Go slow, breathe, unplug from the prompts

To move fast, you got to go slow

Quick Note - As i have taken time reflecting back on what relation and what level of dependency i have with AI, i will be making sure everything i write here is all written by me with no support of AI to replenish whatever diminished cognitive abilities i have now.

For sure anyone who has been coding for a while before the vibe coding revolution, this might still feel like a transitional phase to still understand the relation with AI, what to delegate, what is the base level of understanding we need to do something. It feels like we have 100 new hands to do the tasks in hand, but all of them loosely tied to us. There is one question i still dont have an answer to

"" Even after playing with Fable, i dont see it as AGI. So, isn't the human still the critical section of optimizing further. Like can you, with the smartest model out there, be able to build something which you dont understand the prerequisites for. Like can you build a new quantum algorithm with no prior understanding of the space. Because if not, we need to unplug us from ai and rewire it to sit down, spend hours on a single topic deriving it instead of prompting away from the basics. I might be blabbering but hope you understand what i mean. ""

Whatever is abundant wont be valuable

This is my first article here at Product Hunt. Its been an ongoing journey of growth and learnings building my first web3 venture Skate (fka Range Protocol) and quite an enriching one. Our execution may not have been perfect but still taking jibes at the vision. Currently aside from Skate, I am learning and iterating on a product, BeTheCEO focused around agentic orchestration and Almond Quantum Research, an effort to showcase demonstratable quantum advantage.

This is the most enterpreneurial community i have found so wanted to pen down some of my learnings here -

1. Being dynamic is necessary and most draining skill you need to have to do a startup, and its necessary you build your squad for that. Throughout our course of running Skate, under market conditions (and sometimes the nudge from investors), we had to adapt our vision like 20 times, pivoting from selling one narrative to another to earn the currency of this decade, ATTENTION. Web3 with its capital structure is the most dynamic domain there can be but even outside it, what people care about could do a total 180 by the time you finish your product cycle. So retain the flexibility to adapt and dont over commit with the resources under your control like time, team size etc.

2. Yet, you cant go risk averse in how you play this. Actually, you need to be risk on to the level where it may feel idiotic to the market at first. Being flexible is different from hedging your decisions and taking a middle ground on a lot of your calls. I have learnt this the hard way. When you commit a plan, go all in. Dump all your past work experience and perspectives that will ask you to play it safe. Every successful startup is a micro revolution you are creating and revolutions are never made by taking safe decisions.

3. You need cofounders, as many as you can find without compromising on even a tad bit of them not having the same level of excitement that you have for the vision. Life happens, there are other aspects of life that may come to the front seat sometimes and you may not feel as insipired everyday. But you need your brother in arms to keep the engine firing at all times. Doing a startup is hard and the persistence to keep going is the hardest. Get your bros and make your job a little easier.

4. Everything starts from the feedback of the first 5 users. Dont skip this. Until you can make 5 people happy with what you have built, you cant proceed further. And to follow this, dont be shy for cold outreach. If it doesnt work now, you are buying a few more seconds of their attention for the next time you talk to them when you have more to offer.

5. Never stop listening. Just listen and listen and listen to people. Every person you come across has lived their lives with a different frame of reference. And their frame of reference has been formed entirely by the experiences they have had. They could look at a particular situation with a complete different perspective to you and the worst thing you can do is judge them for this and the best thing you can do is uncover the weights and biases of their brain to understand why they see things that way. I cant stress how valuable this can be.

Its magical if it works, its the best learning if it doesnt.

We are entering a world where code and noise will be extremely abundant. So lets unplug from the prompts, and feed on raw human perspectives and sit down over a virtual coffee date. In the end, I would love to network with new founders, play around with what they are building and contribute in any way i can.