163: LEVEL UP: The AI Skill Tree (Most People Stuck at Level 1)

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Summary: I've been promising this for weeks and finally got round to it. Tens of thousands of people asked for a proper guide to levelling up with AI. So today I built it. Seven levels of AI mastery, from "I'm basically using ChatGPT as Google" all the way through to running your own local models. I've mapped out the full progression path, complete with an RPG-style skill tree because apparently that's the kind of person I am. The core idea is simple: there's a logical order to learning this stuff, and most people are skipping straight to the fancy bits without the foundations. I walked through each level on the stream, from thinking with AI instead of just asking it questions, to setting up projects, personalising your setup with skills and custom instructions, connecting AI to your existing tools via MCP, vibe coding your own apps, building automations that work while you sleep, and finally going full AI operator. I also showed off a mini "five builds in five days" vibe coding curriculum I've been putting together, and built a stamp duty calculator live on stream just to prove the point. The whole thing will be fleshed out properly over the coming weeks, but the skeleton is there and I think it fills a gap that nobody else is really addressing.

—— Time Stamps ——

0:00 Introduction to the AI Native Skill Tree 2:10 The Problem: Where Do I Start with AI? 4:20 Level 1: Going Beyond Google 5:12 Why Context and Prompting Matter 7:48 Your AI Tech Stack in 2026 9:09 Level 2: Building Persistent AI Projects 10:50 Level 3: Personal AI, Custom Instructions & Skills 14:03 Level 4: Connected AI & MCP Explained 16:28 Level 5: The Vibe Coding Progression Path 19:42 Level 6: AI Automation & Autonomous Agents 22:25 Level 7: Becoming an AI Operator 23:35 Why Existing AI Training Courses Are Broken 25:56 All 7 Levels Recap & Mindset Shifts 29:01 Best Vibe Coding Tools for Beginners 31:17 Hosting Costs & Deploying AI Web Apps 32:36 How to Find Your First Vibe Coding Project 33:43 5 Builds in 5 Days: Vibe Coding Mini Course Preview 38:14 Outro & How to Stay Updated

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