I just came out of a disaster of a sales meeting. The client was hostile, and I can actually understand why. My vertical is filled with 99.9% thieves and thugs, and the stigma of working with AI is real. It's a gold rush, and like always it attracts all the wrong people.
If you don't believe me, then please log in to LinkedIn and try to find one of your contacts not being an alleged "AI expert" these days.
My Credentials
My credentials was one of the things the client was asking me about. I don't like bragging about myself face to face with clients, so I tried to tell him how long I've been working with software development and AI. The guy then asked why I could deliver images in our AI chatbot while nobody else could. I tried to explain, but was met with scepticism and hostility. However, if you must know, I wrote the following article 7 years ago - It was the 5th most popular article Microsoft had ever published throughout their entire history when it was published.
The above was published 7 years ago. How many of your "LinkedIn AI Experts" do you think were even thinking about AI and software development back in 2017?
The above article is the foundation for our Magic Cloud technology, allowing us to serve images in the AI chatbot. I could explain exactly why in details, but that would require weeks of your time to simply listen to me and understand my explanation. I assume you've got better things to do than to listen to me talk about our technology for weeks.
I started coding when I was 8 years old. I'm 50 now. This implies I've got 42 years of experience, 30 as a professional. I still code 60 hours per week. This implies I've got some roughly 90,000 hours of software development experience in total.
In the island of Cyprus, I'm the by far most productive GitHub developer with some roughly 12,000 commits. If you check out my username which is "polterguy", you will only see me on 4th place or something - However, this is because GitHub resets commits back to zero if you change your email address, and I really don't give a sjit, so I've not bothered to fix it. If you want to know "my credentials", then look at my work.
However, if you sum up all the commits I've had in this period, including those I had before I changed my email address (twice!), I've got more than twice as many commits as the guy who is now on 1st place. Implying, I'm a 200% more productive software developer amongst 18,000 software developers than the guy who's number 2 on that same list.
There are roughly 18,000 developers in the Island of Cyprus, and GitHub started measuring commits about 5 years ago. This implies that even at the age of 50, I am still the by far most productive software developer in existence amongst 18,000 other software developers. Don't ask me why, my only answer to why would be as follows ...
Maybe they're lazy ...?
If you've got issues with this, don't bring it up with me. Go ask the 18,000 other guys instead. They're the ones having a problem, not me ...
Zero Bullshit Tolerance
Sorry guys, my bullshitometer is zero. If you're more interested in finding holes in my explanations, and ask sceptical questions, instead of trying to find a common ground for how I can help you deliver AI solutions to your problem - Then I simply have better things to do.
I've got more than enough clients to have a comfortable life and income, clients who knows what I'm capable of doing, and trusts me to deliver AI solutions to them, having experienced it over and over again. I really don't have the time to defend myself against subtle accusations.
This is why I only take on projects I for some reasons think are interesting projects, and I ignore all the others. This week alone, I've turned down two clients who had already started a subscription with me, because I didn't want to work with them.
I'm not a scammer, and I'm just as sorry as you are that 95% of every single Fortune 500 company ipso facto is, in addition to 99.9% of all AI chatbot companies - It's really quite intolerable for me, and I hope you can understand my predicament here. However, it is what it is, and I don't know what to tell you, besides the following ...
I can deliver images in my AI chatbot because contrary to SalesForce, HubSpot, ZenDesk, and Five9, I'm not a scam artist, and I actually take great pride in my work - Where the others are simply lying in their quarterly reports due to FOMO, to artificially inflate their stock evaluations, such that their lying CEOs can quadruple their annual bonus. Don't like it, then don't bring it up with me, bring it up with SalesForce! The fact that SalesForce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Five9, and literally 99.9% of every single AI chatbot vendor out there happens to be a hot smoking pile of garbage is literally not my problem, and I don't intend to make it mine either.
If you got a link to this article, it implies we're set for a meeting some time soon - At which point I want you to read this article very, very, very carefully - Because my time is simply too valuable to have to spend it to defend myself against other peoples' scams.
Sorry, it's nothing personal, but these are the terms for getting to spend time with me. Don't like it? Chose another AI chatbot vendor. I refuse to apologise for having a kick ass product - If you want an apology, go ask Marc Benioff for one ...
How I deal with people questioning my integrity
Today I had a meeting with a client. My integrity was questioned, which results in me becoming grumpy and angry. My anger spills on to my wife, which again becomes angry because I'm angry. This results in me getting a shitty life, and I simply don't need it. I therefore cancelled the client's subscription. They had already started a professional plan, but I'm in the fortunate situation where I can choose my clients, and I simply don't want clients in my life questioning my integrity.
You can scream at me to implement a feature, fix a bug, or create a new theme, and I won't care because it's something I can fix - But if you question my integrity, it's bye, bye. AINIRO is a single employee company, and when you're in a meeting with me, you're looking at literally 100% of the employees in the company.
I used to have a VC dude a couple of years ago. He was a billionaire and claimed to be having 15,000 employees. Still he'd spend 2 hours on the phone with me, every single day, questioning my integrity, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year, for 18 months - And I'm done with it. After a couple of years trying to defend my integrity, I basically told him to go føkk himself.
Below you can see the end result of the meeting I had today. If you've got doubts about my integrity, then please go find somebody else, because I will not spend my time defending it, I'll simply cancel your subscription, and wish you good luck ...
Nothing personal, I simply don't want to spend my time defending my integrity. If you're wondering about my integrity, you can check out my work. If my work don't speak for itself, then go find somebody else to deliver your AI solution, because I simply won't do it!
My work speaks for itself. If you need my "credentials", my only answer from now on will be "go føkk yourself"! If you can't see "my credentials" from my work, I suggest you go find an "AI expert" on LinkedIn. They've got amazing credentials I've heard 😊
Top comments (4)
sooooo disappointed in that breakup message. I was expecting:
"I shit 20 pull requests before you even wake up son. Don't ever question my tegridy. - Bye"
Hahaha :D
Next time ^_^
I actually did find this interesting. I hope i reach your level one day.
Thank you, once you do, do not underestimate your own value ...