Don Nichol

@henrythe9ths AI guide

There's a shocking fact about AI that nobody tells you: You can catch up to the public AI research frontier in just 2 weeks. Yes, really. I've built a $150M annual revenue startup over the last 8 years and If I were to start a company today, I’d drop everything and go all-in on AI. But like many busy software builders, I felt lost—overwhelmed by the noisy, crowded and fast-moving modern AI landscape. And I wasn’t alone. So I spent my entire holiday diving deep into AI research—reading 30+ papers, watching hours of lectures, analyzing trends, and catching up to the research frontier. ✨ Here’s what I learned: - You don’t need months (or years) to catch up. - You don’t need a PhD or decades of ML experience. - You need fewer than 20 papers and 2 weeks to understand the major breakthroughs shaping AI today. It's because the technology is extremely nascent and most techniques that came before are no longer relevant: - ChatGPT is barely 2 years old and Transformers are only 7 years old. - Most game-changing discoveries happened within the last 4 years, driven by a few breakthrough ideas, scaling laws, and efficient matrix multiplication. The biggest secret? Many groundbreaking AI papers with thousands of citations are surprisingly simple and applied, like adding "let's think step by step" to the prompt, or simply asking the LLM over and over again to improve its answer (Self-Refine). I realized there are tons of founders and builders in the same boat—wanting to dive deeper into AI but unsure where to start. I've created an essential AI Guide that helped me catch up, in just 2 weeks, to the frontier of public AI research to figure out where the next opportunities and gaps were: - Curated list of only the most important papers - Simple explanations of key concepts - Clear pathway to understanding the frontier of modern AI It’s perfect for: - Founders expanding into AI - Builders wanting to innovate at the frontier of AI - Investors looking to separate the signal from the noise 👇 Want the full guide? - Like and Share this post - Comment "AI Guide" - I'll send you the complete guide (ps, I’m also teaming up with @VishalVasishth, co-founder of @obviousvc with @ev (focused on large-scale societal impact companies like Twitter, Medium, Beyond Meat), to host a small meetup to discuss what's working and needs to be solved in the AI stack in SF. Message me if you're interested)

This space really highlights how global our community is and we want to say thanks to everyone who joined, to those amazing dragons from Nigeria all the way to our friends in Canada. 🌍🐉🇳🇬🇨🇦 It’s also great to hear all of your questions, so let's summarize a few of the key things we went over:

🐉 #SMOG X Space Recap 🐉 #Dragons came out in full force on Friday to make our latest X space a roaring success. Listen back to the positive vibes and hear some top-notch roars here 👉 x.com/SMOGToken/stat…

#Heads up Dragons! 🛡️ 🚨 Remember, #SMOG won't initiate contact with you first! Avoid fake SMOG accounts! ❌ ✅ Trust only this verified $SMOG profile! 🐉 #CryptoSecurity #Memecoins #Altcoins

Just a quick update regarding the winners of the previous X Space #Giveaway! 🎉 The 4 winners have been chosen! 🏆 @H000CH13 @Janekturysta98 @G11000Carol @ChicVintageVixn Congratulations #Dragons! 🐉🎊 #SMOGSOAR #SMOG #Memecoisn #Altcoins

S2 of the greatest #Airdrop of all time is blazing hot! 🔥 Buy, trade, swap, and burn to earn the most XP in Season 2! 💰 Complete community Quests on @zealy_io for even more XP! 🎮 Get ready for the kick-off of Phase 1 of the airdrop coming soon! 🚀 🌐bit.ly/SmogAirdrop

Hello #Dragons! 🐉 We've launched a special group for our community! 🌟 The #SMOG Senate is NOW LIVE! 🎉 Join our exclusive #Discord channel where you can suggest and vote on $SMOG topics and earn some extra XP! 💬🔥📊 discord.com/channels/10431…

#SMOG #Airdrop S2 Essentials!🐉 1️⃣ #Trade $SMOG for XP 2️⃣ Accomplish #Zealy Quests to earn XP 3️⃣ Different leaderboards for on-chain actions and quests 4️⃣ Revealing the process of holding and burning XP step-by-step Stay tuned for the beginning of Phase 1 of the airdrop!🚀

Starting the week off with some strong fire #Dragons! 🔥 #SMOG Season 2 has now reached over 15,000 participants! 🎉 In only 4 DAYS! ⏰ Now that’s a great milestone! 🌟 Let’s keep the momentum going, join #Zealy now and complete some daily quests! 🚀 bit.ly/SmogAirdrop

Feeling prepared to level up your #SMOG journey? 🌟 Jump aboard our #Discord for an exhilarating voyage! 🚀 Progress from #Airdrop Explorer ➡️ Trading Apprentice ➡️ Dragon’s Advocate! 🐲 Every tier reveals new quests and greater incentives! 🎁🔥 🐉 discord.com/invite/WBRBkk9…

And this is why our #SMOG #Dragons are unstoppable! 🐉🔥💪 #Memecoins #Altcoins #Crypto #Web3 #Binance #Solana #SMOGSOAR

🐉Beware of #SMOG scams!🚨 We've noticed a surge in fake accounts posing as $SMOG representatives, promising giveaways, promotions, or support services!⚠️ We never initiate contact via DMs.❌ Always verify URLs before sharing personal info.🔍 Protect the #SMOG community!💪🔒

This one was so good it had to come again! 🐉🔥 This is #SMOGGG! 🛡️⚔️ #SMOG #Memecoins #Altcoins #Crypto #Web3 #Binance #Solana #SMOGSOAR #BONK

Who’s ready for Season 2 of the $SMOG #Airdrop? 💨 Earn XP through on-chain activities and by completing quests on #Zealy! 🎮 Keep an eye on the leaderboard and stay tuned for updates. 👀 Let's make this season even more epic than the previous one! 🚀 bit.ly/BuySmog

#SMOG is on its way to dominate the realm of #Memecoins! 🚀🐲 #Altcoins #Crypto #Web3 #Binance #Solana #SMOGSOAR

#SMOG is always busy with getting rid of @bonk_inu 🐲🔥 #Memecoins #Altcoins #Crypto #Web3 #Binance #SOL #SMOGSOAR #BONK

#SMOG #Airdrop S2 Essentials! 🐉 1️⃣ Trade $SMOG for XP 2️⃣ Complete #Zealy Quests for XP 3️⃣ Separate leaderboards for on-chain activity and Quests 4️⃣ Holding and burning XP will be unveiled progressively Stay tuned as Phase 1 of the #Airdrop will be starting soon! 🔥🚀

🔥#SMOG Season 2 is on fire!🚀 We have collected the latest statistics from @zealy_io showing how strong #SMOG S2 is going!📊 🎯Quests Completed: 235,704 🐲Live Participants: 13,194 Get involved now, start trading $SMOG, and complete more quests!💰🎮 bit.ly/SmogAirdrop

What an exciting moment, #Dragons! 🎊 Surpassing 115,000 holders, our #SMOG family is expanding rapidly! 🚀🔥 Let's raise our spirits together and continue our journey to new heights! 🐉💪 bit.ly/SmogAirdrop #Crypto #SOL #Binance #Altcoins #Memecoins #SMOGSOAR