Six Months After My Post-AI Manifesto - A Reflection

Six months ago, I posted my post-AI manifesto.

It was meant to lay out what I'd do - and what I'd suggest anyone do - to stay ahead of AI, to thrive despite it, back when everything around us was uncertainty.

Now, six months later, the uncertainty has faded.

Back then I'd exited my SaaS fintech business and my consulting business. I was basically 'jobless' - a founder leading a team with nothing obvious to lead them toward.

There were days we didn't know what to work on, because I had killed our businesses.

That same January, I let one of the team go.

It wasn't easy. Looking back, it was my first real action after writing the manifesto.

If I'd pretended we were still playing the SaaS game, I would have kept them - but I knew that game was already over for us.

Today, as some of you know, SimpleDirect - the company whose SaaS and fintech business I killed in December - has become an AI lab.

Here's what happened to each of the five layers, and why they've held up even six months on.

Layer 1: Identity

I leaned hard on identity, because it's the one thing most people won't do.

I know people who say they want to build their brand but hide behind faceless avatar accounts.

People who thought writing blog posts with AI would earn them SEO discoverability - it didn't. I know, because I was doing exactly that a year ago.

I'm George Pu. I'm an entrepreneur building in Canada.

I'm on nearly every major platform, and I kept my posting cadence through all of it - through being busy, through having too much going on.

I just kept showing up.

I removed any goal of making a single dollar from content. I turned off ads on almost every YouTube video.

The point was always to connect with people - to let more of them know who I am and what I'm here to do.

Today that's Vinci. Years from now it might be something else (though I hope I'm still working on Vinci then).

Either way, I'm George. People follow me, not my companies.

Layer 2: Relationships

Layer 2 got stronger over the past few months.

I've learned a lot about people - especially about how they behave when you appear to be doing well.

Strangers, and people I hadn't heard from in years, suddenly 'reach out', and what they want is a piece of you.

I now walk away from these people without shame. Every extra minute is a drain.

I don't feel bad cutting the wrong people out of my life anymore.

And I cherish the real ones - authentic relationships with real people.

If anything, the AI age has made those connections matter more, not less.

I expect that to continue. I'm glad for the people I have - the ones who aren't here to extract from me.

Layer 3: Stakes

People who work with me privately say they learn far more about me than I share publicly.

That's something I want to change over the next few months - to put more of myself out into the world.

On stakes, this couldn't be more true. AI has no stakes.

Now that I know where I'm going, I lean on AI less and less, and trust myself more.

That's a big change. Six months ago, when everything was uncertain, I asked AI constantly - day and night, prompting and probing, trying to make sense of it all.

These days I write every email myself, without AI.

I make decisions without it - except when I want a second opinion. But I decide, not the model.

And I now know when AI is wrong immediately, without hesitation.

That's the stakes working. I can feel the weight now - building Vinci, building my own thing.

It's a feature, not a bug.

Layer 4: Selection

This one matters most.

Today, anyone can have all the software-building resources in the world.

Our own model, Piccolo, out-built what I'd have expected from a strong engineer a decade ago on the tasks I threw at it - and that was genuinely surprising. (It still breaks on the hard stuff, which is exactly why selection matters more, not less.)

So I'm far more selective about what to build and what to leave alone.

More importantly, I know when to stop. The novelty of building has worn off.

Now it's about making good decisions - knowing which battles are mine to fight and which ones to walk away from.

Knowing what to choose is a blessing.

Layer 5: Accountability

Every decision I make is public, and open to scrutiny.

I'm not sure I'm used to it yet - it's still new. But I love feedback. I love when someone tells me I'm wrong.

When someone tells me everything is great, I get nervous, because it usually means they aren't telling me the truth.

I'm accountable for my work.

But most of all, I'm accountable for my health - mental and physical. Without either, I can't function.

That's my number one priority. Not the work. My health.

I'm here for the long run.

That means being accountable to myself, to the people around me, and to what I set out to do.

When I'm busy, I let things slide - but never my health.

Six months on

So yes - it's been six months.

I went from not knowing what to do, even if that was by design, to moving fast and reclaiming who I am.

If the original manifesto helped you, I hope this update does too.

But if you take one thing from it, take this: six months ago, I was asking AI what to do. Today I tell it.

That's the whole difference.