Projects

You're going to build an AI that answers questions using only your own notes, links, and documents, and that you can trust because every answer shows you the source it came from. The skill is grounding: getting an AI to answer reliably from a specific body of knowledge and verifying it against the sources instead of taking its word. That's RAG, one of the most in-demand things AI application builders do (every company wants an AI that knows their own stuff), and doing one tells you fast whether building trustworthy knowledge tools is your kind of work.

You're going to pick a topic you care about, find a real angle, research it (verifying every source yourself), and publish a 1,500 word piece that actually argues something. The skill is building an argument you can defend: finding what the sources actually support, writing it in your own voice, and cutting any claim you can't back up. That's the core of journalism, having a real point and proving it rather than just summarizing, and doing one tells you fast whether that kind of thinking is your kind of work.

You're going to pick a real question with a real answer (how much your school district spends on athletics versus arts, why a local landmark closed, what your city actually does with recycling) and answer it with primary documents, not opinion. The skill is reasoning from evidence: figuring out what the records actually prove versus what you assumed going in, and claiming only what you can defend. That's what investigative journalism actually is, proving something true with evidence, and doing one tells you fast whether chasing the real answer is your kind of work.

You're going to take a real question you care about, find a public dataset that can answer it, and publish a piece that argues a finding with real charts. The skill is analytical judgment: deciding what the data actually supports versus what you hoped to find, and not over-claiming when it's close. That's the real work of a data analyst, the call about what's true and what isn't, and doing one tells you fast whether digging for an honest answer is your kind of work.