Chance's Status Update for 2023 Q3

A summary on Chance's work done in Q3 2023, on work/projects and life.

Life

My home-moving jobs are finally done by end of August. No more hustling and hectic stuff. I realized how hard it could be to stay minimalist in life-style when you're not constantly throwing away stuff you don't need. I may make it a rule to dump things I won't touch in next 3 to 6 months, except those with special meanings to my life of the past.

Kid is facing challenges in how to do better self-education. We insist in NOT wasting time worrying about his schooling but 100% on supporting him on whatever subjects he feels most enthused, at the moment.

This mindset upgrade on parents side CHANGED everything! We're all on track.

Work - AI Futures Lab

I accepted the job to kick-stat a side-project called AI Futures Lab (futureslab.ai), a pretty amazing idea-to-action experience within TWO weeks! We set out firstly to satisfy investor(s) and our own curiosity in "What AI means to human?". Thanks to Phillip's referral and trust in me, which initially drove me to accept the job in the first place.

We spent most of the August to prepare ONE case study and it was finally released by Aug 25, 2023. But this was performance-reviewed as SLOW by the Board with a 4 people team. Contrary to the Board's review, this seemed FAST enough to me nevertheless, since it's a new team and any MEANINGFUL results generated within THREE months seems reasonable to me.

I know the valuation on anything is always subjective, and so we accepted the review nevertheless and kept moving on for September's until this individual 'investor' of AFL cut the funding in early October, resulting in quite a bit of life/time lost on our parts. Sad, but also happy that we knew what to do next – keeping AFL as part of the OffChain AI Guangzhou community and see who else form the local AI/LLM circles are interested in using this cool format of engaging and studying LLM/AI as an AI makers' community topic.

After-thoughts

• AFL is a great low-risk experiment for doing AI startup research, especially when you don't even know the WHAT and WHY for what you can do with this new wave of AI/LLMs tech breakthrough;
• Never accept non-startup jobs I don't have payment guarantee for my team and work. But I liked this case so much so I simply ignored this No. 1 rule for doing any service-based businesses. I'm glad that I have great partners like Phillip helped me mitigate risks in this specific case. Working with partners who are also veteran entrepreneures yields the least friction to me;
• LLM/AI startup isn't for EVERY investor, self-claimed or veteran, and curious product managers like myself. But given a sound partnership/business model, I might accept another LLM/AI project and contribute my intellects and energy to it. Rising tide lifts all boats!
• Cherish all partners and team mates from DAY ONE and respect their work all along. I am so happy that I discovered Artem, Ron and Javen for their professionalism, drives and tech expertise regarding the green field of LLMs/AI. After this case, we know how better we can help each other out for new cases/projects.

Partners and Communities

Phillip is back on top of our partners list with AFL project and will continue to be on other Web3 projects. Along the journey, I also discovered Leo and a few other top layers in the intersection of AI x Web3, thanks to the kind referral by Eric. The smooth conversations we had on the many Web3 and DeFi / DePIN projects convinced me that I'm onto something big and long-lasting, regardless all the noises and drama in the speculators-dominated social media on crypto.

Given the risks and legal concerns, I'm not disclosing any Web3 projects here (inside mainland China). If you're interested in a coffee chat / zoom call, you can book my time slot here.

Stayed tuned for Q4 2023 status report from me, a lonely but happy product guy who never stop exploring the frontiers of technologies.