day 4 of living in sf. the jet lag has completely gone. its 3:30 pm. i don't remember what day it is. i just checked. its tuesday. weekdays. weekends. weekdays.
do they even mean something anymore. i don't mean that in a melancholic "omg i have to work so much way". i mean it in a genuine "damn the days don't look that different for me".
a few people have asked me in my dms how i prepared to be an ai engineer at a yc startup, i'll reply to that here:
there is nothing called an ai engineer. i just keep the tag because its easier to explain to people what i do. most of what i do is hacking APIs together, prompting, discussing with
@claudeai
what the best approach/architecture/decision is, thinking about the ui with
@magicpatterns
and debugging.
if you want to be an ai engineer, stop waiting for a plan. if you want to become anything tbh, just stop waiting for a plan. its 2026, you can just start doing. learn along the way. you have the world's most knowledgable people right beside you.
i have been there. bookmarking roadmaps. downloading books. watching tutorials. thinking its somehow improving my chances when all i'm doing is procastinating the actual work that i need to do to become whoever i want to be.
if you want to be an ai engineer, build ai agents. its as simple as that. build and learn.
buT wHat do i bUild?
what's your biggest problem rn? finding a job? make an agent that finds the jobs you want to apply for and auto applies to them for you. implement browser automations. use openrouter free models if you don't want to spend money.
how would this look like when its a product? build that. stop worrying about which stack i would use and learn and all that stuff. its 2026. you are building your first ai agent. nobody is expecting it to be perfect.
very high chances are that, you are not going to change the world with the first thing you build. but its gonna help you. and that's okay. that's more than okay.
do not solve imaginary problems. scratch your own itch.
that's enough advice i guess.
sf is great btw. i love the sun, the food, walking up the hill while having good coffee, the people(3 who i have met yet).
everyone is in a hurry but i guess that's to be expected from the city that aims to change the world.
i wonder if i'll bump into
@sama
one day. i want to ask if he is doing okay and if he is happy and fulfilled. also if i can have some equity in open ai. also what does he think of the agentic startups these days. will openai just build it all. i guess not.
that's all i guess.