Dreami

dreami

Wearing glasses as part of everyday life is currently the sole domain of those that require corrective treatment for low vision. This could change significantly in the next couple of years after tech giant Meta recently announced the roadmap ahead of its plans to release its first fully-fledged in 2027. Augmented Reality (AR) glasses Tech fans have begun to excitedly speculate about their appearance; here’s what we know so far. What Is Augmented Reality (AR)? , known as AR, is a cutting-edge technology that blends digital components, often with 3D visuals, with an individual’s real-world surroundings. Augmented reality Although still in its infancy, AR is being investigated for use in several real-world industries to help people make more informed decisions in business and create fully-immersive alternative worlds in the gaming and entertainment spheres. Elements delivered by AR include visuals, sounds, and other sensory information through the use of an interactive device such as a smartphone. However, many big tech companies, such as Meta, believe that glasses will be the future of since they allow AR components to be easily overlaid on an individual’s surroundings. AR Currently, several AR-enabled mobile games are available; the most popular of which is Pokemon Go. (Image Source: ) Forbes Meta and Project Nazare is the name for Meta's AR glasses' design, development, and creation. Project Nazare Recent developments, such as the recently-announced partnership with Ray-Ban, have added credence to an all-too-readily dismissed project for some. Indeed, Project Nazare takes Facebook’s concept of building a system that projects holograms into real-world surroundings via glasses and turns it into reality. The glasses will interact with cloud-based servers to transform real-life people into moving 3-D avatars and allow users to interact with the metaverse in real time. Although under development under the guise of Project Nazare, Meta has yet to decide on the final name for the product due for market release in 2027. What Could the Glasses Look Like? While there is plenty of scope for the design of the glasses to change as development progresses, Meta Supremo Mark Zuckerburg has provided some detail on what their glasses might look like. In short, the glasses frames are expected to be approximately 5mm thick, which compares favorably with most prescription glasses with frames between 2 and 6mm thick. Considering that of those needing vision correction wear glasses, this means that wearers will be able to enjoy a familiar feeling when wearing the eyewear without the fear of looking ridiculous. 64 percent This is where Ray-Ban’s expertise comes to the fore. Metaverse companies, including , have struggled to make wearable devices comfortable and stylistically appealing. Meta Early iterations of the Ray-Ban Stories, the frames earmarked for the collaboration with Meta, look exactly like regular, stylish sunglasses yet will have the capability to take the wearer into a completely new digital realm. In addition to having a familiar feel and look, the glasses will have sensors, speakers, radios, and cameras within the frames to provide the user with an unbelievably fully-immersive experience. (Image Source: ) Facebook What Can Users Expect From AR Glasses? The glasses are intended to be fully immersive instead of viewing a virtual world through a lens or goldfish bowl. Project Nazare’s advanced hologram display will allow digital and real-world realities to merge into a brand-new singular world. Project Nazare will provide the digital world with a giant leap forward in wearable smart devices thanks to its powerful and robust sensors and processors, enabling two-way communication with other device wearers. While wearers will have to balance their technical aspirations with the capability of technology, the Ray-Ban Stories already contain some impressive levels of hardware in a tiny space. With two 5MP cameras supporting still images and video, more than 500 pictures and 30 x 30-second videos can be stored. A three-way microphone set-up on these glasses detects voices, and when the glasses hear the words, “Hey Facebook,” they’ll await a command. For those nervous about using voice activation in public, the glasses will have physical controls to capture photos or videos. A front-facing light turns on when the cameras assist with image quality. Meta’s Next Steps for Project Nazare What’s next on the Project Nazare roadmap? With the partnership with Ray-Ban signed and sealed, developers are racing to deliver the first-gen glasses for testing as early as 2024, with further iterations due as more technological developments are rolled out before the proposed public market launch in 2027. Mark Zuckerburg has earmarked the launch of Meta’s AR glasses as the company’s iPhone moment, which will spring the company out of the shadow of Google and Apple. Questions have been raised about the AR glasses’ price compared to its $299 Quest VR headset. To help launch Project Nazare onto the public market, Meta is expected to subsidize the price to encourage adoption among the innovative device-buying public. The extent to which Zuckerburg is willing to do this will likely determine whether thousands or millions of consumers take up this exciting new technology.

Dreaming Big: What Could Meta’s AR Glasses Look Like Upon Their 2027 Launch?

Or “The Rescuer's Final Reward” I have seen this little tale/anecdote under both of these titles at various times. It is story more or less designed to pique the heartstrings. So my object here is first to present the story, I mean, why not? It is in its nature. Uplifting in its way. kawaii But the second reason, the “right here right now” reason is because I wanted to see what the would render as images to accompany the tale. Deep Dream Generative AI I have seen this story / anecdote attributed to a . (I did not write it, but I wanted to use it to see how Deep Dream would do with the tale) Disclaimer: Benny Archuleta Whoever wrote it surely scribed a tear jerker. Unlike most days at the Rainbow Bridge, this day dawned cold and grey. All the recent arrivals at the Bridge did not know what to think, as they had never seen such a day. But the animals who had been waiting longer for their beloved people to accompany them across the Bridge knew what was happening, and they began to gather at the pathway leading to the Bridge. Soon an elderly dog came into view, head hung low and tail dragging. He approached slowly, and though he showed no sign of injury or illness, he was in great emotional pain. Unlike the animals gathered along the pathway, he had not been restored to youth and vigour upon arriving at the Bridge. He felt out of place, and wanted only to cross over and find happiness. But as he approached the Bridge, his way was barred by an angel, who apologized and explained that the tired and broken-spirited old dog could not cross over. Only those animals accompanied by their people were allowed to cross the Bridge. Having nobody, and with nowhere else to turn, the dog trudged into the field in front of the Bridge. There he found others like himself, elderly or infirm, sad and discouraged. Unlike the other animals waiting to cross the Bridge, these animals were not running or playing. They simply were lying in the grass, staring forlornly at the pathway across the Rainbow Bridge. The old dog took his place among them, watching the pathway and waiting. yet not knowing for what he was waiting. One of the newer dogs at the Bridge asked a cat who had been there longer to explain what was happening. The cat replied, "Those poor animals were abandoned, turned away, or left at rescue places, but never found a home on earth. They all passed on with only the love of a rescuer to comfort them. Because they had no people to love them, they have nobody to escort them across the Rainbow Bridge." The dog asked the cat, "So what will happen to those animals?" Before the cat could answer, the clouds began to part and the cold turned to bright sunshine. The cat replied, "Watch, and you will see." In the distance was a single person, and as he approached the Bridge the old, infirm and sad animals in the field were bathed in a golden light. They were at once made young and healthy, and stood to see what their fate would be. The animals who had previously gathered at the pathway bowed their heads as the person approached. At each bowed head, the person offered a scratch or hug. One by one, the now youthful and healthy animals from the field fell into line behind the person. Together, they walked across the Rainbow bridge to a future of happiness and unquestioned love. The dog asked the cat, "What just happened?" The cat responded, "That was a rescuer. The animals gathered along the pathway bowing in respect were those who had found their forever homes because of rescuers. They will cross over when their people arrive at the Bridge. The arrival here of a rescuer is a great and solemn event, and as a tribute they are permitted to perform one final act of rescue. They are allowed to escort all those poor animals they couldn't place on earth across the Rainbow Bridge." The dog thought for a moment, then said, "I like rescuers." The cat smiled and replied, "So does heaven, my friend. So does heaven." When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. On the other side of the Rainbow Bridge all the animals do their happy dance. (This image was not done by the AI. I appropriated it from Hackernoon.) I find the AI rendered interpretations interesting. Hope you enjoy them too. As always Comments, Criticism, and Suggestions are welcome. Thanks for reading. ☺

Deep Dreaming of 'The Rainbow Bridge' by Benny Archuleta

In this slogging AMA, we chat with Pablo Román of . Dreaming Spanish is a video platform for Spanish learners where all the content is entirely in Spanish yet there are comprehensible videos for students of every level. Their method is based on Language Immersion and Dr. Stephen Krashen's hypothesis around Comprehensible Input. Dreaming Spanish This Slogging thread by Abeer, Pablo Román, Pamela Liang, Drone Warfare, Patrick Loritz, Mónica Freitas, Limarc Ambalina, Sara Pinto, Edward Pineda, Hung Le Ngoc, Giovanni Martorella, Chris Teague, Jack Boreham and Felix Changoo occurred in slogging's official #amas channel, and has been edited for readability. Abeer Feb 23, 2022, 1:30 AM Hey @channel, please join me in welcoming our next AMA guest, Pablo Román. Pablo is the creator of Dreaming Spanish and the co-founder of Dreaming Languages. They are set on revolutionizing the way people learn languages by allowing them to learn them the same way they learned their first language. Please feel free to ask Pablo anything about: Language Learning Things you can only do when you speak a certain language Turning a YouTube channel into a content production company Their plans for applying Natural Language Processing to help people learn languages Uses of VR for education What it would take for automatic translation to really work well 🔥 1 Abeer Feb 23, 2022, 1:31 AM Hey Pablo Román! Awesome to have you here! Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself, your background, and why you started Dreaming Spanish? Pablo Román Feb 23, 2022, 1:35 AM My background is in computer science. I started in academia, but when I was doing my PhD I wasn't really feeling motivated, and after watching too many TED talks, I realized that I didn't have a dream. After a month or so of thinking about it, I realized that I had managed to learn Japanese to a very good level without ever taking classes or opening a textbook, so I decided to help people realize that there are better, more fun ways to learn languages. Pablo Román Feb 23, 2022, 1:38 AM Then I found a school that really matched my learning experience, so I went there for 1 year to try it out. This was the AUA school in Bangkok, where I learned Thai. Since the method had worked so well, I decided to try to get more people to benefit from it. Initially I tried to put together a course based on media that was available already on YouTube and other public platforms, but after a couple of failed attempts at doing this, I realized that the content just wasn't there, so I decided to start making my own content. Pamela Liang Feb 23, 2022, 1:46 AM So it sounds like you learned Japanese pretty easily without any sort of formal method. How did you do that and what do you mean by finding a school that matched your learning experience? Pablo Román Feb 23, 2022, 1:50 AM I learned Japanese following the AJATT (All Japanese All The Time) method, which advocates for getting lots of input of media in the language. It also uses Anki extensively, but that part didn't work for me, so I did only the input part. After that, I learned about Comprehensible Input, and how it's better for the input that we receive to be understandable. The school did exactly that. It taught us Thai as if we were babies. The teachers would only speak Thai to each other and to us, and they would make the conversation more understandable by using pictures, gestures and drawing on the whiteboard. Drone Warfare Feb 23, 2022, 1:55 AM Hi Pablo! I've been a subscriber to your youtube channel for 2 years. I had no clue you had a Computer Science background. Before language learning, did you have something else in mind for your future? Pablo Román Feb 23, 2022, 2:00 AM Before that I didn't have any clear plans for my future other than continuing to do research on Computer Science. There wasn't anything in particular that I wanted to research, but I knew that I wanted to do something that nobody else was doing. I've always wanted to do something new that wouldn't be happening if I wasn't there doing it. 🔥 1 Abeer Feb 23, 2022, 1:57 AM Pablo Román That’s fascinating. So that’s how Dreaming Spanish came to be. How does Dreaming Spanish relate to Dreaming Languages? Pablo Román Feb 23, 2022, 2:02 AM When I started the channel Dreaming Spanish I was already thinking of doing more languages in the future. In fact, if I had had money to invest, I would probably have hired people to create a channel for Mandarin instead, since I've always wanted to learn it. Instead, since I didn't have money and had to do everything myself, I started making videos in Spanish, which is one of my native languages. Naturally, when I met my business partner at around the end of 2020, we decided to name the company Dreaming Languages. Abeer Feb 23, 2022, 2:15 AM Pablo Román It’s interesting to think that if circumstances were different, there would be a Dreaming Mandarin right now instead. If you don’t mind me asking (feel free to ignore if it’s confidential at the moment), is Mandarin the first language that Dreaming Languages is going to tackle? Pablo Román Feb 23, 2022, 2:16 AM We haven't decided on that yet. I'd love to do it, but there are also strong reasons to do German, French, Japanese and English. Patrick Loritz Feb 23, 2022, 2:23 AM Hi Pablo Román. Do you think its a bad idea to learn 2 languages at the same time? Im learning Spanish and German at the same time. I know a handful of German phrases and words that I've heard from my grandmother, other than that it's fairly new to me. Pablo Román Feb 23, 2022, 2:31 AM It depends on how much time you have available, especially if it's the first time you are learning a foreign language to fluency. For the first language you learn as an adult it's common to feel insecure about your ability to learn a language well, since you've never done it before. Therefore it helps to get as much motivation as you can. One way you get motivation is by seeing the progress you are making, and that's harder to see if you are learning two languages at once, since you are spending less time with each language. For German or Spanish, I would recommend not learning them at the same time unless you can dedicate 1h a day to each on average. Even now, I never start learning two languages at once. I only have one main language that I'm learning in which I'm at the beginner or intermediate level. Then, when I have some extra time in which I'm not sitting down but I can be listening to something, I'll be listening to podcasts or audiobooks to not forget and even improve the languages in which I'm at a higher level. Patrick Loritz Feb 23, 2022, 2:38 AM Pablo Román Thanks for the advice. That's probably the best way to go. I'll stick to learning German for now especially since I have family members I can talk to in German. Once I get good at it, I'll try learning Spanish again Mónica Freitas Feb 23, 2022, 9:33 AM Hi  Pablo Román, great to have you here! How can VR help in language learning? Pablo Román Feb 23, 2022, 9:58 AM Every attempt to teach a language in VR that I've seen until now has been a video game that could easily have been made for a flat screen and would be essentially the same. I think the medium allows for things that weren't possible until now. I think there's potential in two different ideas. The first one, that I hope to be able to try making myself in the future, is in recording a 3D 180 video of one or two teachers showing different objects and talking to you. Something like the videos that we have in the channel right now, but you would feel you're actually there with the teachers, and can get a much better view on what's going on around you. The second one is live interaction with avatars. Right now, with VR you can be in a virtual room with other people and have a conversation with them. It allows some things that are not easy to do with a regular video call, like placing items, documents, and screens in a shared space and interact with them together. In the near future, better face and eye tracking will make avatars more life-like and allow us to better communicate feelings. I think that if this is implemented well, it could be a great way to do language exchange, and to teach private lessons or even small groups of students. 🔥 1 Limarc Ambalina Feb 23, 2022, 9:58 AM Hey Pablo Román I’m super big into VR right now and agree there are huge applications for VR in education. What work have you done in VR? Pablo Román Feb 23, 2022, 10:01 AM Until now the only work I've done is to record playthroughs of VR video games. The kind of hand interactions that you can do in VR allows for a more visual experience than is common in most video games. It's very easy to grab a game like Job Simulator or I Expect You To Die and make a video with plenty of different interactions with different objects, which lends itself very well for making comprehensible videos for language learning. 🔥 2 Sara Pinto Feb 23, 2022, 12:11 PM Hey Pablo Román, glad to have you with us. Since I'm a student in a degree where learning languages is crucial, I wonder: what do you think are the best methods to learn a language? Pablo Román Feb 24, 2022, 3:40 AM Sara Pinto Comprehensible input! We have a complete explanation of the method we advocate for here: This not only includes our own content, but also a way of doing language exchange called crosstalk in which you focus on receiving input in the language you are learning. https://dreamingspanish.com/method Edward Pineda Feb 24, 2022, 3:28 AM Hi Pablo. Can you tell us more about the Dreaming Spanish channel and how you grew it into a content production company? Pablo Román Feb 24, 2022, 3:50 AM Edward Pineda Right now we are in the process of growing into an actual company. The path to get here has been longer that I would have liked, since I started the project 5 years ago, but now it's looking really good. Until now the project has been bootstrapped. I would put part of the money that I received from YouTube ads and Patreon into paying other teachers to make more content for our channel and platform. After around 2 years of working on it I managed to start making enough money to be able to work on the project full time. Around 1 year ago I met a business partner and investor, and that is going to let us start hiring teachers full time to work on a complete solution for people who want to learn Spanish from zero to a high level. I met my partner because he was a learner who was watching our videos and believed in our vision. Really, I've got a lot of help from people who contacted me because they were learning Spanish with our videos. I think the fact that we focused on spreading our learning approach and our mission, including giving advise about ways to learn that don't involve giving us money, has made a lot of people advocates of our approach. Even to the point that a few people donated quite a lot of money to the project. ❤ 1 Hung Le Ngoc Feb 24, 2022, 4:03 AM Thank you for doing this AMA Pablo Román. What are some benefits of learning a foreign language? What are things you can only do when you speak a certain language? Pablo Román Feb 24, 2022, 4:27 AM That's a very general question, and I think the answer is going to be different for each person. Besides the obvious benefits if you live or like to travel often in the country, some people have an interest in the literature, movies, or certain aspects of the culture of the language that can be enjoyed more if you actually know the language well. Some of the things that I particularly enjoyed doing that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise were meeting geishas and being able to hear about their lives and their training, joining a class to learn how to play the Japanese taiko (drum), a local university juggling club, and in particular hitchhiking around the country for 4 months, which would have been a quite different experience if I couldn't speak to the people I met along the way. As for things that you can do if you're not in the country, I do like to read novels, watch movies and TV, and to meet people from the country who live in the country where I'm at. You will often be surprised at the difference in values and the different point of view that other countries have on certain historical events. ❤ 1 👍 1 Pablo Román Feb 24, 2022, 4:31 AM If you don't know the language, everything that comes from that country will have been filtered by the interpretation of somebody else. Either by a translator or by a person directly writing about it in your language. Giovanni Martorella Feb 24, 2022, 5:04 AM Hey Pablo Román. What are your plans for applying Natural Language Processing to help people learn languages? Pablo Román Feb 24, 2022, 6:12 AM Right now we are applying it to estimate how difficult a video may be to learners based on the difficulty of the vocabulary that appears in the video. We do that by first doing speech recognition and then looking at how common those words are in a frequency list. In the future, we may try to extend this to identify which words a student hasn't been exposed to enough, and suggest content that will get them exposed to that vocabulary. That could also be used by the users directly to search for content that uses certain vocabulary that they want to get more comfortable with. If we find a way to figure out the vocabulary that each student knows and doesn't know yet, then we'll also be able to use that to show content that contains a good balance of known VS new words to maximize the learning speed. Recently, I've also seen a number of apps that have you speak into them and supposedly they give you feedback on your pronunciation. Based on the literature, this kind of feedback doesn't seem to be helpful at all even when done by a human teacher, so I think this application of speech recognition is misguided. In the future, I can also imagine chatbots being a useful tool when students have reached a good enough level to hold a conversation, but still need a bit more confidence to engage in conversation with native speakers knowing that their level is good enough to have a positive experience. ❤ 2 Chris Teague Feb 24, 2022, 2:16 PM Welcome Pablo! I've been using Dreaming in Spanish for a few months now, and I really enjoy the videos. It's very impressive how much content you and your collaborators are able to create and publish every week. How did you find your collaborators and get them involved in making educational videos? I'm also curious if you have any other side jobs besides working on Dreaming Spanish, or is your work life 100% committed to the site? Pablo Román Feb 25, 2022, 2:53 AM Chris Teague I'm glad you're liking it! We found most of our collaborators on Facebook groups for actors and Spanish teachers. I also contacted a few ones that already had their YouTube channel, and we ended up hiring with Alma. We'll now also be trying out some people that my business partner has had as Spanish tutors. I'm working on this full time and I have been for the last 3 years. I wanted to as soon as I started, and it took me around 1 and 1/2 years to get there, during which time I was working part time as a web developer. Jack Boreham Feb 24, 2022, 5:05 PM Pablo Román, wow, this convo is fascinating. Thanks for joining us! How did you manage to amass your viewership on YouTube? It's a tough market to conquer, highly competitive! Pablo Román Feb 25, 2022, 3:01 AM Jack Boreham I think in our case we offer something that didn't exist before, so it has been relatively easy to capture an audience that was already waiting for this kind of thing, or at least who had lost hope in traditional language learning methods and were ready for something different. I think this is why so many of our students are advocates and tell about us to many people. At the same time, this has limited us if you compare us to more traditional creators that cater to what most of the people are already looking for. I've seen channels growing at a crazy pace that were making videos catering to what most people search for, like "how to say hello in Spanish", "the numbers in Spanish". Those kinds of videos get a crazy number of views and subscriptions, but I also think that those channels probably don't get that many views per user, and that we are growing a devoted audience that with time will keep growing at a steady pace as people realize that there's a better way of learning languages. Felix Changoo Feb 24, 2022, 9:14 PM Hey Pablo. What would it take for automatic translation to work well? Pablo Román Feb 25, 2022, 3:44 AM Automatic translation is REALLY tough. Right now it's perfectly serviceable for understanding full paragraphs, and as a help to speed up the work of translators. But no matter what, you still need a person (ideally a person that already knows the original language) to process the output and to turn it into something that makes sense. This is without even talking about translating between two languages other than English, or even from Asian languages to English. For creating proper good-quality translations, and for translating short sentences and the kind of context-dependent language used in daily life, I'm afraid computers are not going to be as good as a human for as long as they are not as intelligent as a human. There is just so much ambiguity in language that you can't translate things well unless you really understand the reality that the language is trying to express. For example, for a language that doesn't need to explicitly mention the subject of the sentence, the translator needs to know who is likely to have done the action based on previous knowledge, but also on knowledge about the world and the things that are possible. In some extreme cases, like when translating very short sentences, a "good" translation can't even be expected from a human translator if the translator doesn't have more information about the situation in which the sentence was said, the relationship between the speakers, etc. Abeer Feb 25, 2022, 3:54 AM Pablo Román Thank you so much for the fantastic answers! It was awesome having you here. Before we wrap up this AMA, do you have any final thoughts, closing remarks, or anything you’d like to promote to our readers? Pablo Román Feb 25, 2022, 4:11 AM I'm just hoping that we can get more and more people excited about learning languages once they realize how easy it can be. If you are learning a language other than Spanish, I still encourage you to go to YouTube and search for "comprehensible input <your language>", since recently many channels are popping up that use a similar approach to ours. In our case, we are planning an expansion of our project with more teachers, more content, and to eventually offer a full course that will get you from zero to being able to understand TV and movies and be able to have conversations in the language. And also we can't wait to start tackling our next language! Thanks to everybody who joined the AMA these last 2 days, and to receive updates about our project, you can sign up on our website and mark "Notify me about big website updates and new products". We only send out emails for big important changes. http://dreamingspanish.com 💚 1

Revolutionizing Language Learning with Dreaming Spanish Creator, Pablo Román

1/6/18 — $815,864,140,317 Market Cap At last! A sea of green. Finally… it’s all green, after hours staring at the screen. It’s been days, restless nights, my thoughts always ablaze. We made it! 100x gains! We can’t be tamed! I’m finally able to turn off the and put down the phone. It’s 4am I’m all alone. computer At long last, I close my eyes and lay in bed. No more dreams of ICOs or about the deathly red. worrying BUT.. wait a minute. What if I’m missing something? I jump out of bed in a cold sweat and cringe. Straddling the line between insanity and the outer fringe. They have a great team, they have great tech. But, who even uses this? Do I? Do you? Do we even care to check? What if I’m missing something. Which coin is next? I need more ammo. 100x gains was so 3 hours ago.

Dreaming of a Sea of Green

A story of kindness and little bit hustle. When we changed our name from Hometown into . The handle @Markhor was not available on any social media channel (especially on Twitter). So without wasting our time we signed-up with @themarkhor. startup Markhor @markhor — used by Mark Horowitz Time went pass by, and we noticed that quite often our customers were tagging us on twitter as @Markhor instead of @themarkhor. We looked up and found that Markhor was used by a gent named . Yes, he was using first 7 letters of his full name, which just happened to be name of our brand. If we were to ask him to give up the handle, there was nothing which we could offer in return, so I started looking, perhaps a better/similar twitter handle for him. Also I did not had immediate connection with him, and at that time he was Editor at Medium. Mark Horowitz Help came from an unexpected place. We got busy approaching Y Combinator Demo Day (we were part of summer 2015 class). Then came the demo day, which YC organizes twice a year at Computer History Museum in Mountain View. My co-founder and I were wearing our Markhor teeshirts and meeting potential investors. It is when approached us, he said . Steven, without any doubt is one of the most senior technology journalists and authors. I think I freaked out a little bit. He was very kind and further mentioned that his boss at a previous job at Wired, currently has twitter handle @Markhor which Steven can potentially help us get from him. We took the offer and asked Steven to check with Mark and make an intro. Sidra Steven Levy hello After few days I followed up with Steven and he made the intro next day. We talked with Mark and offered that we would get him a good twitter handle as an alternate and a pair of beautiful Markhor shoes. He happily agreed to support. One thing I noticed was that both Mark and Steven were super kind and generous. I knew that it would work out! @markhorowitz— taken but not used by Marc Horowitz We also found @markhorowitz, an account that was taken but not really used. I knew this would be the ideal handle to offer to Mark Horowitz. To find who owned it, we looked closely and the account was following 2 people only, one of them was a guy named Marc Horowitz, so we thought this might be our guy who can get us @markhorowitz and then we can trade the account with . @markhor I googled Marc Horowitz and to my surprise learned that him and I had a Facebook friend in common, Garry Tan, at time our partner at Y Combinator. Garry happily made an intro over . Marc shared me his email address and then I wrote him the following email. Facebook His assistant got back to me and after few back and forth emails, we scheduled a phone call. I have found that phone calls are much more effective than emails when it comes to persuading people or sharing something you care. It worked and we made a deal. It was more than what we expected to give, but I agreed to make them 13 pairs of Markhor shoes in exchange of the twitter handle @markhorowitz. Basically they wanted their whole team to get a pair of Markhor shoes. It took us another 2–3 months, to get all the sizing rights, there were few returns issues and we had to manage it all from our end. At the end they got all the shoes and we made the switch of the twitter handle. Now we owned handle @markhorowitz. I then got back to Mark Horowitz before asking him to start the switch, we got him his pair of Markhor shoes. Steven Levy also got one for his support. Then the day came and we made the switch. At the end we got the twitter handle we have been dreaming for quite sometime. During the whole process, several times I felt like giving up. It felt too much work without any hope of success, but it was a great lesson learned. I love when one can learn from success. Watch this video when I flew all the way from Pakistan to San Francisco to hand-deliver shoes to our Kickstarter backers. RELATED:

How I traded shoes for the Twitter handle I was dreaming of

When I first set out on the entrepreneurial path, I had one goal: success. But after diving headfirst into the world of search funds and high-stakes startups, I found myself frustrated, drained, and questioning everything I’d come to believe about entrepreneurship. It wasn’t just that I wasn’t seeing the progress I’d envisioned—it was more personal. I felt like I was participating in a script that wasn’t written for me. My journey to create HalalFinanx wasn’t just about building a website; it was about reclaiming control, redefining success, and connecting to something meaningful. The Glamorous Illusion of Entrepreneurship Like many people, I was lured into entrepreneurship by the shiny allure of success stories and the promises of independence and financial freedom. Owning something, leading a team, and creating value sounded perfect. The search fund model was especially appealing, offering a structured path to find, acquire, and grow an existing business. It seemed like a straightforward formula with a lot of support. But as I dove deeper, the reality didn’t line up with the narrative. It felt like the supposed “freedom” of entrepreneurship was simply a myth, shackled by complex financial structures, endless pitching cycles, and a business environment that seemed more concerned with pleasing investors than creating something meaningful. I was constantly running from one “critical task” to another, but with no tangible progress. The whole structure of the search fund, built on layers of assumptions, started to feel like a game—and not the kind I wanted to play. The more I went, the more I felt like I was living someone else’s dream. I was chasing metrics that weren’t meaningful to me, jumping through hoops for outcomes that felt hollow. I started asking myself, “Is this what entrepreneurship is supposed to feel like?” I wanted out, but I didn’t know where to turn. Finding a New Path – The Birth of HalalFinanx The turning point came when I realized that if I wanted real change, I had to start creating things that resonated with me, not just my bank account or a pitch deck. As a Muslim, I’ve always been interested in Islamic finance, especially the ethical approach it brings to wealth. However understanding the field and accessing resources can be a challenge. I thought, why not create something to make Islamic finance easier to understand? I’ll be honest—this wasn’t the kind of idea that was going to impress traditional investors or fit into the typical startup. But for the first time, I was excited about what I was working on. I saw a real gap, not in a theoretical market sense, but a gap in what people genuinely needed. HalalFinanx was my way of bringing Islamic finance to the digital age in a way that’s accessible, understandable, and useful. There was one small issue: my skills lie in the backend and data. I’ve built and structured plenty of systems, but front-end work? Design? User experience? That was all new territory. Still, I knew that if I didn’t push myself here, I’d be back where I started—stuck in a rut, relying on others to bring my vision to life. This time, I was going to be in control. Learning by Doing – Building HalalFinanx with Bolt.new To get HalalFinanx off the ground, I turned to Bolt.new, a product that allowed me to work in a framework even with my limited front-end knowledge. Building this project was intense. I’d spend late nights combing through design guides, trying to make sure the site looked decent and functioned smoothly. It was exhausting, but the work felt real. This wasn’t just a project to show a board or potential investors—it was something I cared about personally, and every element I worked on felt like it added to that sense of fulfilment. Sure, there were plenty of challenges. Frontend work, it turns out, isn’t just about knowing which elements go where—it’s an art form. I struggled with layout, design principles, and even simple user flows. There were days when I’d look at the site and think, “This isn’t working.” But rather than giving up or passing the task to someone else, I forced myself to learn. It was a series of trial and error of building, testing, and iterating. What kept me going was the vision of what HalalFinanx could become, and each small win felt monumental. Making a button work, fixing a colour scheme, aligning content so it made sense—all of these were tiny victories in a larger war. The backend developer in me was learning to appreciate the nuances of frontend work, and it was humbling. The Personal Impact of Creating HalalFinanx This journey with HalalFinanx wasn’t just about building a site it was about redefining what success and fulfilment meant to me. In the search fund and traditional startup world, everything had been about numbers, KPIs, and keeping the right people happy. Here, with HalalFinanx, I was finally creating something with a purpose that resonated with me on a personal level. Building a site to provide accessible Islamic finance information was meaningful, not because of the potential returns or scalability, but because it filled a need I felt deeply. Each piece of content, each design tweak, and each function was geared towards making something simple, clear, and beneficial to anyone seeking this kind of financial guidance. I wasn’t answering to anyone but myself and my users, and that was liberating in a way I hadn’t expected. On a personal level, I found myself rediscovering why I wanted to create in the first place. I wanted to build something that mattered, and HalalFinanx became that for me. Instead of chasing empty metrics, I was now chasing real feedback from real users. Each suggestion and piece of feedback helped me refine the site, making it not just a project, but an evolving resource. For the first time, I was thinking long-term, not about exits or acquisition targets, but about sustainability and relevance. Looking Forward – The Ongoing Journey of HalalFinanx I don’t know where HalalFinanx will be in five years, but I know I’m in it for the long run. This isn’t a project that I’ll drop at the first sign of difficulty or when the next big thing comes along. It’s a genuine part of me now, a blend of my skills, my values, and my aspirations. I’m constantly looking for ways to improve it, from gathering user feedback to exploring new resources and insights to share. This journey taught me that real entrepreneurship isn’t about the numbers on a spreadsheet or the approval of others. It’s about finding something that matters to you, something you’re willing to build from scratch, without shortcuts or compromises. HalalFinanx is still a work in progress, but it’s my work, and that’s what makes it worth every bit of effort. When I first set out on the entrepreneurial path, I had one goal: success. But after diving headfirst into the world of search funds and high-stakes startups, I found myself frustrated, drained, and questioning everything I’d come to believe about entrepreneurship. It wasn’t just that I wasn’t seeing the progress I’d envisioned—it was more personal. I felt like I was participating in a script that wasn’t written for me. My journey to create HalalFinanx wasn’t just about building a website; it was about reclaiming control, redefining success, and connecting to something meaningful. The Glamorous Illusion of Entrepreneurship Like many people, I was lured into entrepreneurship by the shiny allure of success stories and the promises of independence and financial freedom. Owning something, leading a team, and creating value sounded perfect. The search fund model was especially appealing, offering a structured path to find, acquire, and grow an existing business. It seemed like a straightforward formula with a lot of support. But as I dove deeper, the reality didn’t line up with the narrative. It felt like the supposed “freedom” of entrepreneurship was simply a myth, shackled by complex financial structures, endless pitching cycles, and a business environment that seemed more concerned with pleasing investors than creating something meaningful. I was constantly running from one “critical task” to another, but with no tangible progress. The whole structure of the search fund, built on layers of assumptions, started to feel like a game—and not the kind I wanted to play. The more I went, the more I felt like I was living someone else’s dream. I was chasing metrics that weren’t meaningful to me, jumping through hoops for outcomes that felt hollow. I started asking myself, “Is this what entrepreneurship is supposed to feel like?” I wanted out, but I didn’t know where to turn. Finding a New Path – The Birth of HalalFinanx The turning point came when I realized that if I wanted real change, I had to start creating things that resonated with me, not just my bank account or a pitch deck. As a Muslim, I’ve always been interested in Islamic finance, especially the ethical approach it brings to wealth. However understanding the field and accessing resources can be a challenge. I thought, why not create something to make Islamic finance easier to understand? I’ll be honest—this wasn’t the kind of idea that was going to impress traditional investors or fit into the typical startup. But for the first time, I was excited about what I was working on. I saw a real gap, not in a theoretical market sense, but a gap in what people genuinely needed. HalalFinanx was my way of bringing Islamic finance to the digital age in a way that’s accessible, understandable, and useful. There was one small issue: my skills lie in the backend and data. I’ve built and structured plenty of systems, but front-end work? Design? User experience? That was all new territory. Still, I knew that if I didn’t push myself here, I’d be back where I started—stuck in a rut, relying on others to bring my vision to life. This time, I was going to be in control. Learning by Doing – Building HalalFinanx with Bolt.new To get HalalFinanx off the ground, I turned to Bolt.new, a product that allowed me to work in a framework even with my limited front-end knowledge. Building this project was intense. I’d spend late nights combing through design guides, trying to make sure the site looked decent and functioned smoothly. It was exhausting, but the work felt real. This wasn’t just a project to show a board or potential investors—it was something I cared about personally, and every element I worked on felt like it added to that sense of fulfilment. Sure, there were plenty of challenges. Frontend work, it turns out, isn’t just about knowing which elements go where—it’s an art form. I struggled with layout, design principles, and even simple user flows. There were days when I’d look at the site and think, “This isn’t working.” But rather than giving up or passing the task to someone else, I forced myself to learn. It was a series of trial and error of building, testing, and iterating. What kept me going was the vision of what HalalFinanx could become, and each small win felt monumental. Making a button work, fixing a colour scheme, aligning content so it made sense—all of these were tiny victories in a larger war. The backend developer in me was learning to appreciate the nuances of frontend work, and it was humbling. The Personal Impact of Creating HalalFinanx This journey with HalalFinanx wasn’t just about building a site it was about redefining what success and fulfilment meant to me. In the search fund and traditional startup world, everything had been about numbers, KPIs, and keeping the right people happy. Here, with HalalFinanx, I was finally creating something with a purpose that resonated with me on a personal level. Building a site to provide accessible Islamic finance information was meaningful, not because of the potential returns or scalability, but because it filled a need I felt deeply. Each piece of content, each design tweak, and each function was geared towards making something simple, clear, and beneficial to anyone seeking this kind of financial guidance. I wasn’t answering to anyone but myself and my users, and that was liberating in a way I hadn’t expected. On a personal level, I found myself rediscovering why I wanted to create in the first place. I wanted to build something that mattered, and HalalFinanx became that for me. Instead of chasing empty metrics, I was now chasing real feedback from real users. Each suggestion and piece of feedback helped me refine the site, making it not just a project, but an evolving resource. For the first time, I was thinking long-term, not about exits or acquisition targets, but about sustainability and relevance. Looking Forward – The Ongoing Journey of HalalFinanx I don’t know where HalalFinanx will be in five years, but I know I’m in it for the long run. This isn’t a project that I’ll drop at the first sign of difficulty or when the next big thing comes along. It’s a genuine part of me now, a blend of my skills, my values, and my aspirations. I’m constantly looking for ways to improve it, from gathering user feedback to exploring new resources and insights to share. This journey taught me that real entrepreneurship isn’t about the numbers on a spreadsheet or the approval of others. It’s about finding something that matters to you, something you’re willing to build from scratch, without shortcuts or compromises. HalalFinanx is still a work in progress, but it’s my work, and that’s what makes it worth every bit of effort.

Building HalalFinanx: A Journey from Disillusionment to Personal Fulfillment

What happens when users get distracted by everything but an app? Why should anyone care about a product when there’s no reason to? These are the questions I often ask myself as I work with different brands. It’s even tougher in the summer. The sun’s out, people are on vacation, and your app is the last thing on their minds. We saw this firsthand with a well-known pizza delivery service — their customers weren’t exactly dreaming of pepperoni between beach trips. So, how do you keep people interested when pizza isn't their priority? You get creative. And by creative, I’m talking about transforming the way people interact with your brand, giving them a reason to check in just for fun. We wanted people to stay engaged and loyal, while also driving more pizza orders. To make that happen, we needed something fresh to keep them coming back. Turning Summer into a Game So, picture this: it’s mid-June, and you’re a pizza company. Sales are down because people are on holiday mode. What do you do? Cut prices? Send out boring email promos? Nah. Instead, they flipped the concept of the holiday advent calendar — a tradition people associate with Christmas — and dropped it into the middle of summer. I know, it sounds a little wild. But that’s the point. They turned each day into a mini game. Customers would open the pizza app daily, like a digital advent calendar, and uncover two key elements behind each "door." Game Mechanics in Action First, a new postcard: each day featured a unique postcard, which users could collect, customize, or share with friends. These weren’t just generic images — there were three types of postcards to keep things fresh: illustrative postcards with custom designs, city-specific postcards featuring local landmarks depending on the user’s location, and customizable postcards, where users could upload their own photos, adding a personal touch. Along with the postcard, users would receive a daily promotion, like a reduced price on a specific product. This wasn’t just about discounts, though. It was about adding a tangible reward to the game, encouraging users to open the app every day and take advantage of the deals while enjoying the fun, personalized content. This mechanic plays directly into a behavioral principle called the variable reward system. When you scroll through your news feed, you don’t know what new story or post you’ll see next. This unpredictability is addictive. So, our pizza delivery service made it fun to keep checking in, day after day. The idea wasn’t new, but it was placed in a fresh, unexpected context. And it worked. Over half of the pizza app users joined in, with participation peaking around lunch and after work. Users created and shared more than 1 million postcards, adding a social twist. In total, the campaign drew 880,000 participants across Europe and Asia. Why It Worked: The Power of Dopamine Let’s get real. People are wired for rewards, especially when they don’t know exactly what they’re getting. When users opened that app and saw a fresh offer, it wasn’t just about the discount — it was about the dopamine hit that comes with curiosity. That’s something brands like Spotify and TikTok have nailed with their recommendation algorithms. It’s not the certainty of what’s next, but the excitement of discovering it. The advent mechanic we created together tapped into that same feeling. And the best part? The offers felt more like little gifts, not desperate promos. This shifted the perception of value for customers. It wasn’t "buy now," but "here’s something special just for today”. Building Engagement Isn’t Just for Pizza Now, I’ve worked with in-app engagement for a long time, and I can tell you this: the mechanic isn’t limited to pizzas or food delivery. Any brand with an app can implement it. For example, I’ve seen fitness apps that give users daily challenges to unlock personalized workouts or nutrition tips. And it works. Why? Because it makes people want to come back, even if they weren’t originally planning to. I once joked with the team that we could put a picture of a puppy behind one of the digital calendar doors, and the next day our daily active users would triple. Who can resist puppies? I never tested it, but if you try, let me know how it goes. Whether you’re running an eCommerce app, a B2B SaaS platform, or even a content-driven site, you can use these tactics. Here’s how: Make it fun: Your engagement tactics don’t need to feel like work. Offer users something they don’t expect.
Add surprise: Use the variable reward principle. People love surprises. If they don’t know what they’re getting, they’re more likely to come back.
Keep it light: No one wants to feel spammed or manipulated. Make your gamification subtle and rewarding, not sales-y.
Build habits: Think fitness apps or loyalty programs. It’s not just about engagement today. It’s about getting your users to come back tomorrow and the day after. What did I learn from this experience? People crave excitement and engagement — not just products. As a marketer, it’s not your job to just “sell” something; it’s about creating an experience that people actually enjoy. The pizza delivery service’s digital advent calendar was a hit because it took something simple and transformed it into a daily delight. And it’s something any company can do. What We Learned: How to Keep Users Engaged So, what can you do to make your users look forward to engaging with your brand, even when they don’t need to? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just take something familiar, make it fun, and watch as your users turn into daily fans: Don’t be afraid to experiment Sometimes the boldest ideas, like launching a summer advent calendar, are the ones that pay off. Try unconventional tactics Go beyond the usual promos. Interactive tools like skill wheels or daily challenges can keep things fresh. Make it a habit Use gamification to build routines. Daily rewards give people a reason to keep coming back. Surprise your users Everyone loves surprises. Small, unexpected rewards keep users engaged and curious. Personal touches matter Personalization, like custom postcards, adds a unique connection that keeps users interested. And hey, if all else fails, try the puppies. What happens when users get distracted by everything but an app? Why should anyone care about a product when there’s no reason to? These are the questions I often ask myself as I work with different brands. What happens when users get distracted by everything but an app? Why should anyone care about a product when there’s no reason to? These are the questions I often ask myself as I work with different brands. It’s even tougher in the summer. The sun’s out, people are on vacation, and your app is the last thing on their minds. We saw this firsthand with a well-known pizza delivery service — their customers weren’t exactly dreaming of pepperoni between beach trips. So, how do you keep people interested when pizza isn't their priority? You get creative. And by creative, I’m talking about transforming the way people interact with your brand, giving them a reason to check in just for fun. We wanted people to stay engaged and loyal, while also driving more pizza orders. To make that happen, we needed something fresh to keep them coming back. Turning Summer into a Game Turning Summer into a Game So, picture this: it’s mid-June, and you’re a pizza company. Sales are down because people are on holiday mode. What do you do? Cut prices? Send out boring email promos? Nah. Instead, they flipped the concept of the holiday advent calendar — a tradition people associate with Christmas — and dropped it into the middle of summer. I know, it sounds a little wild. But that’s the point. They turned each day into a mini game. Customers would open the pizza app daily, like a digital advent calendar, and uncover two key elements behind each "door." Game Mechanics in Action Game Mechanics in Action First, a new postcard: each day featured a unique postcard, which users could collect, customize, or share with friends. These weren’t just generic images — there were three types of postcards to keep things fresh: illustrative postcards with custom designs, city-specific postcards featuring local landmarks depending on the user’s location, and customizable postcards, where users could upload their own photos, adding a personal touch. Along with the postcard, users would receive a daily promotion, like a reduced price on a specific product. This wasn’t just about discounts, though. It was about adding a tangible reward to the game, encouraging users to open the app every day and take advantage of the deals while enjoying the fun, personalized content . personalized content This mechanic plays directly into a behavioral principle called the variable reward system. When you scroll through your news feed, you don’t know what new story or post you’ll see next. This unpredictability is addictive. So, our pizza delivery service made it fun to keep checking in, day after day. The idea wasn’t new, but it was placed in a fresh, unexpected context. And it worked. Over half of the pizza app users joined in, with participation peaking around lunch and after work. Users created and shared more than 1 million postcards, adding a social twist. In total, the campaign drew 880,000 participants across Europe and Asia. Why It Worked: The Power of Dopamine Let’s get real. People are wired for rewards, especially when they don’t know exactly what they’re getting. When users opened that app and saw a fresh offer, it wasn’t just about the discount — it was about the dopamine hit that comes with curiosity. That’s something brands like Spotify and TikTok have nailed with their recommendation algorithms . It’s not the certainty of what’s next, but the excitement of discovering it. The advent mechanic we created together tapped into that same feeling. TikTok have nailed with their recommendation algorithms TikTok have nailed with their recommendation algorithms And the best part? The offers felt more like little gifts, not desperate promos. This shifted the perception of value for customers. It wasn’t "buy now," but "here’s something special just for today”. Building Engagement Isn’t Just for Pizza Now, I’ve worked with in-app engagement for a long time, and I can tell you this: the mechanic isn’t limited to pizzas or food delivery. Any brand with an app can implement it. For example, I’ve seen fitness apps that give users daily challenges to unlock personalized workouts or nutrition tips. And it works. Why? Because it makes people want to come back, even if they weren’t originally planning to. I once joked with the team that we could put a picture of a puppy behind one of the digital calendar doors, and the next day our daily active users would triple. Who can resist puppies? I never tested it, but if you try, let me know how it goes. Whether you’re running an eCommerce app, a B2B SaaS platform, or even a content-driven site, you can use these tactics. Here’s how: Make it fun: Your engagement tactics don’t need to feel like work. Offer users something they don’t expect. Add surprise: Use the variable reward principle. People love surprises. If they don’t know what they’re getting, they’re more likely to come back. Keep it light: No one wants to feel spammed or manipulated. Make your gamification subtle and rewarding, not sales-y. Build habits: Think fitness apps or loyalty programs. It’s not just about engagement today. It’s about getting your users to come back tomorrow and the day after. Make it fun : Your engagement tactics don’t need to feel like work. Offer users something they don’t expect. Make it fun Add surprise : Use the variable reward principle. People love surprises. If they don’t know what they’re getting, they’re more likely to come back. Add surprise Keep it light : No one wants to feel spammed or manipulated. Make your gamification subtle and rewarding, not sales-y. Keep it light Build habits : Think fitness apps or loyalty programs. It’s not just about engagement today. It’s about getting your users to come back tomorrow and the day after. Build habits What did I learn from this experience? People crave excitement and engagement — not just products. As a marketer, it’s not your job to just “sell” something; it’s about creating an experience that people actually enjoy. The pizza delivery service’s digital advent calendar was a hit because it took something simple and transformed it into a daily delight. And it’s something any company can do. What We Learned: How to Keep Users Engaged So, what can you do to make your users look forward to engaging with your brand, even when they don’t need to? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just take something familiar, make it fun, and watch as your users turn into daily fans: Don’t be afraid to experiment Don’t be afraid to experiment Don’t be afraid to experiment Sometimes the boldest ideas, like launching a summer advent calendar, are the ones that pay off. Try unconventional tactics Try unconventional tactics Try unconventional tactics Go beyond the usual promos. Interactive tools like skill wheels or daily challenges can keep things fresh. Make it a habit Make it a habit Make it a habit Use gamification to build routines. Daily rewards give people a reason to keep coming back. Surprise your users Surprise your users Surprise your users Everyone loves surprises. Small, unexpected rewards keep users engaged and curious. Personal touches matter Personal touches matter Personal touches matter Personalization, like custom postcards, adds a unique connection that keeps users interested. And hey, if all else fails, try the puppies.

How Gamification in a Mobile App Boosted Pizza Sales During the Off-Season

My Top Ten Upwork Conspiracy Theories: True or False

Les meves deu millors teories de la conspiració: vertader o fals

Mis diez principales teorías de conspiración sobre Upwork: ¿verdaderas o falsas?

Kymmenen parasta salaliittoteoriaani: totta vai tarua

עשרת תיאוריות הקונספירציה המובילות שלי: נכון או לא נכון

私のトップ10のUpwork陰謀説：真実か嘘か

Менин мыкты он Upwork Conspiracy Theories: Чын же жалган

Миний шилдэг арван хуйвалдааны онол: үнэн эсвэл худал

Chunka Aswan allin Upwork Conspiración Teoríasniy: Chiqap utaq llulla

Cele mai bune zece teorii ale conspirației mele: adevărat sau fals

My Top Ten Upwork Conspiracy Theories: ሓቂ ድዩ ሓሶት።

En İyi On Upwork Komplo Teorim: Doğru mu Yanlış mı

Iithiyori zam eziPhezulu zokuSebenza kweNyelelo: Yinyani okanye bubuxoki

It's Not A Motivation Problem That You Have (It's a Clarity Problem)

This is not a fable. This story actually happened in front of my bewildered eyes. Armed with a custom GPT model, an analyst sought to streamline the daunting task of querying voluminous financial data. It was, at first glance, a stroke of genius—a breakthrough tool designed to make data analysis accessible to those without a background in coding. No more grappling with Python or SQL—just the power of natural language at your fingertips. The potential was enormous. But what started as a promising innovation took a bizarre and disappointing turn when the analyst’s own rigidity stifled what could have been an even greater leap forward. The project had undeniable merit. By uploading a complex dataset on historical spending and budget allocations into a finely-tuned GPT model, the analyst had transformed a traditionally opaque subject into something approachable and understandable. The model could answer questions in plain English, making it possible for anyone to interrogate budget data without needing a technical skillset. It was a tool that promised to democratize data analysis, offering a window into public spending that had previously been closed to most. But the excitement in the room dimmed when a critical question was raised: How do you know if the chatbot is accurate? With surprising naïveté, the analyst replied that it was impossible for the bot to be wrong. “It’s generating Python code,” he confidently stated, as though the act of generating code automatically ensured the validity of the results. It was a moment of dismay for those watching. The assertion was not only technically flawed but exposed a fundamental misunderstanding of how AI and coding work. Any experienced data professional understands that generating code is not the same as ensuring its correctness. Python code can easily harbor logical flaws, even if it’s syntactically perfect. The model, in interpreting and responding to the uploaded data, could misrepresent figures, make incorrect assumptions, or simply produce erroneous outputs due to the quality of the data it was trained on. Yet, the analyst stood firm, unable to consider that his model might produce mistakes—a kind of tunnel vision that can be dangerous in data-driven work. But that wasn’t where the real disappointment lay. After all, everyone can misjudge their own creations at times. The more troubling moment came when someone suggested an enhancement that could have elevated the project: Why not use the chatbot to generate thought-provoking questions about the budget? If the model had been trained on all this data, surely it could be used to stimulate new lines of inquiry and suggest areas that warranted deeper scrutiny. The analyst’s reaction was, frankly, perplexing. He flatly rejected the suggestion, insisting that any questions the chatbot might generate would be random and lack relevance. It was as though he had completely forgotten the context he’d given the model, which made it perfectly capable of producing insightful, data-driven questions. His view of the model was limited to being a data query tool—nothing more. Instead of seeing AI as a partner in analysis, he closed his mind, refusing to entertain the idea that it could be a collaborator in generating new ideas. It was a turning point—the analyst had created something that could revolutionize the way people interacted with data, only to refuse to let it evolve beyond his own narrow vision. He had built a car but refused to consider driving it anywhere new. The GPT model, which could have empowered non-technical users to explore the budget, analyze trends, and even brainstorm innovative questions, was reduced to a glorified search engine. In shutting down the very possibility of using AI as a tool for exploration, the analyst effectively undermined the transformative potential of his own project. What makes this turn of events truly disappointing is not just the missed opportunity but what it says about our broader mindset in the face of new technologies. There is a tendency to see AI as a mere extension of what we already do—a faster calculator, a more efficient script writer, a streamlined data query interface. In confining AI to such narrow applications, we do it a disservice, but more importantly, we limit ourselves. We fail to see it as a tool that can help us think, challenge our assumptions and even suggest avenues we might not have considered. This data analyst got far, indeed, with his custom GPT model. He demonstrated how new technology can lower barriers, allowing more people to engage with complex datasets. But then, just as he was poised to break through to something truly revolutionary, his brain shut down. He stopped innovating. He refused to imagine. And he dismissed AI’s greatest asset: its ability to generate new perspectives, new connections, and new questions that humans might never have formulated on their own. The lesson here is clear. In the era of AI, the greatest challenge is not building more capable models—it’s maintaining an open mind. As we push the boundaries of technology, we must ensure that we don’t box ourselves in with outdated thinking. Because when we stop dreaming and exploring, even the most powerful AI can’t help us break new ground. About Me: 25+ year IT veteran combining data, AI, risk management, strategy, and education. 4x hackathon winner and social impact from data advocate. Currently working to jumpstart the AI workforce in the Philippines. Learn more about me here: https://docligot.com This is not a fable. This story actually happened in front of my bewildered eyes. Armed with a custom GPT model, an analyst sought to streamline the daunting task of querying voluminous financial data. It was, at first glance, a stroke of genius—a breakthrough tool designed to make data analysis accessible to those without a background in coding. No more grappling with Python or SQL—just the power of natural language at your fingertips. The potential was enormous. But what started as a promising innovation took a bizarre and disappointing turn when the analyst’s own rigidity stifled what could have been an even greater leap forward. The project had undeniable merit. By uploading a complex dataset on historical spending and budget allocations into a finely-tuned GPT model, the analyst had transformed a traditionally opaque subject into something approachable and understandable. The model could answer questions in plain English, making it possible for anyone to interrogate budget data without needing a technical skillset. It was a tool that promised to democratize data analysis, offering a window into public spending that had previously been closed to most. But the excitement in the room dimmed when a critical question was raised: How do you know if the chatbot is accurate? With surprising naïveté, the analyst replied that it was impossible for the bot to be wrong. “It’s generating Python code,” he confidently stated, as though the act of generating code automatically ensured the validity of the results. It was a moment of dismay for those watching. The assertion was not only technically flawed but exposed a fundamental misunderstanding of how AI and coding work. Any experienced data professional understands that generating code is not the same as ensuring its correctness. Python code can easily harbor logical flaws, even if it’s syntactically perfect. The model, in interpreting and responding to the uploaded data, could misrepresent figures, make incorrect assumptions, or simply produce erroneous outputs due to the quality of the data it was trained on. Yet, the analyst stood firm, unable to consider that his model might produce mistakes—a kind of tunnel vision that can be dangerous in data-driven work. But that wasn’t where the real disappointment lay. After all, everyone can misjudge their own creations at times. The more troubling moment came when someone suggested an enhancement that could have elevated the project: Why not use the chatbot to generate thought-provoking questions about the budget? If the model had been trained on all this data, surely it could be used to stimulate new lines of inquiry and suggest areas that warranted deeper scrutiny. The analyst’s reaction was, frankly, perplexing. He flatly rejected the suggestion, insisting that any questions the chatbot might generate would be random and lack relevance. It was as though he had completely forgotten the context he’d given the model, which made it perfectly capable of producing insightful, data-driven questions. His view of the model was limited to being a data query tool—nothing more. Instead of seeing AI as a partner in analysis, he closed his mind, refusing to entertain the idea that it could be a collaborator in generating new ideas. It was a turning point—the analyst had created something that could revolutionize the way people interacted with data, only to refuse to let it evolve beyond his own narrow vision. He had built a car but refused to consider driving it anywhere new. The GPT model, which could have empowered non-technical users to explore the budget, analyze trends, and even brainstorm innovative questions, was reduced to a glorified search engine. In shutting down the very possibility of using AI as a tool for exploration, the analyst effectively undermined the transformative potential of his own project. What makes this turn of events truly disappointing is not just the missed opportunity but what it says about our broader mindset in the face of new technologies. There is a tendency to see AI as a mere extension of what we already do—a faster calculator, a more efficient script writer, a streamlined data query interface. In confining AI to such narrow applications, we do it a disservice, but more importantly, we limit ourselves. We fail to see it as a tool that can help us think, challenge our assumptions and even suggest avenues we might not have considered. This data analyst got far, indeed, with his custom GPT model. He demonstrated how new technology can lower barriers, allowing more people to engage with complex datasets. But then, just as he was poised to break through to something truly revolutionary, his brain shut down. He stopped innovating. He refused to imagine. And he dismissed AI’s greatest asset: its ability to generate new perspectives, new connections, and new questions that humans might never have formulated on their own. The lesson here is clear. In the era of AI, the greatest challenge is not building more capable models—it’s maintaining an open mind. As we push the boundaries of technology, we must ensure that we don’t box ourselves in with outdated thinking. Because when we stop dreaming and exploring, even the most powerful AI can’t help us break new ground. About Me: 25+ year IT veteran combining data, AI, risk management, strategy, and education. 4x hackathon winner and social impact from data advocate. Currently working to jumpstart the AI workforce in the Philippines. Learn more about me here: https://docligot.com About Me: 25+ year IT veteran combining data, AI, risk management, strategy, and education. 4x hackathon winner and social impact from data advocate. Currently working to jumpstart the AI workforce in the Philippines. Learn more about me here: https://docligot.com

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