Recently I participated in an AI Bootcamp, created by Dr. Marily Nika and her amazing team. During six weeks, we learned how to use all kinds of the latest AI tools, and vibe-coded to create an agent on our own, getting our hands dirty. It ended with a legit demo-day. I enjoyed it a lot (and my prototype was picked as one of the top 4!).
One of the main reasons I wanted to take this course was to really get a feel for what was possible. I was already using many AI tools not only for my work but also my life stuff. Yet in the wide ocean of AI, I knew I was just snorkeling; I wanted to dive deep into the water to see what’s down there.
After six weeks of vibe-coding, setting up my own repo on GitHub, and creating a second brain with Hermes, etc., here are three things I learned.
Three Takeaways after AI Deep-Dive
Much Less Anxiety/Fear
I don’t feel an unidentifiable fear anymore from the deep murky water. Although I wasn’t following the AI doomsday scenario, there was always some apprehension that I couldn’t really articulate. By directly experiencing what’s possible (and not possible), I felt that apprehension dropped to a much lower level. The old saying—knowledge is power—is so true in this context.
Socrates was right: “Know Thyself (or you shall make slop)!”
One hypothesis I had before taking this bootcamp was that self-awareness matters even more when using AI. What do I mean by this? AI is a great information gatherer/synthesizer and an amazing problem solver. However, who decides what that information and solutions are for? Us.
Knowing what matters and why that matters so much to “us” individually is critical for us to use AI well. Developing my prototype, I felt like I was having two parallel conversations: one with Claude Code and the other with myself. When I couldn’t really articulate to myself “Why does feature X matter in this?”, what Claude created wasn’t what I was envisioning. The more I worked on AI, the clearer it became what I didn’t know (or hadn’t thought through). Socrates’s wisdom—Know Thyself—is critical in the age of AI.
What is Meaningful to Make?
“It only took a week to create this service using AI! - You can do the same thing!” It’s so easy to see these headlines in the news, on social media posts, or from your friends.
Yet, one of the biggest lessons from the bootcamp isn’t about “how to make things fast on Claude or how to make things more efficient with the help of Hermes” but about contemplating “what is meaningful to make?”
Now that AI makes it easy to make anything we want, people also complain that there aren’t that many great products/services. We see examples of AI slop everywhere. Some big tech firm had to hire back so many senior engineers they fired because they needed human eyes and experience to review and fix all the sloppy code. I think this is another form of #enshittification: unexpected yet inevitable if we aren’t mindful.
Just because it’s possible, we don’t have to make it. Now more than ever, we need to ask what is worth making. Why does that matter? Really why? If we don’t get clear answers to these questions after multiple iterations, it’s not meaningful to make.
Why does this matter in the Placeholder?
Many people in the Placeholder are using AI to design, experiment and create their own meaningful work. Helping them out to navigate the Placeholder, one thing I noticed was that they felt more lost once they started using AI tools. “There are gazillions of AI tools and the sky is the limit; honestly, sometimes I just stare at the empty window on Claude, asking myself: How can I help you?” One of my clients confessed. It was a paralysis caused by the lack of clarity on these questions of What do I care about and why?
If you are using AI proactively in your Placeholder, why don’t you check in with yourself every day, or every moment when you work?
What do I care about (now)?
Why does that matter?
Your clarity to these questions will not only help you get more rewarding results from AI but also make you feel more grounded in your Placeholder.