Yo, This Thing is Broken!

BUILD NOTES #1 // A series about going from creative-who-feared-code to building real things with AI

I didn't set out to learn what an API was. I just wanted to not get left behind.

About a year ago, I could feel AI reshaping the creative world. My world. I'm a freelance creative. I think in mood boards and vibes, not code. But the ground was shifting, so I enrolled in MIT Sloan and CSAIL's Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy program. Six weeks of machine learning, NLP, robotics, generative AI. All through the lens of what it means for business, not how to build it.

The program was exactly what I needed and not enough at the same time.

Every week my brain was on fire. I was connecting dots between my creative career and what was suddenly possible. Meeting sharp people from different industries, all figuring out the same thing. Ideas were everywhere.

But I kept hitting this wall: I understand the strategy. I see the opportunity. I just can't touch any of the buttons.

So I started trying. On my own, outside the coursework, I messed around with ChatGPT and n8n. I had this music project I'd been carrying around forever, and I figured I'd try to build it. Frustrating as hell. ChatGPT kept dragging me down paths that had nothing to do with what I was making. Nothing was focused. It felt like trying to build a house while someone keeps handing you random tools and pointing in different directions.

I remember telling one of my professors, "Yo, this thing is broken. It's like a really smart kid with ADHD."

He said: "Yes. We provided the scaffold. Now you guys need to build the house."

That hit different.

The program gave me the scaffold. The strategy, the mental models, the confidence to know this was real. But nobody was going to build the house for me.

If you're a creative on the sideline right now, watching AI reshape your industry, the scaffold is there. But at some point you have to touch the buttons. Even if you have no idea what you're doing. Especially if you have no idea what you're doing.

Next up: Build Notes #2, "I Just Wanted to Send My Homies a Song"