Jonny Burch

Hack Weeks - Hands-on AI sprints for non-engineers Hands-on AI sprints for non-engineers, designed to gain practical AI knowledge.

Here's to liminal spaces. If you're in one, let me know. I'd be fascinated to hear more.

And if you want clarity over the technology, come join our hack week next week (at hackweeks.com)

Voltaire said "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd".

Challenging assumptions is key as we go through what I believe will be a significant change to our working lives. An open mind. Willingness to learn and explore - not just technology but ourselves.

So if you're feeling like you're in a liminal space — maybe between jobs or careers, or facing up to a growing sense that what you've learnt to do or be isn't going to get you where you need...

...stay there.

Don't dismiss it and stick with your comfort zone.

With the pressure of everyday life, a state of play can be tricky. Just remember, the discomfort now is a down payment on way more clarity in the future. Clarity over what you love, what the world needs from you, where to focus in the future.

But to hold yourself in that place of discomfort and to see that journey as its own destination (as much as is possible), requires safety, permission, accountability and a state of play.

I suspect many of us will be thinking hard about this over the next few years. What got us here, won't get us... where? It all feels so unclear.

Many will have to adapt fast just to stay in place, or choose to make big moves into unknown territory.

(An aside: I hadn't put a name to what I was doing until reading
@neuranne.bsky.social‬'s new book 'Tiny Experiments' in the last couple of weeks. I'd recommend it to anyone in a period of transition.)

But this is a place I'm holding myself in generally right now.

Trying things. Not jumping into big decisions. Allowing the answers to come to me.

Extremely uncomfortable to be honest, but it feels important.

Liminal space. That in-between state, neither one thing nor other.

How do we hold ourselves in an in-between place?

As humans we're terrible at this. "It's the not knowing that's hard."

Hack Weeks - Hands-on AI sprints for non-engineers Hands-on AI sprints for non-engineers, designed to gain practical AI knowledge.

We learnt a lot from the first Hack Week - HW2 will be tighter and more valuable again. There's 6 spots left - go sign up at hackweeks.com

"I loved the week - it was the kick up the butt that I needed to just open the tools and get on with it. Which ended up being much less intimidating than I somehow thought it was going to be." - Paula, CPO and Hack Weeks 1 participant

Our first Hack week proved that. The structure Tom and I put together worked well, but what brought it to life was the participants. Enthusiastic, open minded, giving of their time and opinions. Probably five new friends...

Learning to scope, plan, build and polish your own projects with AI is a huge unlock - but so much more fun with a team around you.

That's why a small cohort (HW1 was 5 people, HW2 is limited to 8) and deep conversations is the difference between cracking something, and not.

As a non engineer, building with AI on your own is frustrating enough that most will give up. Roadblocks, unexpected rewrites, confusing pricing, dead ends galore.

But when it works? Lightbulb moment. Something you'd have had to ask a developer, data analyst, writer for - done.

Building with AI is absolutely the jagged frontier right now. Sometimes it will blow your mind, other times you'll want to throw your laptop out of the window.

The AI 'trough of disillusionment' is real.

This is a new slide in our Hack Weeks intro deck, for that reason.

Hack Week #1 was a belter.

(And #2 is live - see thread)

So many good builds, but more than that, what a brilliant group of people.

...satori I mean. 🫠

I did this in astro a while back, lib built on top of the satoshi one. Pretty satisfying not having to come up with an image!

Want to come along? Sign up at foundupnorth.com, we'd love to meet you...

FUN is back again

On 26th of June we'll be once again descending on Ape and Apple in Manchester for our Found Up North founders meet up.

Expect more group discussions, interesting talks (to be announced soon) and opportunity to deepen connections with the founder community.

This pricing is just so good. No scary cliffs, just $1 per 1000 emails. Solid docs, simple UI. Well done Plunk.

Two ways to get your Hacker Hat

1. Go to our shop and buy one
2. Join a hack week and get one for free

hackweeks (dot) com

Thinking about it, probably skewing slightly older yeah.

Anyway if you want this presentation, just shout (DM, comment, carrier pigeon). It's still a work in progress, I'd love feedback...

But wait! It doesn't have to be boring, and it doesn't have to feel like L&D.

Working together as a team to make yourselves stronger and remove boring work can be really exciting. But it needs to be framed as low risk and designed thoughtfully.

You know, for humans.

This problem will be solved by doing the hard human work in the middle, exactly as every change in how work is done has been.

Boring I know, but so necessary.

All of this may amount to a collective 'head in the sand' moment. Leaders wondering why their expectations of AI adoption are demoralising their teams, and teams hoping that all this will blow over if they just keep doing what they're doing.

And what's worse, those same employees aren't stupid - they know that the end result of this might be displacement of their jobs. Why actively help to build their replacement?

The messaging isn't resonating. "It'll make you faster, better, more efficient" falls flat without the on-the-ground support, time and shared buy-in to get people to their first AHA moment.

The tools require behaviour change, which is uncomfortable.

A slide showing the jump from 'most employees' to 'company advocates on an AI adoption scale.

I can't get this idea out of my head.

We're all going loopy on the socials about AI disrupting us all, yet seemingly everyone I talk to who's actually in a company with a mandate to 'use more AI' is feeling disillusioned and alienated by it.