Utilizing AI to assist in EPD and non-EPD functions & how curiosity can drive organizational change w/ Ali Dasdan #270

Jerry Li (0:02)

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Ali Dasdan (0:51)

Even in the beginning, Jerry, as you know, computer science was not about just coding, right? Coding was a tool for a purpose. The fact that you have computer science people and computer science problems, as well as systems in many different areas of industry, what you learn is how to solve a problem. And you can apply to different domains, right? I don't think it's going to change, right? In the end, you are solving a customer problem or a human problem or whatever that is. It's just that now with the new tools, instead of just saying, give me something, I'm just going to code. If the coding is easy, then you have to up-level yourself to, am I solving the right problem? How do I know this is the right problem? How do you even verify this? How do you know this is the right solution, right? Et cetera, et cetera. More and more writing that brings you back to what I felt like what the computer science was for. Again, if it's about problem solving, we are going to be solving more problems and solving them faster. But at the same time, we are still doing that fundamental work.

Patrick Gallagher (1:45)

Hello and welcome to The Engineering Leadership Podcast, brought to you by ELC, the engineering leadership community.

Jerry Li (1:52)

I'm Jerry Li, founder of ELC.

Patrick Gallagher (1:54)

I'm Patrick Gallagher, and we're your hosts. Our show shares the most critical perspectives, habits, and examples of great software engineering leaders to help evolve leadership in the tech industry.

Jerry Li (2:06)

Hey, Alki. Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and speak on our show. There's so many things I want to learn from you today and really excited for the opportunity to learn from you and also your audience at Dropbox. To get started, can you tell us a little more about your background and your role at Dropbox?

Ali Dasdan (2:23)

Well, thanks for having me, Jerry. I'm Ali Dasdan, CTO at Dropbox. I've been over here for about 18 months. I've been in the business close to 30 years, worked in all kinds of industries, small, large, changed my industry multiple times, lots of learning, have done lots of transformations.

Yeah, that's where I am.

Jerry Li (2:41)

Great, starting sweet.

One thing I'm really curious about from your experience is you have done a lot of research and take that into organization you're part of. Maybe we can start deeming to that. Why keep publishing research as CTO?

Ali Dasdan (2:55)

I've been having this disease of curiosity.

So from childhood, I always try to keep this on the side and learn. If you look at my research, they're also all in different areas. So as I was changing my industry, I get pretty excited about a new area. I try to learn it from scratch and try to catch up on the research side, industry knowledge side, of course, internal company knowledge side. And it gives me lots of ideas to take it to the next level. Since I have a research background, I usually look at it from that perspective. I'm not scared of looking at the problem. It doesn't matter how gnarly it is or how vague it is or difficult it is. So it just keeps going on like that. As a result, I ended up doing that research on the side. And again, because of the research experience, I also published these on the side. I don't want to deal with reviews and all that. I usually publish on archive. But like you said, Jerry, basically, what is nice about this is first, it gets me up to speed really fast in a new industry or a new company. But also it gives you an opportunity for me to take a step back and look at from a wider angle to what I'm dealing with and also to see if I can carry anything to this new company and anything could be useful. Sometimes as a result of those, I get to ask simple questions, but also sometimes good questions in the beginning because you come with not much baggage. People who have been in that industry or company, they don't see it the way that you are seeing it. So all of these are combined, pretty useful.