The manual is missing – we are writing it

Looking around the feeds right now makes me feel like I am completely left behind when it comes to AI, even when I’m trying to stay up to date. 😓

Every other post is a statement on how effective someone’s agentic workflow is, how (insert technobabble) has allowed them to launch a new company while they were sleeping, or how MCP (wait, is that still a thing?) has perpetuated their 996 lifestyle.

But then I realize I have been here before. Not exactly, but sort of.

1996: Everyone had already built a super advanced website. They had not.

2006: Everyone had already started their very successful blog and created their own publishing platform. They had not.

2016: Everyone had already become experts at the latest JavaScript frameworks. They had not.

The times and technologies are obviously very, very different.

But what is similar is how easy it is to feel like you are far, far behind compared to a vocal minority of early adopters.

But not being the first is hardly a good reason to give up or not even start.

I try new things all the time. It still feels like I’m behind. And the manual is missing!

That is because there is no manual.

We write the manual, right now, by trying things. Some things will be great. Some things will fail in a spectacular way.

Whether you are the first to try something novel, or build on the experience of others to move even faster, there are still things to learn and get inspired by.

So I have decided to start sharing more of the possibly very mundane things I’m learning and doing.

I’ll assume that what I’m doing is common knowledge (it probably isn’t), but that it might still be useful to someone (hopefully).

I might as well add some pages to the manual, before I get replaced by a script running an infinite loop.