Merryl DMello | AI × Automation × Anime 🔮

Took me 15 years and 12 failed projects to learn one lesson: The next shiny idea isn't better Doubling down on what works is better Here's my embarrassing journey 🧵

@AmeeStelloAI Thank you Amee, and when you do reach the phase of being a true operator you end up freeing yourself from the shackles of mediocrity.

@MerrylDmello Reaching the stage where systems build systems separates casual users from true operators.

claude code mastery path: week 1: follow tutorials week 4: build custom skills week 8: skills that write skills this is the compounding most people never reach because they stop at week 2.

@ItsAkhilMishra Very true Akhil. It is the obsessed who are going to rule the world. You learn, you execute and you earn.

@MerrylDmello You are more likely to learn better because of it

everyone: "learn AI" me: become obsessed with AI there's a difference between taking a course and rebuilding your entire operating system around a technology. tourists vs. natives.

unpopular opinion: AI won't kill open source it'll flood it with garbage, sure but the real shift? ideas execute themselves now look at cursor, bolt.new, v0 prototypes that used to take weeks now take hours look at openclaw the moat isn't code anymore it's knowing which problems are worth solving everyone can build few know what to build that's the new advantage

why is everyone scared of OpenClaw's vulnerabilities but not their own? your codebase has bugs too. you shipped it anyway. if you are too scared, try claude cowork with scheduling on it, though it's gonna be heavy on your pocket.

2013: saw my team so hard one of them mentally broke 2026: i automated the parts that break humans not sure if that's progress or just offloading guilt to machines.

17 years: manual everything 1 year: automated infrastructure 6 months: AI automates decisions the curve is vertical now.

@ItsAkhilMishra A crazy lot of time, a whole lot of learning. I've seen my time being freed up to do a whole lot of other things on my plate.

@MerrylDmello You learn a lot because of it and also you save a lot of your time too

using AI for investment analysis, business strategy, technical decisions, language learning. this isn't "productivity." cognitive augmentation. you're either doing it or you're competing against people who are.

george mack's high agency framework: "act like outcomes depend on you" applied to AI: don't wait for tools to mature. build with broken tools. fix them. ship anyway. agency > perfection.

@ItsAkhilMishra I think about the impatience I have in me, that gets converted into drive that leads me to be patient. Patience is definitely something that is needed in this process.

Working on my law firm has shown me- Every step takes time. Patience is part of the process. Yet, when I believe in what I’m creating, I never lose the drive to keep going.

@MakadiaHarsh User centric thinking. That's a differentiator. I wish more clients would think this through, I've met so many with half baked ideas of their own, not really bothering about their own users. Have no idea how they drove revenue.

I was competing against 3 agencies for a project. Same scope. Same budget. Same timeline. The client picked me. He said - "You were the only one who asked about our users." The other 3 pitched their tech stack. Their frameworks. Their process. I asked - "Who's going to use this every day and what do they hate about the current system?" That one question cost me nothing. And it separated me from everyone else in the room. Clients don't hire the best coder. They hire the person who makes them feel understood.

@ShaanVP Atleast Covid stopped somewhere. The AI infection is not going to stop, it's only going to spread some more. Effects wouldn't be negative as in covid, but could be negative as well as positive.

Covid == scientists accidentally creating a super virus that infects us all AI == computer scientists accidentally creating a super intelligence that affects us all

@BrettFromDJ This is just going nuts! It is quite plausible given the current AI field. But are you willing to hand over your wallet to get this going? Little to no experience folks getting on this and getting shot down. That's something that would be sad to watch.

This is super cool. Forget building websites in one shot. How about entire businesses. 🤯 The world is getting wild ya'll.

@Codie_Sanchez It truly is a luxury. A luxury with shackled chains for most high agency people. Just broke out of it, going back into the wild.

A luxury that no one realized was a real luxury, having job security.

Pretty interesting one. I already have a B1 level in German, but I have to progress to B2 which is a cut above the others. So, I had to brainstorm and come up with a curriculum that suits me first, of course with claude. And then finally, start with the curriculum, and it adjusts with the learnings and explains details that I need. Better than using duolingo or a lot of the stuff that is already out there. P.S.: Sounds straightforward, but I think a novice user of claude needs to first get their hands wet with using it and then they'll be able to do this pretty nicely!

@MerrylDmello Love this - how are you going about it? What do you tell it?

learning german with claude daily. not for fun. for business. when AI speaks every language, so should you.

using AI for investment analysis, business strategy, technical decisions, language learning. this isn't "productivity." it is cognitive augmentation. you're either doing it or you're competing against people who are.

nobody talks about this: AI might be the best crisis tool that exists. last week: claude for analysis and for live updates. reddit for ground truth. not for content. for evacuation routes while missiles intercepted 1km away.