confidence that eventually pushed him toward building one of the most talked-about AI companies in the world.
The Advice: Stop Chasing, Start Noticing
According to Srinivas, he once put a fairly direct question to Altman: how should someone figure out what to actually build a career around? Altman's reply wasn't a motivational speech. It was closer to a rule of thumb, go after the things that feel easy to you but seem to trip everyone else up.
No elaborate framework, no five-step plan. Just a nudge to pay attention to where your effort-to-output ratio looks suspiciously good compared to the people around you.
