I'm a chemical engineer working in energy, which means most of my day is spent doing studies on new technologies, running numbers, figuring out what's realistic and what isn't. I'm not in AI circles, I'm not a researcher, and I'm definitely not someone who's been following this stuff for years. Up until recently I was just curious and occasionally experimenting with tools when I had time.
What changed was actually using them more seriously.
Over the past few months I started playing around with models like Claude Opus and Codex, mostly just to see what they could do if you gave them real inputs instead of toy prompts. I'd try small things at first. Then slightly bigger ones. And every once in a while something would happen that made me stop and think for a second.
I'd give it a rough description of a problem and instead of suggestions it would produce something structured. A full financial model. A formatted report. A workflow. Not perfect, obviously. But close enough that you could immediately see how someone could build on top of it and get real work done faster than they could have before.
That's when it started to feel different. Not like a better calculator. More like something that could actually execute parts of thinking.
Around that same time I read this piece: Something Big Is Happening
It didn't feel sensational or dramatic. It just put words to a feeling I already had but hadn't really articulated yet -- that the curve might be steeper than most people realize, and that big shifts usually don't feel big while they're starting. They feel subtle. Then suddenly obvious.
That stuck with me.
It made me think that the real difference over the next few years probably won't be who's smartest or who has the best credentials. It'll be who actually spends time experimenting while things are still messy and unclear.
That reminded me of a book I read a long time ago, Show Your Work by Austin Kleon.
The idea was simple: don't wait until you've mastered something to share it. Document the process of figuring it out.
I never really had a reason to apply that idea before. Now I do.
So I built a small site where I can write things down as I learn them. Not as a portfolio or a brand thing. Just a place to keep track of what I'm trying, what works, what doesn't, and what I change my mind about. Writing forces you to think more clearly, and having it organized makes it easier to notice patterns later.
The build itself was part of the experiment. I used a simple Next.js setup, kept the design minimal, and pushed it to Vercel so I could iterate fast without overthinking hosting. I also added a small personal chatbot on the homepage that answers questions about my work and focus areas. It's early and a little rough around the edges, but it already forces me to be clearer about what I do and how I think.
That chatbot is just version one. I'm improving the prompt, expanding the context, and tightening how it answers questions. The goal is for it to be a living resume -- something that updates as I do.
It's nothing fancy. But it already feels useful, which is usually a good sign.
Mostly I just didn't want to wait until all of this was obvious before I started paying attention.
So this is me starting now and seeing where it goes.
