Thank you so much for inviting me to the group post, James. It’s always amazing to learn from others with different backgrounds and depth of experience.
Thank you, James, for inviting me. I love how you bring together the opinions of many AI experts and create a nice collage from which everyone can benefit!
Thank you! That's the power of having community :) we can all learn so much from each other. I believe too that it's especially important to learn from each others perspective and humanity, and not get stuck in our AI information bubble.
Thank you for inviting me to contribute James! It’s very interesting to learn from the perspectives of so many great creators that I admire! I found it quite fascinating that the opinions converged on the idea that what’s truly holding us back is not the actual lack of technical skill but our perception of lacking technical knowledge.
Thank you, Alena. It's very interesting to me too, I felt like the article is singlehandedly pushing me to try more to build things with AI 😆 it's amazing what community can do.
Thank you, James, for inviting me to this post. 🙏🏻 I value initiatives like this - comparing perspectives often leads to deeper insights than any single viewpoint on its own 💎
Thank you for participating, Jakub! In these times it's all the more important to get out of our bubbles and merge our thinking with the right people. We can learn so much from each other.
Excellent post. It reminds me of something I experienced recently with a friend and former colleague: he's an analyst and post-tech for around 20 years now. He always has ideas about tools that could help him do his job, but was wary of trying AI to finally start creating some of them. The learning curve seemed too steep, a diversion from his already scarce time. It took him a few weeks of studying and convincing but then... BOOM. It finally happened! He was amazed at how easy and fast it was to make his ideas tangible. Like you recommended, he started small, creating a very simple app for personal use, but now, with two more tools on his belt, he's thinking about his business on an entirely different way, where the potential to grow and deliver more value is much greater.
That’s very cool. It’s an identity shift when you realize how powerful AI can be nowadays. It’s so capable, it’s difficult to understand the implications without trying it for yourself.
I loved this post, James. It's so good to see multiple points of views distilled in your writing. I especially agree with the fact that building with others is always more effective (and more fun) than building alone!
Thank you, Esha! Community is powerful. It's something that we often don't think about, but as humans we gravitate to community to learn something new, or to do something intimidating. It's an insight that's awesome to see applied in AI building.
That's very true. And in this case, it takes nothing but time to change your identity from "non technical" to "AI builder." What amazing times we live in.
Haha, I can relate to that as well. In fact as I was writing it I keep thinking, wow, this article is more for me than for me readers 😆 that's how you know it'll land, I guess!
Thank you so much for inviting me to the group post, James. It’s always amazing to learn from others with different backgrounds and depth of experience.
Thank you for your insights! So amazing to see such accomplished builders help teach newbies go from 0 to 1 😁
James, great learning to read about how others are handling it. Thanks for including me and giving this opportunity to share mine!
Thank you for participating, Dheeraj!! Your insights were amazing, and amazed by the convergence of everyone’s mindset and methods.
Thanks so much for inviting me contribution James. So great to read from other far more experienced Stackers how they get over this block too. 🙏
Thank you, Sam! I think this’ll help a lot of new Substackers for sure, it’s full of awesome insights :)
I really appreciate the contribution that I was allowed to make. Thank you James, for putting so much value together in one piece.
Thank you Joel! So glad for your participation, it helped make the article really special.
Thank you, James, for inviting me. I love how you bring together the opinions of many AI experts and create a nice collage from which everyone can benefit!
Thank you! That's the power of having community :) we can all learn so much from each other. I believe too that it's especially important to learn from each others perspective and humanity, and not get stuck in our AI information bubble.
Thank you for inviting me to contribute James! It’s very interesting to learn from the perspectives of so many great creators that I admire! I found it quite fascinating that the opinions converged on the idea that what’s truly holding us back is not the actual lack of technical skill but our perception of lacking technical knowledge.
Thank you, Alena. It's very interesting to me too, I felt like the article is singlehandedly pushing me to try more to build things with AI 😆 it's amazing what community can do.
Thank you, James, for inviting me to this post. 🙏🏻 I value initiatives like this - comparing perspectives often leads to deeper insights than any single viewpoint on its own 💎
Thank you for participating, Jakub! In these times it's all the more important to get out of our bubbles and merge our thinking with the right people. We can learn so much from each other.
Love this framing that the real gap isn’t “learning Python” but giving yourself permission to see what you already do as building!
It's an empowering perspective that can help many people! The power is out there, all we need to do is reach out and grasp it.
Such an awesome article - really cool to read others perspectives on this!
Thank you for your perspectives, Brennan! Such a huge help :)
Fear and overthinking often block action more than technical limits ever will.
That's the thesis. I hope this can help people out there break out of those blocks.
Excellent post. It reminds me of something I experienced recently with a friend and former colleague: he's an analyst and post-tech for around 20 years now. He always has ideas about tools that could help him do his job, but was wary of trying AI to finally start creating some of them. The learning curve seemed too steep, a diversion from his already scarce time. It took him a few weeks of studying and convincing but then... BOOM. It finally happened! He was amazed at how easy and fast it was to make his ideas tangible. Like you recommended, he started small, creating a very simple app for personal use, but now, with two more tools on his belt, he's thinking about his business on an entirely different way, where the potential to grow and deliver more value is much greater.
That’s very cool. It’s an identity shift when you realize how powerful AI can be nowadays. It’s so capable, it’s difficult to understand the implications without trying it for yourself.
I loved this post, James. It's so good to see multiple points of views distilled in your writing. I especially agree with the fact that building with others is always more effective (and more fun) than building alone!
Thank you, Esha! Community is powerful. It's something that we often don't think about, but as humans we gravitate to community to learn something new, or to do something intimidating. It's an insight that's awesome to see applied in AI building.
The real hurdle isn’t capability, it’s mindset: fear of failure, overthinking, or waiting for perfect conditions.
It all starts in the old noggin. We have the same problems in almost everything, it's just it's more stark when applied to how the potential of AI.
Fascinating to see how nearly everything we don't do or think we can't do comes down to how we identify in relation to the task.
The identity is always going to matter! Everything starts from there. That’s something I’m realizing now.
I'm seeing it too, now that I've experienced that myself. A shift in identity can have amazing changes in a person's life.
That's very true. And in this case, it takes nothing but time to change your identity from "non technical" to "AI builder." What amazing times we live in.
I agree. It's an exciting time for people with ideas and desire to get things done.
What a brilliant crew!🩷🩷 So happy to see Dheeraj here and having the experience working with him he really walks the talk!
I've worked with him too! And he really does. He was one of the first builders I thought of off the top of my head. So much we can learn from him.
Thanks James! Such an insightful article from you and your co-authors.
This is so me :-) I talk about mindset, but have been frozen in thinking that I don't know enough.
Haha, I can relate to that as well. In fact as I was writing it I keep thinking, wow, this article is more for me than for me readers 😆 that's how you know it'll land, I guess!
Very true :-)