How to double your impact in any presentation
This morning I ran the kickoff call for our third AI Engineering Challenge cohort. Ten people on the call. DevOps engineers, cloud architects, a physicist, a cybersecurity pro, a Java developer at Adobe. Different countries, different backgrounds. I walked them through the project they’ll be building over the next 6 weeks — their digital twin. […]
The 5-point checklist we give our challengers
So we’re running a 6-Week AI Project Challenge. The first cohort is 3 weeks in, i.e. half-way. I had a call with them yesterday, and I noticed something. The people making progress? It’s not about their background. We have engineers, analysts, career changers. It’s not about coding ability. Some are fluent in Python. Some are […]
AI won’t take your job (if you do this)
Most people think about AI wrong. They see automation. Fewer workers. Job cuts. And that’s terrifying — if that’s the only way to think about it. But there’s another way: augmentation. Not AI replacing you. AI amplifying you. Same number of workers. More output. Better work. Here’s why augmentation wins: 1. Adoption. When companies push […]
Two signals that get you hired
I got a spam email this morning. A staffing agency pitching their AI talent services. I almost deleted it. But then I looked closer. These cold email agencies do their research. They know what makes companies respond. They’ve tested thousands of messages. So what did they lead with? Speed. Two of their three bullet points […]
5 fixes for your stuck brain
In my previous post I shared what surprised me on our challenge kickoff calls. Twenty people. Smart. Motivated. Stuck. Not because of skills or resources — because of psychology. (Missed it? Read it here.) Today: the fixes I gave them. 1. Identify your saboteurs. What stopped you last time? Netflix? Perfectionism? Shiny object syndrome? Write […]
“I don’t know why I stopped”
This week I ran two onboarding calls for our new 6-week AI challenge. Twenty people. All smart. All motivated. I asked each person: “Why did you join?” I expected answers about skills. About AI. About career goals. Instead, I heard this (exact quotes): – “I took a course a year ago. Haven’t made progress since. […]
But is it a real project?
A reader replied to me last week: “Are side projects even real? Won’t recruiters dismiss them as toy projects? Feels like a Catch-22.” Here’s what you’re missing: There are unlimited companies out there. Yes, Google wants team projects. Amazon wants 5 years of experience. Meta wants a PhD. But Google, Amazon, and Meta are not […]
Learn through building
Most people learn like this: Course → Course → Course → “Now I’m ready to build something” We’re seeing the fastest learners flip it: Project → Learn what’s needed → Project → Learn what’s needed They learn through building, not before building Sounds obvious. But watch what happens in practice: Someone wants to learn AI. […]
Experience is a proxy
Recruiters use experience as a proxy. They don’t actually care how many years you’ve worked somewhere. What they care about is: can you do the job? But they can’t know that from a resume. So they use proxies = signals that predict whether you’ll deliver results. Years of experience is one proxy. But it’s not […]
Work backwards
Today I had a call with one of our PRO members. Let’s call him James. James wants a job in data science. He’s been studying for months. Courses, certifications, tutorials. 30 minutes a day, sometimes more. But something’s off. He keeps asking: “Am I learning the right thing?” That question is killing his progress. Here’s […]