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Byron Mackay: Hey there everybody.
Byron Mackay: Welcome to tonight's night school. My
Byron Mackay: name is Byron. It's good to see you all.
Byron Mackay: Well, good to be with you and I'm
Byron Mackay: excited to talk to you about tonight's
Byron Mackay: topic. Uh it's it's one that I spend a
Byron Mackay: lot of time with. I'm the director of
Byron Mackay: learning here at uh Gauntlet and we're
Byron Mackay: going to be talking about the
Byron Mackay: environment, the learning environment,
Byron Mackay: which uh may not sound like most
Byron Mackay: exciting, but I'm going to do my very
Byron Mackay: best to make it exciting. Uh there's a
Byron Mackay: lot that we do here at Gauntlet that
Byron Mackay: really focuses on the environment and uh
Byron Mackay: it's part big part of my job is to make
Byron Mackay: sure that what we teach and how we learn
Byron Mackay: and the experience we have here uh helps
Byron Mackay: you become the best engineer that you
Byron Mackay: can. Um, especially in the age of AI
Byron Mackay: when everything's changing and moving so
Byron Mackay: quickly, it's uh it's it's a hard it's a
Byron Mackay: it's a it's a hard and interesting
Byron Mackay: challenge for us to make these
Byron Mackay: adjustments and the faster we can do it,
Byron Mackay: the more successful we will be. Um I
Byron Mackay: talk to a lot of great engineers all the
Byron Mackay: time and it's so interesting to hear uh
Byron Mackay: especially ones that have gone through
Byron Mackay: this before when it was now things are
Byron Mackay: moved to the cloud now we have mobile
Byron Mackay: development and now we have AI and then
Byron Mackay: it all comes back to well now people
Byron Mackay: still need cobalt developers and these
Byron Mackay: uh this vast experience of going through
Byron Mackay: these changes and seeing how things can
Byron Mackay: revert and how they learn and stayed up
Byron Mackay: to date um is really inspiring and it's
Byron Mackay: shaped shaped a little. It's kind of
Byron Mackay: molded and helped molded what we've um
Byron Mackay: what we've been able to accomplish here.
Byron Mackay: So, I'm going to share some of those
Byron Mackay: learnings with you all today uh as you
Byron Mackay: all embark and really uh you know
Byron Mackay: traverse this uh this new age that we're
Byron Mackay: in. So, without further ado, I'm going
Byron Mackay: to uh put up some slides and we'll go
Byron Mackay: through we'll go through this and I'll
Byron Mackay: talk through it all. Um, and please feel
Byron Mackay: free uh to ask questions. Um, I will be
Byron Mackay: uh I will be answering them as we go.
Byron Mackay: Um, and I have a lot to say. So, please
Byron Mackay: answer ask ask any questions you have.
Byron Mackay: Help me uh address you what you want to
Byron Mackay: learn out of tonight. Um, so that we can
Byron Mackay: you can get the most out of it. All
Byron Mackay: right. Give me just a moment here as I
Byron Mackay: uh pull these up really quick.
Byron Mackay: Okay.
Byron Mackay: Let me just get configure my screens
Byron Mackay: here a bit so I make sure I can see
Byron Mackay: everything and everybody. Okay.
Byron Mackay: So,
Byron Mackay: tonight's presentation is titled why the
Byron Mackay: environment beats the lesson plan. Uh
Byron Mackay: there are lots of ways to learn, but
Byron Mackay: there are also ways to learn fast and
Byron Mackay: effectively.
Byron Mackay: And it does not require allnighters. It
Byron Mackay: does not require your head being in a
Byron Mackay: book all day and it does not require you
Byron Mackay: to hit your head constantly against a
Byron Mackay: problem until you figure it out.
Byron Mackay: Sometimes we romanticize that. We see
Byron Mackay: these montages of people learning and
Byron Mackay: growing and doing all the hard things uh
Byron Mackay: by themselves. And quite frankly, that
Byron Mackay: is a one way to learn it. And you'll get
Byron Mackay: there eventually, but you won't get
Byron Mackay: there very fast. And so I want to talk
Byron Mackay: about tonight are some strategies and
Byron Mackay: some ideas and concepts that you can
Byron Mackay: take to improve your environment and
Byron Mackay: what that requires.
Byron Mackay: So first I want to show this. This is
Byron Mackay: the 702010 model. The 702010 model was
Byron Mackay: developed by the center for creative
Byron Mackay: leadership and it shows you what su what
Byron Mackay: a successful uh distribution of of
Byron Mackay: exercises looks like in terms of
Byron Mackay: learning. Now, I want you to look at the
Byron Mackay: right side. That is formal training.
Byron Mackay: That you might think, Byron, that's what
Byron Mackay: you do for a living is formal training.
Byron Mackay: You're right. I do. I'm 10% of the
Byron Mackay: equation. I'm necessary. Well, formal
Byron Mackay: training is necessary, right? But it's
Byron Mackay: just a small piece of it. Look at these
Byron Mackay: other two. Interactions with others,
Byron Mackay: 20%. It's so important, and we're going
Byron Mackay: to talk about that. on the job
Byron Mackay: experience critical, right? Huge piece
Byron Mackay: of how we learn. So, you combine all
Byron Mackay: these things together and then you start
Byron Mackay: to find there's this sweet spot. There's
Byron Mackay: this place where you can accelerate and
Byron Mackay: go really, really fast. Um, somebody
Byron Mackay: mentioned that the slide isn't showing.
Byron Mackay: I just want to make sure that it is
Byron Mackay: working. Can anybody else uh same issue?
Byron Mackay: Okay, so we've got Oh, you know what? I
Byron Mackay: know why. Hold on. Hold on.
Byron Mackay: That's the one. Personal problem. User
Byron Mackay: error. I apologize. So, let me touch on
Byron Mackay: this one more time real quick. Um,
Byron Mackay: formal training 10%. Right? Very, very
Byron Mackay: small piece. Look at this. The other 90%
Byron Mackay: big chunk of it on the job experience.
Byron Mackay: Another chunk of it interacting with
Byron Mackay: others. You put all these together and
Byron Mackay: now you're going to get ahead. you're
Byron Mackay: going to move so much faster. Um, I have
Byron Mackay: been in the boat where I have just been
Byron Mackay: trying to do the 70% the on the job
Byron Mackay: experience, right? I've been in that I
Byron Mackay: would stay there and I would just work
Byron Mackay: my head down typing away on the
Byron Mackay: computer, making apps thinking, "Oh, I'm
Byron Mackay: going I'm learning so much." And to my
Byron Mackay: to my effort, I was right. But the
Byron Mackay: problem is is I lived in a silo. I don't
Byron Mackay: know if any of you have felt that way,
Byron Mackay: but you live in your own little silo and
Byron Mackay: you just think, I'm doing it because I'm
Byron Mackay: building and doing something. It feels
Byron Mackay: really productive. But at the end of the
Byron Mackay: day, if you ever poke your head out of
Byron Mackay: the silo and you look around, other
Byron Mackay: people are going in different
Byron Mackay: directions. They've got different ideas.
Byron Mackay: And it's the ones that interact with
Byron Mackay: each other that really uh start to
Byron Mackay: explore and get out of their comfort
Byron Mackay: zone, start doing more. They get out of
Byron Mackay: their silos. they get out of their echo
Byron Mackay: chambers and they start to accelerate
Byron Mackay: even more. And then there's this piece
Byron Mackay: of it where we still need some formal
Byron Mackay: training. We still need to sit down,
Byron Mackay: have somebody get up there and say,
Byron Mackay: "This is how we do it and this is the
Byron Mackay: way it's going." And we put all that
Byron Mackay: together and suddenly we can move a
Byron Mackay: whole lot faster. So it's a balancing
Byron Mackay: act of of a sort that we need to go for.
Byron Mackay: I want to make that that point very
Byron Mackay: clear because I think it's very easy as
Byron Mackay: engineers and especially in the world
Byron Mackay: where we have an LLM that's constantly
Byron Mackay: on that we can just talk to all the
Byron Mackay: time. It doesn't count that doesn't
Byron Mackay: count as as your friend as you're
Byron Mackay: interacting with your other I'm just
Byron Mackay: going to say that out loud right now.
Byron Mackay: They have a place they're very important
Byron Mackay: very powerful but they're not your
Byron Mackay: friend that you're going to talk to. So
Byron Mackay: we'll we'll talk about a little more of
Byron Mackay: that in a second here. But I first want
Byron Mackay: to focus on that 70%.
Byron Mackay: doing is better is more than consuming.
Byron Mackay: Right? I think that we I think we can
Byron Mackay: all attest to this in our careers that
Byron Mackay: reading a book doesn't make you an
Byron Mackay: expert. Right? Listening to YouTube
Byron Mackay: videos doesn't make you an expert. It
Byron Mackay: produces some ideas. It gives you some
Byron Mackay: direction, but it's not going to take
Byron Mackay: you from where you are to an expert
Byron Mackay: level. There needs to be doing. and
Byron Mackay: doing is going to take you far further
Byron Mackay: than consuming ever will because there's
Byron Mackay: just things that you will not learn just
Byron Mackay: from consuming. Now I'm this is also
Byron Mackay: true when it comes to learning with
Byron Mackay: LLMs. LM can get us over humps and
Byron Mackay: hurdles and do all sorts of great things
Byron Mackay: for us but we still have to do it. And I
Byron Mackay: worry sometimes that as engineers uh
Byron Mackay: with coding agents as good as they are
Byron Mackay: that we're missing that boat. That's one
Byron Mackay: thing at Gaunt that we really strive for
Byron Mackay: where we use coding agents, we leverage
Byron Mackay: coding agents, but we push ourselves to
Byron Mackay: do more with them. We push ourselves to
Byron Mackay: do a lot more with them so that we can
Byron Mackay: build these new skill sets that we need
Byron Mackay: today. Um, we have very difficult
Byron Mackay: assignments. Sometimes we do many
Byron Mackay: hackathons where it's very time
Byron Mackay: constrained and we're seeing how fast we
Byron Mackay: can push the agents. Other times we do
Byron Mackay: longer planning sessions so we can talk
Byron Mackay: it through. And all of these things are
Byron Mackay: ways that you can uh you can stop and
Byron Mackay: have different perspective and really
Byron Mackay: analyze what we're trying to accomplish
Byron Mackay: here. Not just building, not just
Byron Mackay: building for building sake. Um but
Byron Mackay: rather we're building and we're doing
Byron Mackay: these these exercises that get our minds
Byron Mackay: thinking again, that get our minds
Byron Mackay: really churning and doing. But there's
Byron Mackay: an there's even more that we can do.
Byron Mackay: There's one better than doing
Byron Mackay: and that's doing plus feedback.
Byron Mackay: Um, this is one one this is one of those
Byron Mackay: cases where you step out of the echo
Byron Mackay: chamber and you go in and actually get
Byron Mackay: this feedback. It's it's amazing how
Byron Mackay: quickly you can learn. And there's
Byron Mackay: actually full there's a lot of studies
Byron Mackay: around this. In fact, there's one uh
Byron Mackay: where they did it uh on violinists
Byron Mackay: and they asked they they they kind of
Byron Mackay: grouped violinists into groups saying
Byron Mackay: these are the top tier violinists. Um
Byron Mackay: these are your your mid-tier violinists.
Byron Mackay: And then they had the third group they
Byron Mackay: called the the violin teachers. And they
Byron Mackay: said, "Okay, how much focused time did
Byron Mackay: you do growing up uh to become this
Byron Mackay: proficient at uh the violin?" Well, how
Byron Mackay: many hours did you put in? And uh who
Byron Mackay: who would who would want to take a
Byron Mackay: guess? The number is quite a popular
Byron Mackay: number. I'll just throw that hint out
Byron Mackay: there. But who can guess how many hours
Byron Mackay: they put in to be an an expert?
Byron Mackay: Steven nailed it. Steven nailed it. It's
Byron Mackay: 10,000 hours, but not just 10,000 hours
Byron Mackay: of practice. 10,000 hours of focused,
Byron Mackay: feedbackdriven practice.
Byron Mackay: And that was the that was the key
Byron Mackay: differentiator. The ones in the middle
Byron Mackay: also put in a lot of hours, but they may
Byron Mackay: not have had the feedback that the that
Byron Mackay: the better group had. Um, it was a that
Byron Mackay: feedback loop was was impressively
Byron Mackay: impactful
Byron Mackay: and that's something that we want to
Byron Mackay: make sure that we all get. And so we
Byron Mackay: always talk about building in public.
Byron Mackay: We've heard that that's a actually a
Byron Mackay: really great concept when it comes to
Byron Mackay: getting better faster. Now, there is a
Byron Mackay: side of side of you that might like if
Byron Mackay: you're like me, you might go, "Oh, I'm a
Byron Mackay: little nervous about this because I
Byron Mackay: don't want people to say my stuff is
Byron Mackay: bad." Well,
Byron Mackay: we might have to just start getting used
Byron Mackay: to it. If we want to get faster, that's
Byron Mackay: the only that's one of the few ways
Byron Mackay: we're actually going to make sure we get
Byron Mackay: out of ourselves and into a a better a
Byron Mackay: better workplace is by getting that
Byron Mackay: feedback from others. Um, Miriam had a
Byron Mackay: question here. She said, "How do I get
Byron Mackay: over or not heavily focused on the
Byron Mackay: consuming part when learning is a huge
Byron Mackay: part of the process?" That's a great
Byron Mackay: question and uh one that I've personally
Byron Mackay: been kind of mulling over myself. Um
Byron Mackay: the the way we we we do it is one way of
Byron Mackay: doing is to always make sure we're
Byron Mackay: building. We still learn we have we set
Byron Mackay: aside time to consume and consuming is
Byron Mackay: important. it can expand our thoughts,
Byron Mackay: expand our ideas. Um, we really as
Byron Mackay: engineers, we need to know the tools
Byron Mackay: that are out there. We need to know the
Byron Mackay: tools that exist that we can leverage,
Byron Mackay: that we can build with. And to do that,
Byron Mackay: we have to consume a lot of information,
Byron Mackay: right? Um, I'll give you an example.
Byron Mackay: This is one of my favorite examples.
Byron Mackay: It's it's true every time I I talk about
Byron Mackay: it with um
Byron Mackay: we have a lot of a lot of engineers know
Byron Mackay: Typescript. But I imagine many in our
Byron Mackay: audience tonight know TypeScript or have
Byron Mackay: worked with TypeScript. And Typescript
Byron Mackay: is a great language, very powerful, lot
Byron Mackay: of power inside Typescript. There's a
Byron Mackay: feature in Typescript called
Byron Mackay: discriminated unions.
Byron Mackay: And discriminated unions whenever I
Byron Mackay: survey a group of TypeScript engineers.
Byron Mackay: It's not a topic that that a lot of
Byron Mackay: people actually know. Some do, but many
Byron Mackay: don't. Now, if you know discriminated
Byron Mackay: unions, um they're quite powerful.
Byron Mackay: If you don't know what they are, they're
Byron Mackay: they're kind of like interfaces
Byron Mackay: where you can define a a shape and then
Byron Mackay: expand that shape, that data shape. Um,
Byron Mackay: but it's in a very JavaScripty way
Byron Mackay: that's very great inside of Typescript
Byron Mackay: because most people don't know what
Byron Mackay: discriminated unions are or they don't
Byron Mackay: leverage them. Asking an LLM to build a
Byron Mackay: TypeScript app, it's probably not going
Byron Mackay: to use discriminated unions. Why?
Byron Mackay: Because discriminated unions are not
Byron Mackay: part of the mean. They're outside of
Byron Mackay: that. And LLMs converge on the mean.
Byron Mackay: You're going to get average output,
Byron Mackay: which sometimes, most of the time, I'd
Byron Mackay: imagine is probably just fine. But if
Byron Mackay: there's a case where you're like, "No, a
Byron Mackay: discriminated union is exactly what we
Byron Mackay: need right here." You have to be
Byron Mackay: specific and tell it that, and then
Byron Mackay: you'll get your discriminated union and
Byron Mackay: be able to leverage that piece of the of
Byron Mackay: the of the language.
Byron Mackay: So I say all that to say we must consume
Byron Mackay: knowledge because we must be able to
Byron Mackay: know what tools are available. We must
Byron Mackay: have the breath. But at the same time,
Byron Mackay: if we're not building with that
Byron Mackay: knowledge, it's going to sit dormant and
Byron Mackay: we're going to forget it. Our brains
Byron Mackay: will retain more if there's more rigor
Byron Mackay: to remember and implement and understand
Byron Mackay: than if it's just than if there's less
Byron Mackay: rigor. I would say reading a book is
Byron Mackay: considered less rigor in my opinion than
Byron Mackay: trying to implement the thing in real
Byron Mackay: life. When we implement it, that's when
Byron Mackay: the that's when the rigor sets in and
Byron Mackay: our brains are really focused on going,
Byron Mackay: "Oh, this is important stuff. I really
Byron Mackay: need to remember this." And then when we
Byron Mackay: go out into the world and we get
Byron Mackay: feedback on top of that, then we really
Byron Mackay: get that rigor because that's that's
Byron Mackay: emotional. That that can get very
Byron Mackay: emotional for some of us. and we get
Byron Mackay: that feedback and all of a sudden we're
Byron Mackay: going, "Oh, this is this is important.
Byron Mackay: Oh, I see what that person said. They
Byron Mackay: they criticized me for this over here.
Byron Mackay: Maybe it's because I didn't use
Byron Mackay: discriminated union when I should have.
Byron Mackay: I'm not going to forget that as easily
Byron Mackay: next time." And now I've just bumped
Byron Mackay: myself out beyond just the mean and I
Byron Mackay: can go and I can work a lot better and
Byron Mackay: be more effective. So,
Byron Mackay: Miriam, to to circle back to your
Byron Mackay: question, uh, it's always good to be
Byron Mackay: building. Um, always have a project that
Byron Mackay: you're trying to implement, uh, that
Byron Mackay: you're always working on. And it doesn't
Byron Mackay: have to be something that you're reading
Byron Mackay: about. I'm not saying you shouldn't you,
Byron Mackay: uh, what I you can be reading about
Byron Mackay: something totally t you know, totally
Byron Mackay: separate from what you're working on.
Byron Mackay: It's still going to come into play. Just
Byron Mackay: having those thoughts will come into
Byron Mackay: play in the building. you'll have a
Byron Mackay: chance to kind of push things on and get
Byron Mackay: better there. So,
Byron Mackay: all right. So, doing feedback big pieces
Byron Mackay: and at at Gauntlet, we really push this
Byron Mackay: idea a lot. We want you to get lots of
Byron Mackay: feedback. And so, we have multiple
Byron Mackay: deliverables every week. Uh we're up we
Byron Mackay: we have at least three we get up to
Byron Mackay: four, sometimes five different
Byron Mackay: deliverables every week where we're
Byron Mackay: giving you feedback or you're getting
Byron Mackay: feedback in one way or another. Um, and
Byron Mackay: that's really important so that you can
Byron Mackay: see where you're going and what you're
Byron Mackay: doing well and what you can improve on.
Byron Mackay: Um, and if you can build where someone
Byron Mackay: can correct you fast, that is even more
Byron Mackay: critical. The sooner the feedback, the
Byron Mackay: the more you're likely you're going to
Byron Mackay: remember it and implement it and move on
Byron Mackay: faster.
Byron Mackay: So, you want to create that environment
Byron Mackay: for yourself. Um, you can do it here at
Byron Mackay: Gauntlet. There's ways of doing it your
Byron Mackay: own outside of Gauntlet, but you want to
Byron Mackay: make sure you can get that feedback loop
Byron Mackay: pretty quick.
Byron Mackay: All right,
Byron Mackay: next piece. The tribe.
Byron Mackay: The tribe is so important. Um, and I
Byron Mackay: have a lot of personal experience with
Byron Mackay: this one because I've tried both uh both
Byron Mackay: learning formats here when it comes to
Byron Mackay: um formal trainings. Um,
Byron Mackay: so look at these look at these numbers
Byron Mackay: here.
Byron Mackay: If you are in a cohort-based program,
Byron Mackay: you have an 87 to 90% chance of
Byron Mackay: completing it as opposed to a
Byron Mackay: self-directed
Byron Mackay: learning, which is 3 to 15%. By the way,
Byron Mackay: that's also true for when I say
Byron Mackay: self-directed, I also include in there
Byron Mackay: um things like Corsera courses, things
Byron Mackay: where you're just doing it by yourself,
Byron Mackay: where you're into, you're just learning
Byron Mackay: things alone. Um, and I have implemented
Byron Mackay: both programs in my career multiple
Byron Mackay: times, and this holds this holds very
Byron Mackay: accurately to my experience. um that a
Byron Mackay: cohort-based program you are far more
Byron Mackay: likely to complete it than if you're
Byron Mackay: trying to do it by yourself. Um
Byron Mackay: and a big part of that is because of the
Byron Mackay: people you're around, right? If you are
Byron Mackay: sitting in a college class, you're more
Byron Mackay: likely to stick through it rather than
Byron Mackay: watching a video on your computer. Um
Byron Mackay: it's it's also true when you are um
Byron Mackay: working at a company, right? you have
Byron Mackay: your team. Uh why do people have
Byron Mackay: co-founders? Because of this.
Byron Mackay: Because if we go try to go in on
Byron Mackay: ourselves, we're pro we're far less
Byron Mackay: likely to be successful than if we have
Byron Mackay: people who are there to help us build
Byron Mackay: and grow, right? This line here at the
Byron Mackay: bottom is is I think very poignant and
Byron Mackay: and and sings a little bit to me. But
Byron Mackay: it's struggles to become uh struggles
Byron Mackay: become the shared problem instead of a
Byron Mackay: reason to quit. And I think that's so
Byron Mackay: true in my experience, as I'm sure
Byron Mackay: others can relate. But yes, the
Byron Mackay: struggles we have when we're learning on
Byron Mackay: our own can sometimes stop us and go
Byron Mackay: like, I don't even want to do it. Um, I
Byron Mackay: can tell you right now, I'm learning all
Byron Mackay: about security. All about security. I
Byron Mackay: have all these uh I'm learning so much
Byron Mackay: as I'm learning about AI and security
Byron Mackay: and it's a little bit hard for me to
Byron Mackay: kind of like to to want to go and build
Byron Mackay: and try to really get into the the weeds
Byron Mackay: of security. I need somebody else to
Byron Mackay: come with me.
Byron Mackay: And so I'm working on that. So I'm
Byron Mackay: working on on getting people to come
Byron Mackay: with me on that journey so that I can I
Byron Mackay: can have I can share these problems and
Byron Mackay: we can get over them together. Um, here
Byron Mackay: at Gauntlet, we have a tribe of a uh
Byron Mackay: that consists of your cohort mates. Uh,
Byron Mackay: that's a big part of what we do, a big
Byron Mackay: reason why Gauntlet is so impactful, I
Byron Mackay: think, for people. It's not just what
Byron Mackay: you learn, but the network you're
Byron Mackay: building while you're here and your
Byron Mackay: cohort, the people that are in there
Byron Mackay: with you that are doing the same things
Byron Mackay: with you is a big piece of that. You
Byron Mackay: have, of course, your instructors that
Byron Mackay: are teaching you. Um, every week we have
Byron Mackay: a number of lectures and these
Byron Mackay: instructors come in and they all have
Byron Mackay: their different flavor and different
Byron Mackay: style of doing things. Um, but they're
Byron Mackay: there to help you and they we hold
Byron Mackay: office hours to for those instructors to
Byron Mackay: ask to help you with your questions and
Byron Mackay: your projects. We have a great team of
Byron Mackay: engineering experts. Um, and these
Byron Mackay: engineering experts uh are really above
Byron Mackay: and beyond. They are building so much
Byron Mackay: and they uh they come and teach and they
Byron Mackay: will give you their insights on what
Byron Mackay: actually is happening in the world. Um,
Byron Mackay: and finally, we have hiring partners. We
Byron Mackay: have hiring partners, which uh at
Byron Mackay: Gauntlet are the cohort doesn't
Byron Mackay: interface with the hiring partners as
Byron Mackay: much, but I still include them because
Byron Mackay: I'll talk to the hiring partners and
Byron Mackay: I'll hear what their needs are. I'll
Byron Mackay: hear what their concerns are, and then
Byron Mackay: that's something I can take back and
Byron Mackay: say, "Hey everybody, let's let's work
Byron Mackay: this out. Let's figure out this the
Byron Mackay: answer to this problem. How do we
Byron Mackay: address this in a company?" Um, so we
Byron Mackay: kind of get this feedback loop from them
Byron Mackay: that then gets incorporated into our
Byron Mackay: ecosystem and our learning environment
Byron Mackay: and our and and our curriculum. Um, so
Byron Mackay: it just makes for a really cohesive uh
Byron Mackay: environment where everybody is uh is is
Byron Mackay: constantly pushing one another and
Byron Mackay: helping one another and expanding what
Byron Mackay: we already know um into into other
Byron Mackay: areas. So the tribe, the group of people
Byron Mackay: you surround yourself with, the
Byron Mackay: different resources, the different
Byron Mackay: personnel that you can interact with and
Byron Mackay: the value that they bring to your
Byron Mackay: learning, that can go a long way. This
Byron Mackay: can be found also in Slack groups. It
Byron Mackay: can be found in, you know, Reddit
Byron Mackay: threads, um, meetups in your local area,
Byron Mackay: um, of course at your own place of
Byron Mackay: employment, friends, um, you know, going
Byron Mackay: to networking events even. you can talk
Byron Mackay: to some people and get some interesting
Byron Mackay: insights there. Um, so the all different
Byron Mackay: ways that you can build that tribe
Byron Mackay: around you and uh and get some great
Byron Mackay: insights and that's going to help you go
Byron Mackay: a long way. So remember we talked about
Byron Mackay: uh doing um we talked about doing with
Byron Mackay: feedback
Byron Mackay: um and how this tribe can can help
Byron Mackay: provide that feedback in numerous ways
Byron Mackay: to really get you going. And I'll just
Byron Mackay: highlight one more time the rate of
Byron Mackay: success in learning with a good tribe.
Byron Mackay: Um it goes it it's significantly more
Byron Mackay: successful um than without. And I think
Byron Mackay: about all the great engineers I know,
Byron Mackay: they all have this kind of mentality of
Byron Mackay: building their tribe. It's it's really
Byron Mackay: quite impressive. Um and that's one
Byron Mackay: thing at Gauntlet that we feel makes us
Byron Mackay: very successful is is we provide a lot
Byron Mackay: of that environment here for you. Um and
Byron Mackay: and we've seen again in my career I've
Byron Mackay: done both and uh this is by far the way
Byron Mackay: to go and we're going to keep it that
Byron Mackay: way.
Byron Mackay: Um
Byron Mackay: so one of the one of the things that uh
Byron Mackay: we do here at Gauntlet, this is one of
Byron Mackay: the more recent changes that we have. Um
Byron Mackay: but we share ideas constantly here
Byron Mackay: because you're with this group of people
Byron Mackay: who are all trying to understand this AI
Byron Mackay: space and it's changing all the time.
Byron Mackay: Um, we want to share ideas. We want to
Byron Mackay: share what we're working on, right? We
Byron Mackay: want to get that feedback. And that's
Byron Mackay: not new to G. That's always been there
Byron Mackay: since day one because everyone's always
Byron Mackay: talking, always chatting about their
Byron Mackay: stuff. But we've actually kind of
Byron Mackay: encapsulated that into what we call an
Byron Mackay: architecture defense. And what an
Byron Mackay: architecture defense consists of is five
Byron Mackay: of you, five people will have will be
Byron Mackay: given an assignment and it's a case
Byron Mackay: study. And these five people will take
Byron Mackay: this case study and they'll all come up
Byron Mackay: with their own solutions to this case
Byron Mackay: study. And then within hours of
Byron Mackay: receiving the assignment and creating
Byron Mackay: that plan, they will sit in a room
Byron Mackay: together and each one takes a turn
Byron Mackay: presenting their plan.
Byron Mackay: And they get five minutes. And then
Byron Mackay: after they get they give their
Byron Mackay: five-minute presentation, the rest of
Byron Mackay: the group gets five minutes to poke
Byron Mackay: holes, critique, ask all the questions
Byron Mackay: they want.
Byron Mackay: It can be grueling. It can be um it can
Byron Mackay: be difficult to stand up there in front
Byron Mackay: of peers, but they're giving you very
Byron Mackay: valuable feedback in those sessions. And
Byron Mackay: something that I'm very proud of to say
Byron Mackay: has been um very successful. Sometimes
Byron Mackay: it doesn't feel that way cuz it's it's
Byron Mackay: it can feel like you're getting put on
Byron Mackay: the spot and and rightfully so you are.
Byron Mackay: Um but the outputs that we get from it,
Byron Mackay: the the changes that are then made and
Byron Mackay: the direction that people are going is
Byron Mackay: uh has has had a remarkable difference
Byron Mackay: since we started doing those. Um so
Byron Mackay: that's just one one way that we're kind
Byron Mackay: of iterating on these ideas of how we
Byron Mackay: get feedback.
Byron Mackay: Okay.
Byron Mackay: Um I want to talk about uh I want to
Byron Mackay: talk about this here with learning with
Byron Mackay: LMS because
Byron Mackay: it wasn't you know this is a new thing
Byron Mackay: that we have and it's it's really
Byron Mackay: powerful and I don't know if I'm sure
Byron Mackay: many of you have if not all of you have
Byron Mackay: sat down with an element said I don't
Byron Mackay: know what this is explain to me like I'm
Byron Mackay: five and suddenly you get this great
Byron Mackay: explanation and you can go back and ask
Byron Mackay: questions and be like what about in this
Byron Mackay: case or in my life I do this and is this
Byron Mackay: you know is this related Um,
Byron Mackay: and it's it's it's amazing, right? Like
Byron Mackay: you're not reading blog posts. You're
Byron Mackay: not trying to find the thing that um
Byron Mackay: that works just for you. Uh, and we
Byron Mackay: encourage it. We encourage learning with
Byron Mackay: LLMs. I will highlight again though that
Byron Mackay: it is only a piece of the process and it
Byron Mackay: has to be done right. It really does. Um
Byron Mackay: there's there are learning strategies
Byron Mackay: with LLMs that are being used and
Byron Mackay: leveraged that uh accelerate the
Byron Mackay: um the comprehension far better than
Byron Mackay: we've been able to do it before. U
Byron Mackay: Miriam, this kind of comes back to to
Byron Mackay: your question a bit on the consuming
Byron Mackay: side and how we cannot get too heavily
Byron Mackay: focused on it, but I'm going to
Byron Mackay: highlight here that it's still very very
Byron Mackay: important. Um, I want to talk about a
Byron Mackay: Harvard study that happened. Um,
Byron Mackay: physical science fall of 2023. ChachiBT
Byron Mackay: just came out not too long ago and a
Byron Mackay: Harvard professor decided, I'm going to
Byron Mackay: use this, but I want to see how
Byron Mackay: effective this actually is. So, he built
Byron Mackay: a chatbot. He built a chatbot and this
Byron Mackay: chatbot had all of his material and he
Byron Mackay: made sure he he wanted to make sure that
Byron Mackay: there were no hallucinations. So, he
Byron Mackay: gave it a lot of context. These were
Byron Mackay: older LLMs that were much more highly
Byron Mackay: likely to hallucinate. Um, and he put
Byron Mackay: these chatbots he put a chatbot up for
Byron Mackay: his students to learn from. Now, he had
Byron Mackay: he always had a control. So, he always
Byron Mackay: had one class that didn't have the
Byron Mackay: tutor, the AI tutor, and another class
Byron Mackay: that did. Um, and consequently, he would
Byron Mackay: actually flip them. So, one week one
Byron Mackay: would have him and the next week the
Byron Mackay: other one would have him back and forth.
Byron Mackay: And what he noticed was that those the
Byron Mackay: the weeks that the student had the LLM
Byron Mackay: tutor, they reported higher engagement
Byron Mackay: in class. He reported higher grades
Byron Mackay: overall, better explanations on their
Byron Mackay: papers. The students that had the AI
Byron Mackay: were doing far better. Now,
Byron Mackay: what does that mean for us? Well, it
Byron Mackay: means that this works. It means there's
Byron Mackay: a way that learning with LMS is actually
Byron Mackay: really impactful. It gets us up to
Byron Mackay: speed. Remember what I said earlier
Byron Mackay: about LLM will give you the average? So,
Byron Mackay: we're going to get to the average a lot
Byron Mackay: faster if we just can leverage them
Byron Mackay: correctly. And then from there, we can
Byron Mackay: actually springboard off into different
Byron Mackay: directions. And of course, LMS can help
Byron Mackay: us do web searches and research papers
Byron Mackay: and find other information. And that's
Byron Mackay: all great and good. But it can speed up
Byron Mackay: our learning quite a bit or at least our
Byron Mackay: understanding or our our breath of
Byron Mackay: awareness is what I how I like to put
Byron Mackay: it. Um, I have something that I can I'm
Byron Mackay: happy to share with everybody here. Um,
Byron Mackay: it's a resource that I shared in my last
Byron Mackay: night's school where it's a it's a um
Byron Mackay: it's a skill I've turned into a skill
Byron Mackay: now where it'll help you learn system
Byron Mackay: design, but it does it in a way where it
Byron Mackay: has a structure, but it quizzes you and
Byron Mackay: it gives you case studies and does
Byron Mackay: different things to help kind of
Byron Mackay: scaffold your learning.
Byron Mackay: um when we use LMS with some scaffold
Byron Mackay: learning that's something that will
Byron Mackay: really help us to um accelerate our
Byron Mackay: understanding and then we can go and
Byron Mackay: implement it. Um I really like the idea
Byron Mackay: of a of a college classroom where we go
Byron Mackay: home and study with an LLM. Um maybe we
Byron Mackay: even read and and reading books as well,
Byron Mackay: but we kind of study on our own. We come
Byron Mackay: to class, we're ready, we have this
Byron Mackay: great discussion. We start to poke holes
Byron Mackay: in each other's ideas and see where
Byron Mackay: things work and things don't. And then
Byron Mackay: we can go build and then we come back
Byron Mackay: and get feedback. Um, and then we kind
Byron Mackay: of iterate there between the build and
Byron Mackay: the feedback and, you know, incorporate
Byron Mackay: the element. There you have that whole
Byron Mackay: system in place and you're going to go a
Byron Mackay: whole lot further. Now, you do that with
Byron Mackay: a group of people who are like-minded
Byron Mackay: and want to do the same thing. You're
Byron Mackay: going to go even further and you see how
Byron Mackay: this all kind of builds up together. Um,
Byron Mackay: if you have the right balance between
Byron Mackay: those, then you can really accelerate
Byron Mackay: your learning and really push yourself.
Byron Mackay: Um, this is actually a product that
Byron Mackay: we're working on internally for our
Byron Mackay: students. We have a scaffold AI tutor.
Byron Mackay: We call it Traverse and it's a tool that
Byron Mackay: does exactly that. We have things that
Byron Mackay: we want uh our cohorts to understand. Um
Byron Mackay: that expands their breath of of
Byron Mackay: awareness and uh it gives them just
Byron Mackay: enough to say I can go and articulate
Byron Mackay: how to solve a problem. Even if I
Byron Mackay: haven't solved that problem before, I'm
Byron Mackay: at least aware of the solutions that
Byron Mackay: exist and I can start to um iterate on
Byron Mackay: those. So um something anyway it's it's
Byron Mackay: it's it's something that we're working
Byron Mackay: on. we're we're iterating on with our
Byron Mackay: with our students as we speak. So, um
Byron Mackay: it's a it's a fun fun opportunity to see
Byron Mackay: just how far these LMS can can take some
Byron Mackay: learning.
Byron Mackay: Okay.
Byron Mackay: Now, what about curriculum? Now, here's
Byron Mackay: here's all the pieces that shape the
Byron Mackay: environment, but what about curriculum?
Byron Mackay: Curriculum was the smallest piece.
Byron Mackay: Remember the formal training, the 10%.
Byron Mackay: Is that really needed? Do we actually
Byron Mackay: need it? We do. We do need it. Why?
Byron Mackay: Because it gives us focus. It gives us a
Byron Mackay: path that we can follow. It's there's
Byron Mackay: not this stop and going, "Okay, where
Byron Mackay: would we go next?" No, we know where
Byron Mackay: we're going next. It keeps us moving.
Byron Mackay: Keeps us moving in the right direction.
Byron Mackay: And we have these checkpoints where we
Byron Mackay: can come in and talk about different
Byron Mackay: topics and then we move on to the next
Byron Mackay: one. That structured learning can go a
Byron Mackay: long way. Can really help us um learn
Byron Mackay: and do and build things.
Byron Mackay: um it's a it's still a very important
Byron Mackay: piece, albeit a smaller piece to the to
Byron Mackay: the whole, but if we don't have that,
Byron Mackay: it's we we we can lose our direction
Byron Mackay: real quick. Um and so it's it's still a
Byron Mackay: critical critical piece to the whole
Byron Mackay: thing. But if we have curriculum, we
Byron Mackay: talked about our tribe. Our tribe being
Byron Mackay: where the people we surround ourselves
Byron Mackay: with, they can give us feedback, they
Byron Mackay: can give us new ideas. our our our
Byron Mackay: problems be become shared problems and
Byron Mackay: we can solve them um together as a team
Byron Mackay: because if one person's pro having the
Byron Mackay: problem, somebody else uh is likely
Byron Mackay: having the same issue. Um we talked
Byron Mackay: about building over consuming. We still
Byron Mackay: need to consume
Byron Mackay: um but we need to build a lot. Remember
Byron Mackay: what we talked about on the job training
Byron Mackay: was 70%. we need to be doing something
Byron Mackay: with what we are learning or it won't
Byron Mackay: happen or it just it just won't uh won't
Byron Mackay: stick as well and we won't grow and
Byron Mackay: expand and find out what we what we
Byron Mackay: don't know. Um that's one thing here at
Byron Mackay: Glet. We always have projects we're
Byron Mackay: working on. Always, always, always. And
Byron Mackay: they're hefty. They're big. Um we talk
Byron Mackay: about how a Gauntlet cohort there's uh
Byron Mackay: it's the amount of time you spend in a
Byron Mackay: week is anywhere between 80 to 100
Byron Mackay: hours. And that's not just because we
Byron Mackay: say stay at your computer for 80 to 100
Byron Mackay: hours. We give you really hefty projects
Byron Mackay: that take a lot of time. Um, and we want
Byron Mackay: you sp we we we probably spend um we
Byron Mackay: spend at least 70% of our time building
Byron Mackay: and working on on our projects. So we
Byron Mackay: have that building side. Uh then we have
Byron Mackay: teaching and sharing of ideas that can
Byron Mackay: be structured time for feedback. It can
Byron Mackay: just be talking to your different cohort
Byron Mackay: members. It can be posting something in
Byron Mackay: Slack and getting some help. Um, there's
Byron Mackay: a lot of opportunities for teaching and
Byron Mackay: sharing your own ideas and receiving
Byron Mackay: those ideas and teachings from others
Byron Mackay: while you're while you're here. And of
Byron Mackay: course, you can find that elsewhere as
Byron Mackay: well, but I think it's a really critical
Byron Mackay: piece uh in any learning environment to
Byron Mackay: really accelerate learning. And finally,
Byron Mackay: LLMs. They have really influenced and
Byron Mackay: impacted how quickly we can learn
Byron Mackay: things. And uh I I'll be my personal
Byron Mackay: opinion, the world hasn't figured it out
Byron Mackay: yet. I I think they're scared. I think a
Byron Mackay: lot of people are scared of what these
Byron Mackay: what LLMs are capable of. And I think a
Byron Mackay: lot of people are, you know, keeping
Byron Mackay: keeping their distance, which I think is
Byron Mackay: I think I'm talking speaking to the
Byron Mackay: choir here quite a bit. That is the
Byron Mackay: wrong thing to do.
Byron Mackay: Don't stand off and and don't let them
Byron Mackay: don't let them scare you. Like leverage
Byron Mackay: them. They're great. They're amazing
Byron Mackay: tools. Um I have learned so much and
Byron Mackay: I've expanded my my own knowledge so
Byron Mackay: much because I have um put together a
Byron Mackay: structured chatbot inside of inside of
Byron Mackay: Claude that I can use to start learning
Byron Mackay: and understanding things. Um there's a
Byron Mackay: lot of opportunity there to uh um to
Byron Mackay: expand what we know and really really
Byron Mackay: push ourselves. um beyond what we what
Byron Mackay: we've been capable of before and so much
Byron Mackay: faster than before. Um it's really it's
Byron Mackay: really quite impressive and amazing.
Byron Mackay: All right.
Byron Mackay: So in summary here, um the lesson plan
Byron Mackay: is only 10%.
Byron Mackay: The environment you create is the other
Byron Mackay: 90%.
Byron Mackay: That's how critical the environment is.
Byron Mackay: Um, if you have the right environment,
Byron Mackay: if you can create that environment for
Byron Mackay: yourself or you find a group of
Byron Mackay: like-minded individuals,
Byron Mackay: this is going to push you more um, and
Byron Mackay: get you get you moving faster than ever
Byron Mackay: before. A lesson plan is important. It's
Byron Mackay: critical to this. It doesn't it doesn't
Byron Mackay: work well without one. But if you can
Byron Mackay: put these two together and you can have
Byron Mackay: that have that environment, there's no
Byron Mackay: stopping you. That's one thing about uh
Byron Mackay: here at Gauntlet, we're not afraid to
Byron Mackay: tell people what we talk about. I can
Byron Mackay: give you the syllabus. I can I could sit
Byron Mackay: down and say, "Here's a list of
Byron Mackay: everything you should go through, but
Byron Mackay: it's only 10% of the of of what of of
Byron Mackay: how you can really push yourself off and
Byron Mackay: become effective." Now, obviously, I'm
Byron Mackay: going to encourage this, but I really uh
Byron Mackay: really want to tell you that it's a it's
Byron Mackay: my honest assessment
Byron Mackay: um from the things that I've seen and
Byron Mackay: the experiences I've had, the people
Byron Mackay: that have gone through the program that
Byron Mackay: Gauntlet is a great environment to work
Byron Mackay: in and and learn in. It's rigorous. It's
Byron Mackay: got a amazing tribe of people. um you
Byron Mackay: will consume, you will build far more
Byron Mackay: than you have. Um it'll be a chance for
Byron Mackay: you to really expand and uh the breadth
Byron Mackay: of what you know and how deep you know
Byron Mackay: things and it's going to push you in so
Byron Mackay: many ways to do that. And it's not just
Byron Mackay: what we teach. It's about the people
Byron Mackay: that you're around and the people that
Byron Mackay: are here to support you. not just
Byron Mackay: gauntlet staff but also the other people
Byron Mackay: that come in that are trying to achieve
Byron Mackay: the same thing you are. You put all that
Byron Mackay: together and it's a recipe for success.
Byron Mackay: And so I would hope that um that anybody
Byron Mackay: who is interested or or thinking how can
Byron Mackay: I get myself beyond where I am and and
Byron Mackay: going off to you know get myself into a
Byron Mackay: better position for my career or how do
Byron Mackay: I navigate the AI era that we're in so
Byron Mackay: that I make sure my my job is secure or
Byron Mackay: I'm still relevant. This is a great
Byron Mackay: place to come. We really we have focused
Byron Mackay: ourselves on creating an amazing
Byron Mackay: environment that you can learn in. Um
Byron Mackay: and I hope that uh that if any of you uh
Byron Mackay: have a will that all of you will reach
Byron Mackay: out um and and see what it takes to get
Byron Mackay: in and we can see you in class here at
Byron Mackay: Gauntlet.
Byron Mackay: Okay,
Byron Mackay: that's everything I have today uh for
Byron Mackay: you. Uh, I want to pause here for some
Byron Mackay: questions um that I can answer. Um, feel
Byron Mackay: free to ask anything about Gauntlet,
Byron Mackay: anything about learning, um, resources.
Byron Mackay: I'm happy to to give you resources for
Byron Mackay: your own personal plans, uh, or topics
Byron Mackay: that you may want or anything about the
Byron Mackay: market that I can shed some light on
Byron Mackay: with what I do know about, uh, from from
Byron Mackay: talking to our hiring partners or what
Byron Mackay: I've seen our graduates go off and do.
Byron Mackay: um what I see in the AI uh environment,
Byron Mackay: anything under there, anything else
Byron Mackay: beyond, happy to take a whack at it. Um
Byron Mackay: Unice asked, "What email do we reach out
Byron Mackay: to for Gauntlet?" Uh I would reach out,
Byron Mackay: well, there's the Gauntlet website. Um
Byron Mackay: there's the Gauntlet website that we can
Byron Mackay: get you uh pointed to and uh that'll be
Byron Mackay: gauntletai.com. That's a great place to
Byron Mackay: get to to fill out your application and
Byron Mackay: get going. Um, and then we will be
Byron Mackay: reaching out to you and get you uh to
Byron Mackay: help you get through the application
Byron Mackay: process and make sure we can get you uh
Byron Mackay: get you going here. Um, another question
Byron Mackay: here. I have a quick question on the
Byron Mackay: application. I applied on the for the
Byron Mackay: July 6 cohort. My application says still
Byron Mackay: under review. Okay, that's a that's a
Byron Mackay: great call. I'm going to take your name
Byron Mackay: back to our admissions guy and make sure
Byron Mackay: that uh that he is aware. And so I'm
Byron Mackay: gonna take a quick note here and just
Byron Mackay: make sure that he's uh
Byron Mackay: he is uh make sure he catches your name.
Byron Mackay: He we have a lot of applicants that come
Byron Mackay: in and so uh it's it's it's uh it's very
Byron Mackay: likely I just need a poke prod and poke
Byron Mackay: and we'll get you going. Um same
Byron Mackay: question regarding application still
Byron Mackay: pending. All right, I'll take your name
Byron Mackay: down as well. Get yours going there.
Byron Mackay: Um Nathan asked what interested in what
Byron Mackay: gauntlets our graduates end up doing
Byron Mackay: after the cohort. So part of gauntlet I
Byron Mackay: didn't mention this earlier but part of
Byron Mackay: gauntlet is that we bring in hiring
Byron Mackay: partners who are looking for people um
Byron Mackay: with the skill sets that we teach and
Byron Mackay: who have proven themselves that they can
Byron Mackay: learn in a rigorous environment and stay
Byron Mackay: up to date with their AI skills. And so
Byron Mackay: uh one what uh uh so what our graduates
Byron Mackay: I'm doing is getting jobs with these
Byron Mackay: with these hiring partners. We actually
Byron Mackay: bring them in and they get interviewed
Byron Mackay: in person. Um part of Gauntlet is that
Byron Mackay: we fly you out to Austin, Austin, Texas,
Byron Mackay: and we're all in the office together. We
Byron Mackay: have this great office with um all the
Byron Mackay: food and snacks and um and desk space
Byron Mackay: and monitors um that you can you can ask
Byron Mackay: for. We do your laundry, pay for all
Byron Mackay: your meals. It's great. And then we
Byron Mackay: bring in hiring partners come interview
Byron Mackay: you. So they all end up getting jobs and
Byron Mackay: moving on from there. Um so it's really
Byron Mackay: a a fun a fun time. Really exciting to
Byron Mackay: see when everybody graduates and where
Byron Mackay: they go off to. Um
Byron Mackay: one asked what's the passing score for
Byron Mackay: the CCAT? Yes, the CCAT is our uh is a
Byron Mackay: cognitive test that we have everybody
Byron Mackay: take. 40. 40 is the number um that we're
Byron Mackay: going for with the with the CCAT. Um,
Byron Mackay: it's uh if you haven't taken the CCAP
Byron Mackay: before, it's I wouldn't say the
Byron Mackay: questions are necessarily difficult, but
Byron Mackay: it is a time test and they don't give
Byron Mackay: you a lot of time. So, it's more about
Byron Mackay: speed and doing your best in that time
Byron Mackay: frame. Um, so just a little hint there
Byron Mackay: that you get about 16, 17, 18 seconds
Byron Mackay: per question. Um, that's about as much
Byron Mackay: time as you want to give yourself on
Byron Mackay: that test. It's a it's a tough one. Uh,
Byron Mackay: just in terms of managing time, not
Byron Mackay: necessarily in terms of questions.
Byron Mackay: Um, all right. Nathan asks specifically,
Byron Mackay: do they typically take uh AI engineering
Byron Mackay: roles or more traditional software
Byron Mackay: engineering roles? They're they're more
Byron Mackay: AI engineering based. Um,
Byron Mackay: they are there there's there's this kind
Byron Mackay: of mix you could say when these roles
Byron Mackay: where it's um part of it is is of course
Byron Mackay: traditional software engineering, but
Byron Mackay: they always want to have that AI
Byron Mackay: component as well. Whether that's your
Byron Mackay: coding workflow is a as a Gentic or your
Byron Mackay: um you can build AI products um or you
Byron Mackay: can be a leader at their company for um
Byron Mackay: for implementing AI. It's it's those
Byron Mackay: kinds of things that they're that
Byron Mackay: they're looking for.
Byron Mackay: All right. Ash asked uh also same thing
Byron Mackay: for me. Okay. Yep. I'll put your name in
Byron Mackay: um and we'll get you uh get that over to
Byron Mackay: our uh to our applications.
Byron Mackay: Um,
Byron Mackay: perfect. Um, Unice asked, "Can somebody
Byron Mackay: apply outside the can someone outside
Byron Mackay: the US apply?" Um, right now we
Byron Mackay: everybody needs to be a US citizen. Um,
Byron Mackay: they need to be able to work in the US
Byron Mackay: without um a visa. And so, uh, so for if
Byron Mackay: you're not a US citizen, then Gauntlet
Byron Mackay: might not be the best fit for you.
Byron Mackay: Whereas, if you are a US citizen, you're
Byron Mackay: just living outside the US, that's
Byron Mackay: perfectly fine as long as you're okay
Byron Mackay: coming back to the US. Um,
Byron Mackay: all right. Uh, Stephen asked, "I would
Byron Mackay: like to join the next Gauntlet cohort. I
Byron Mackay: applied in the past but didn't pursue
Byron Mackay: strongly enough. I spent the past few
Byron Mackay: months building new software and
Byron Mackay: programs and really enjoy it." Awesome.
Byron Mackay: Stephen, you're the kind of guy I like
Byron Mackay: to talk to. Um, I would fill out the
Byron Mackay: application, start the application
Byron Mackay: again, uh, or if it lets you continue
Byron Mackay: it. Not sure you might have to apply for
Byron Mackay: a new one if it's been long enough, but
Byron Mackay: uh, get to the website, see what you can
Byron Mackay: do, and we'll get you going.
Byron Mackay: Um,
Byron Mackay: all right. Uh,
Byron Mackay: Alexandra asks, "I'm early in my career
Byron Mackay: and still in school, but I'm really
Byron Mackay: interested in attending. What skills,
Byron Mackay: experiences, and projects should I focus
Byron Mackay: on to maximize my chances of being a
Byron Mackay: strong candidate?" Uh, Alexander, that's
Byron Mackay: a great question. I would focus on
Byron Mackay: um building building something really
Byron Mackay: challenging. I think because you're
Byron Mackay: doing already in school, I know you're
Byron Mackay: going to get the all the all the other
Byron Mackay: things figured out, but what really sets
Byron Mackay: people apart is
Byron Mackay: um is digging into a hard problem and
Byron Mackay: and then figuring it out. Um it doesn't
Byron Mackay: have to be something so large or so big,
Byron Mackay: but there are enough hard problems out
Byron Mackay: there that you can find where it's
Byron Mackay: building it and building it well and
Byron Mackay: building it right. You're going to find
Byron Mackay: hurdles that you have to overcome. And
Byron Mackay: just that process of overcoming those
Byron Mackay: hurdles and learning um what hurdles
Byron Mackay: exist that goes a long long way for
Byron Mackay: people especially in your in in your uh
Byron Mackay: scenario at school where you get that
Byron Mackay: exposure, get that experience and you
Byron Mackay: can push yourself on. Where do you get
Byron Mackay: the where do you get that uh where are
Byron Mackay: you going to go and find those kinds of
Byron Mackay: problems? Go find some people to talk to
Byron Mackay: who are a little bit further along in
Byron Mackay: their careers. Go talk to them. Go see
Byron Mackay: what they're working on. um show
Byron Mackay: interest in what they're working on and
Byron Mackay: build those relationships with them.
Byron Mackay: Help them become part of your tribe
Byron Mackay: where they can become the people that
Byron Mackay: you can go to to chat with uh to throw
Byron Mackay: ideas uh to to toss your ideas over the
Byron Mackay: wall and see what they think to get that
Byron Mackay: feedback. Um big part, right, are all
Byron Mackay: that learning uh learning environment
Byron Mackay: that we talked about. finding those
Byron Mackay: people that would really help you push
Byron Mackay: along um your abilities and get you
Byron Mackay: ready um to join and and when you're
Byron Mackay: ready, we'd love to have you.
Byron Mackay: Um Stephen said, "I don't think the
Byron Mackay: website will let me reapply. I'd like
Byron Mackay: you to recheck out." Stephen, I'll take
Byron Mackay: your name down, get you in with our
Byron Mackay: admissions guy. Um and we'll see what we
Byron Mackay: can do.
Byron Mackay: All right.
Byron Mackay: Um, Ash, is there any repos, frameworks,
Byron Mackay: tooling that you would recommend in
Byron Mackay: general for agentic workflows uh that uh
Byron Mackay: that we've all used or lean on at
Byron Mackay: Gauntlet through the through the
Byron Mackay: syllabus or have it have you uh just
Byron Mackay: found through the cohorts kind of rings
Byron Mackay: true? That's a really interesting
Byron Mackay: question. Um
Byron Mackay: because it it evolves so much. But
Byron Mackay: what's so interesting is it actually
Byron Mackay: always comes back to like the basic
Byron Mackay: principles that we picked up on early
Byron Mackay: early on of of how to build agents.
Byron Mackay: Um spectrum development is effective.
Byron Mackay: Um,
Byron Mackay: knowing the tools, knowing the breadth
Byron Mackay: of tools is really important that you
Byron Mackay: have available to you. Um, also really
Byron Mackay: important.
Byron Mackay: Uh,
Byron Mackay: but as far as specific frameworks or
Byron Mackay: tooling, let me put it this way. Um,
Byron Mackay: the goal of engineering
Byron Mackay: is to become a manager of agents.
Byron Mackay: And so
Byron Mackay: the um your ability to
Byron Mackay: take a codebase and
Byron Mackay: instruct it or or add enough context
Byron Mackay: throughout your codebase that an agent
Byron Mackay: can go through and follow along is
Byron Mackay: really critical. Despite the framework
Byron Mackay: that you use,
Byron Mackay: the context is context is still king.
Byron Mackay: Always probably will be. And so when
Byron Mackay: you're able to um take cla files for
Byron Mackay: example, I'm a claude person. So cloudmd
Byron Mackay: files I agent MD files are the ones I
Byron Mackay: believe for um for other frameworks. But
Byron Mackay: cloudmd files are basically context you
Byron Mackay: can drop in different folders in your um
Byron Mackay: in your codebase. That is the crux of
Byron Mackay: getting your agent to perform well in
Byron Mackay: your codebase. You can give it the right
Byron Mackay: instructions. you can split it up
Byron Mackay: amongst many cloudmd files across many
Byron Mackay: different directories so that it's not
Byron Mackay: just all in one big context dump that
Byron Mackay: it's very specific and it allows the LM
Byron Mackay: to focus more on that context and when
Byron Mackay: you get to a point where you feel like
Byron Mackay: you've got that down where you've got
Byron Mackay: that context down where you want it then
Byron Mackay: you have an agent that just builds that
Byron Mackay: piece of your application. So, maybe you
Byron Mackay: have a a backend or database agent or um
Byron Mackay: a front-end agent and you say, "Okay,
Byron Mackay: now you're going to go and just build
Byron Mackay: whatever I tell you." And then you can
Byron Mackay: tweak that agent a little bit to uh to
Byron Mackay: your liking until that agent can really
Byron Mackay: run it autonomously, you know, most of
Byron Mackay: generally all the time. And then you do
Byron Mackay: that across the board. You build
Byron Mackay: different agents for doing different
Byron Mackay: tasks.
Byron Mackay: And once you get to the point where you
Byron Mackay: have all these agents that can run
Byron Mackay: asynchronously and run autonomously
Byron Mackay: um and you're not managing them anymore,
Byron Mackay: you're just kind of giving them tasks.
Byron Mackay: There's too much task giving for you to
Byron Mackay: do. That's when you build your
Byron Mackay: orchestrator above all of them
Byron Mackay: and then you just talk to the
Byron Mackay: orchestrator and he distributes the
Byron Mackay: tasks.
Byron Mackay: That's where it's all going. That's
Byron Mackay: where I see everything heading. however
Byron Mackay: way you look at it, whether it's through
Byron Mackay: um you know, Ralph loop or whether it's
Byron Mackay: through um um there's there's there's
Byron Mackay: other there's other loops that I' that
Byron Mackay: I've seen or spectrum developments or
Byron Mackay: all these other things. It all comes
Byron Mackay: back to can you provide the best context
Byron Mackay: possible. So, I'm just going to stick
Byron Mackay: with that principle for now and not give
Byron Mackay: like a specific framework tooling or
Byron Mackay: repo. Um
Byron Mackay: okay, I will give you one repo.
Byron Mackay: Awesome Skills. Um, that one is great.
Byron Mackay: Uh, Awesome Skills has a bunch of skills
Byron Mackay: that you can go through, read through.
Byron Mackay: It gives you great, um, exposure to what
Byron Mackay: a good skill looks like and also
Byron Mackay: probably what some bad skills look like.
Byron Mackay: U,, but you can leverage those. Um, a
Byron Mackay: favorite one that keeps coming up is
Byron Mackay: Grill Me, the Grill Me skill. Um, that
Byron Mackay: one's excellent because it will really
Byron Mackay: push you to think through your ideas,
Byron Mackay: especially if you're doing spectrum
Byron Mackay: development or you're building a you're
Byron Mackay: trying to, you know, build an app or or
Byron Mackay: you have a PR you want to do. The grill
Byron Mackay: me PR is or the grill me skill is really
Byron Mackay: good at pointing out things that you
Byron Mackay: maybe didn't notice before. All right,
Byron Mackay: long answer. Uh, but there you go. All
Byron Mackay: right. Um, let's see. Coleman, is this
Byron Mackay: boot camp a good fit for someone with 10
Byron Mackay: years of system admin roles but no
Byron Mackay: traditional dev background building
Byron Mackay: custom applications with AI um for work
Byron Mackay: and personally? Um that is a great
Byron Mackay: question. It depends on what these last
Byron Mackay: few years you've been able to build I
Byron Mackay: would say. Um CIS admin roles do not
Byron Mackay: usually fit well with the um with most
Byron Mackay: of our hiring partners. Um, but
Byron Mackay: depending on what you've built, it might
Byron Mackay: expand to other uh hire partners as
Byron Mackay: well. So, um, something to look into.
Byron Mackay: Happy to look at your LinkedIn and have
Byron Mackay: a conversation or you should just apply.
Byron Mackay: Um, our our applications guy is great at
Byron Mackay: helping you kind of navigate that and
Byron Mackay: make that decision as well.
Byron Mackay: Um, Derek, how does gauntlet screening
Byron Mackay: process compare to say IBM's? Is that a
Byron Mackay: comparison the team has ever made? I
Byron Mackay: have never made that comparison. That's
Byron Mackay: a great idea. Um, I'd have to look into
Byron Mackay: it and see. Um, but very interesting. I
Byron Mackay: will say that at Gauntlet, we do kind of
Byron Mackay: see ourselves as like a 10-week
Byron Mackay: interview. And so, it's a lot of rigor,
Byron Mackay: um, a lot of learning, a lot of
Byron Mackay: building, um, a lot of, um, soft skills,
Byron Mackay: checking, how well do you communicate,
Byron Mackay: um, how well do you, uh, present ideas,
Byron Mackay: how well do you give feedback, that sort
Byron Mackay: of thing. Um, a lot of, uh, a lot of
Byron Mackay: things that we do there. And then by the
Byron Mackay: end of that you get hired on by these
Byron Mackay: companies. So um but like I said you
Byron Mackay: also get your you get room and board and
Byron Mackay: meals and a great network and even your
Byron Mackay: laundry paid for uh while you do it all.
Byron Mackay: So a lot of fun.
Byron Mackay: Um
Byron Mackay: Stephen asks uh question regarding the
Byron Mackay: projects that uh sponsors or companies
Byron Mackay: bring to you. Do you have flexibility
Byron Mackay: for which projects we would like to work
Byron Mackay: on? I'm particularly interested in
Byron Mackay: healthcare or chemical engineering. Love
Byron Mackay: it. Yes, absolutely. We have um we have
Byron Mackay: partners in both of those and so you'll
Byron Mackay: have opportunities to work or you could
Byron Mackay: you would have an opportunity to
Byron Mackay: interface with them and do projects for
Byron Mackay: them and talk to them. Um there's a we
Byron Mackay: have a quite a quite a good range I
Byron Mackay: would say um of industries that we
Byron Mackay: cover. Um healthcare and chemical
Byron Mackay: engineering being two of them.
Byron Mackay: Um
Byron Mackay: ah uh Uriel I see you sorry you missed
Byron Mackay: the session but this is all recorded uh
Byron Mackay: so you have a chance to go back u which
Byron Mackay: is your question I just realized is your
Byron Mackay: question well is it recorded yes it is
Byron Mackay: um and so you'll be able to get that and
Byron Mackay: watch it and I believe there will be a
Byron Mackay: transcript if there's not at least you
Byron Mackay: get the recording and you'll be able to
Byron Mackay: watch it there. Um let's see. Um
Byron Mackay: Ash kind of coming back to my comment
Byron Mackay: earlier about agentic modularization.
Byron Mackay: Yes. uh that that is the way it's going
Byron Mackay: I believe and and I what I see companies
Byron Mackay: doing
Byron Mackay: what I see some of the better companies
Byron Mackay: doing I should say is I see them um I
Byron Mackay: seeing engineers who have figure who are
Byron Mackay: figuring that out in the engineering
Byron Mackay: space and then the engineering team
Byron Mackay: that's in charge of that the the number
Byron Mackay: of people gets smaller
Byron Mackay: because the people they they take some
Byron Mackay: of those people and start putting them
Byron Mackay: elsewhere and saying do that again over
Byron Mackay: here with these people
Byron Mackay: um because you don't need as many
Byron Mackay: engineers to maintain it once you get it
Byron Mackay: set up. But I will say fair warning
Byron Mackay: getting it set up is not as easy as it
Byron Mackay: sounds.
Byron Mackay: It takes a lot of work, a lot of review,
Byron Mackay: a lot of knowing what good looks like
Byron Mackay: and
Byron Mackay: knowing what quality is. Knowing what
Byron Mackay: quality looks like is going to um
Byron Mackay: determine how effective the full
Byron Mackay: orchestration actually is. So, it's a
Byron Mackay: lot of work, takes takes takes time. Be
Byron Mackay: patient with it. Um but it will it can
Byron Mackay: come to fruition. I've I've seen it
Byron Mackay: myself from different um from different
Byron Mackay: individuals and within our our group. Um
Byron Mackay: and it's it's it is possible. It is very
Byron Mackay: successful and it works. Um, just know
Byron Mackay: that you are the quality bar. You're the
Byron Mackay: one measuring the output. So,
Byron Mackay: awesome. Okay,
Byron Mackay: that looks like all the questions. Thank
Byron Mackay: you everybody for coming tonight. Um,
Byron Mackay: and thank you anybody who's watching
Byron Mackay: this after the fact. really appreciate
Byron Mackay: uh you coming and uh I hope that this
Byron Mackay: has been useful to kind of take into uh
Byron Mackay: taking in some perspective of what is
Byron Mackay: required in the learning process.
Byron Mackay: Remember it's the environment, it's the
Byron Mackay: people you surround yourself by. It's
Byron Mackay: how you leverage these tools. Um it's
Byron Mackay: something that we've found works really,
Byron Mackay: really well at Gauntlet and I've seen it
Byron Mackay: work really well throughout my career.
Byron Mackay: So go out there um build your tribe and
Byron Mackay: uh and please consider coming to
Byron Mackay: Gauntlet where we have a great group of
Byron Mackay: individuals who want to learn just like
Byron Mackay: you do and we can help jumpst start your
Byron Mackay: career um with our 10-week program. It's
Byron Mackay: a it's a lot of fun and I hope to hear
Byron Mackay: from you all soon. Have a great night
Byron Mackay: everybody.