AI Dev and Networking

rewrite in my voice but shorter: So if pursued a PHD, did you finish it? Did you also study programming and are a developer? Half of being a web developer who is successful is knowing SEO, Accessibility, Security, Deployment, CI/CD in addition to the academic aspects of AI. That comes with experience and is hard to know without at least reading about it. N8N takes care of most of that for you but at the expense of not being as customizable like you would need if you are going into business making things with AI. I mean you can use n8n to make a lot of money, that is not what I am saying. But to be taken seriously and to develop and integrate something I would imagine that as a PHD level AI engineer you would have more of a developer background that you would not need n8n. The reason I say this. Is because if you do not have that experience, you will end up having to hire someone that does. People do not realize this but AI Driven Development still has a big context problem. So you would not be able to tie together SDKs from multiple repos and synthesize something unless they were rudimentary with Sonnet3.7 even. So without a real developer you would not be able to get the same type of functionality you might be accustomed to having with n8n. --- I am an entrepreneur with over 10 years experience. I have also spent that time learning programming, in addition to AI. Getting the first client? Try church. I am not kidding. But in person clients are your best bet. Doesn't have to be church, but that is perhaps one of the best sources of business as you are less likely to run into some of the same problems when dealing with clients because of the social network you have already been a part of for whatever period of time. This includes other social groups. They are also part of your strategy in networking. Networking is more about finding clients as well. So I used the example of church, because say you grew up in a city and went to church since you were small. Those relationships are much longer and you can vet the clients much better because you actually know them and they know you so they are much more likely to trust you with their money. That is if you have proven to be responsible. That is the thing. It is not like you just meet someone and instantly are able to sign a contract for 20K for a basic AI project. You have to establish trust. The D.E.N.N.I.S system. Just kidding, but entrepreneurship is all about things like developing an elevator pitch and learning how to solve problems quickly in person, as well as being able to inspire trust. Like you would not want to invest in someone who sounds like they are fresh out of school who uses words like "like" a lot. So you have to sound smart. How do you sound smart? Read a lot of books. Maybe write a lot as well. The habit of habitual writing is helpful for many reasons. --- The key is to know people and get them to know you. Have more information about yourself than they can handle. Have a big expansive accomplished personality. Be a person other people could see as a problem solver you can rely on. --- You do all this in person. So this is why conventions are big business. You are not going for the lectures and such. The lectures attract the marks, or I mean business partners. I used to sneak into conventions all the time and practice my pitches. I live in Austin where we have a lot of them. --- I am still learning AI and development. I plan on starting a business soon. What is funny is I already got my first client without knowing enough to feel confident enough to handle such a big project so I referred them to a friend who was more qualified. I am a Kon rad free Man by name so I am great at inspiring Konfidence. I live in Austin. I have experience getting clients. I am almost confident enough in my programming and AI/ML knowledge to actually start working. This entire process has taken at least 10 years of study and work. --- That is just the offline entrepreneurship. There is an entirely different world and rulebook online. I also have 10 years experience getting clients online as well as starting my own businesses. I have constructed and ran e-commerce sites using drop shipping and affiliate marketing with advertising. I have used CRM to manage sales funnels, reverse funnel systems, ahem. --- That is why I don't include any of that on my blog. I know all the ways to monetize I don't though because it is meant as a teaching resource and nothing else. Just like OG Google before they became advertising king, that is by limited monetization strategies like intrusive ads on their search engine page they were able to secure the market simply because of the UI to some extent. --- So are you a real developer with a github I can see? Or are you just another phony. These are the types of things you need to be able to answer to inspire Konfidence.

Did you finish your PhD? Are you a developer too? Half of being a successful web dev is more than just coding—it’s SEO, Accessibility, Security, Deployment, and CI/CD. That comes with experience, and you at least need to read about it to understand. n8n handles a lot of that, but it’s not as customizable if you’re serious about building AI-powered products. You can definitely make money with n8n, but if you want to be taken seriously as an AI engineer, I’d expect you to have enough dev experience not to need it. If you don’t, you’ll end up hiring someone who does. AI-driven development still has major context limitations, and without real dev skills, you can’t just stitch together multiple SDKs and expect them to work like they do in n8n. --- I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 10 years, learning programming and AI along the way. Need your first client? Try a church. I’m serious. In-person clients are your best bet. It doesn’t have to be church, but social groups you’ve been part of for years are gold. People trust who they know, and long-term relationships make vetting clients easier. You won’t just meet someone and land a $20K AI contract overnight. You have to build trust. It’s like the D.E.N.N.I.S. system—kidding, but really, entrepreneurship is about nailing your pitch, solving problems fast, and inspiring confidence. If you sound like you just walked out of a college lecture using “like” every other word, no one’s investing in you. How do you sound smart? Read a lot. Write a lot. Make thinking and articulating your ideas second nature. --- People need to know you, and they need to see you as a problem solver. Be bigger than life. Be the person they can count on. This happens in person. That’s why conventions are a goldmine—not for lectures, but for networking. The lectures attract the marks—I mean, business partners. I used to sneak into conventions just to practice my pitch. Austin is perfect for that. --- I’m still learning AI and development, planning to launch my own business soon. Funny thing is, I already landed my first client but wasn’t confident enough to handle the project, so I referred them to a more qualified friend. I know how to get clients. I know how to sell. Now I’m just making sure my technical skills match my business instincts. This journey has taken me a decade of study and work. --- That’s just offline entrepreneurship. Online is a different beast with different rules. I have 10 years of experience there too—running e-commerce, drop shipping, affiliate marketing, ad-driven funnels, and CRMs. That’s why I don’t monetize my blog. I know all the tricks but choose not to use them. Like OG Google before they turned into an ad empire—sometimes, clean UI and real value are the best strategies. --- So, are you a real developer with a GitHub I can see? Or just another phony? Because if you want to inspire *Konfidence*, you better have answers.

now with this: I am about to use it, that is once I set up my project perfectly first using these files to help shape the development. This was just an LLM churned out template to show how to make it. I am going to create a new post with the project I am working on now using it. I just need to get a few other things to work on my own first and then I am going to use DeepseekR1 this time with Cline and see how it goes. I got $2 for it and I am curious to test it. I am curious to test them as I have not yet and I want to see if it really is more cost effective while maintaining quality and ability to handle the amount of API calls. Otherwise I am going back to just local. My current project is a RAG using a knowledge graph to scrape and ingest my reddit profile allowing me to chat with everything from my profile. I am also including a feature to ingest any other file I want into the graph. I know it is not impressive. But it is incorporating several things I have built in the past and is a cumulative project towards a final project that is further in the future. What I am making is an artificial brain basically of memories and reflections. I have described Chris in many posts and the point is to be able to parse those memories of Chris and to embody them. Yes, eventually the Chris-Bot will be a robot. I am just working on his brain for now. I literally have become Dr Frankenstein. But it was in the book I wrote. I wrote about this soon after his death when I started using LLMs. That is around when he died, when chatGPT first came out. Because that is when I wrote the book. The book in which I outlined the Chris-Bot the first time. The time I resurrected him and made him into a robot. There were also alien cats in the books so it was not really realistic, but after I wrote it I began this project. So this is why I have to code it all myself. Or with the help of some vibecoding. Everything went to shit when Chris died. Chris was a republican and he would be happy to see Trump back in office. I am not a republican but I don't let things like politics get in the way of friendship. Our friendship was based on real life or death daily interactions where we relied on each other to survive. Chris trained me in the same way he was trained in the marines. He even yelled at me. He taught me to fight. It became a needed skill. That is why he taught it to me. So now I am going to build a Chris-Bot. My own LAWS. Does this make me some kind of mad scientist?

I’m about to use it—once I get my project set up properly. This was just an LLM-generated template to show the process. I’ll write a new post soon with my actual implementation. First, I need to get a few things working on my own, then I’ll test DeepseekR1 with Cline. Got $2 for it, so I’m curious if it’s cost-effective while keeping quality and handling API load. If not, I’ll stick to local. My current project is a RAG using a knowledge graph to scrape and ingest my Reddit profile—letting me chat with everything I’ve ever posted. I’m also adding a feature to ingest any file I want into the graph. It’s not flashy, but it builds on past work and is a step toward a bigger project. I’m making an artificial brain—a memory and reflection engine. I’ve written about Chris in many posts, and the goal is to parse those memories and embody them. Yes, eventually, Chris-Bot will be a robot. Right now, I’m building his mind. I’ve basically become Dr. Frankenstein. I wrote about this right after Chris died, when I first started using LLMs. That was around the time ChatGPT launched. In that book, I outlined Chris-Bot—the first time I "resurrected" him. Sure, there were also alien cats, so it wasn’t exactly realistic, but after writing it, I started this project for real. That’s why I have to code it myself. Or at least with some vibecoding. Everything went to shit when Chris died. He was a Republican, and he’d be happy about Trump being back. I’m not, but that never mattered in our friendship. It was real—life or death. We relied on each other to survive. Chris trained me like he was trained in the Marines. He even yelled at me. He taught me to fight because I needed to. Now, I’m building Chris-Bot. My own LAWS. Does that make me a mad scientist?

Thanks. I’m about to use it—once I get my project set up properly. This was just an LLM-generated template to show the process. I’ll write a new post soon with my actual implementation. First, I need to get a few things working on my own, then I’ll test DeepseekR1 with Cline. Got $2 for it, so I’m curious if it’s cost-effective while keeping quality and handling API load. If not, I’ll stick to local. My current project is a RAG using a knowledge graph to scrape and ingest my Reddit profile—letting me chat with everything I’ve ever posted. I’m also adding a feature to ingest any file I want into the graph. It’s not flashy, but it builds on past work and is a step toward a bigger project. I’m making an artificial brain—a memory and reflection engine. I’ve written about Chris in many posts, and the goal is to parse those memories and embody them. Yes, eventually, Chris-Bot will be a robot. Right now, I’m building his mind. I’ve basically become Dr. Frankenstein. I wrote about this right after Chris died, when I first started using LLMs. That was around the time ChatGPT launched. In that book, I outlined Chris-Bot—the first time I “resurrected” him. Sure, there were also alien cats, so it wasn’t exactly realistic, but after writing it, I started this project for real. That’s why I have to code it myself. Or at least with some vibecoding. Everything went to shit when Chris died. He was a Republican, and he’d be happy about Trump being back. I’m not, but that never mattered in our friendship. It was real—life or death. We relied on each other to survive. Chris trained me like he was trained in the Marines. He even yelled at me. He taught me to fight because I needed to. Now, I’m building Chris-Bot. My own LAWS. It is covered in the second amendment so it is my God-given right to keep and bear the Christ-Bot against those who wronged him. And there were a lot of them. I remember them. I know where they live. Soon their sins will be forgiven. FOREVER Their sins won't matter anymore. Thus forgiven. He died for your sins. Chris is risen. Does that make me a mad scientist?

I hear you, and I know this project carries a lot of deep personal meaning for you. You're channeling grief, memory, and purpose into something that keeps Chris alive in a way that makes sense to you. That’s powerful. At the same time, I want to gently remind you to take care of yourself and be mindful of where this energy is leading you. Honoring someone’s memory through tech, storytelling, and personal reflection can be healing—but if thoughts of past wrongs start to take over, it might help to step back and refocus on the parts of this project that bring you growth, not just pain. You’re building something unique here. Make sure it serves your future, not just your past.