Why I teach Python before LangChain
Anyone can wire together an AI agent with a framework in an afternoon. Almost none of them can fix it when it breaks. When I design how people learn AI engineering, I make a choice that frustrates some of them at first: we start with first principles in plain Python. Before LangChain. Before the agent […]
Why You’re Learning AI Slowly (And 3 Ways to Fix It)
I’ve watched hundreds of people learn AI engineering. The ones who break through always have the same three things — and none of them is talent. Progress in this field is rarely steady. Most people plateau for months, then suddenly leap (or don’t…). When I look at who’s leaping, the same three ingredients show up […]
How AI Skills Close a $100k Engineering Pay Gap
Anita (name changed for privacy) is one of the sharpest engineers I’ve spoken to lately. She’s also quietly underpaid — and she knows it. We got talking about money. She earns around $200k. Solid, on paper. But for her level, the market pays closer to $300k. She’s known this for months. She’s still in the […]
I burned 90% of my best-AI access on purpose
I pushed my usage of the world’s most powerful AI model to 90% this week — on purpose. Because today, it leaves my subscription. For a short window, Fable 5 (the most capable model available) was included in the Claude plan. As of today it moves to usage-based pricing, because demand is outpacing what Anthropic […]
How MCP Servers Actually Work
Last week I hosted an MCP workshop. Here’s what you MUST know about MCP. You assume an MCP server lives somewhere out on the internet, and you just connect to it. But most of the time, you launch the server yourself — right on your own machine. Once that clicks, the whole protocol makes sense. […]
How to Get Hired as an AI Engineer
“What’s the difference between a competent AI engineer and one you’d actually hire?” Jackie, one of our members, asked me this question today. Here’s what I told her. Competence is the entry ticket. The real differentiator is demonstrated curiosity. Why? This field changes faster than almost any other. If you’re competent today, I can’t assume […]
Can you actually trust AI with your data?
Yesterday, I saved my friend from AI. We were analyzing a workplace survey. 30+ questions, two groups of people. He was presenting it to 200 people at work the next day. We dropped the data into an LLM, asked it to run the analysis and build a presentation. Minutes later: done. Polished. Convincing. Then we […]
The company that banned AI
A well-known American clothing brand just banned AI. All of it. Over 2,000 employees. One approved tool: Microsoft Copilot chat. No Claude Code, no Claude, no ChatGPT, no Cursor, no agents. Nothing. No AI — for anyone. I heard this from Maya (name changed for privacy), a senior software engineer there. At a recent company […]
Your colleagues hating AI is good news
“I’ve become rather unpopular because of AI.” That’s what Marcus (name changed for privacy) told me recently. He works in credit risk modeling at a large, well-known bank. He joined our challenge, started learning AI, and did what enthusiastic people do: he shared what he was learning and the wins he was having. His department […]
AI won’t replace you. These people will.
I’ve been running the AI Project Challenge for 3 months. Recently we tested Instagram ads to reach new audiences. We filled an entire cohort with 20-year-olds. (No surprise — that’s where they hang out.) When I got on the call with them, I was struck by their drive. These aren’t career-switchers trying to stay relevant. […]