They share posts from the Shopify CEO or Fiverr CEO about AI.
They talk about AI’s promise to 10x productivity.
But no one knows how to actually make that happen.
Over the past 6 months, I’ve been deep in the AI rabbit hole, playing, building, experimenting.
Some of that tinkering has even turned into (paid) work. All thanks to just… messing around.
And here’s the truth 👇
Nobody I know who’s good with AI started using it to 'do their work better.'
They started by building something silly and personal:
- a to-do app
- a dating app
- a meme generator
- a voice assistant that roasts you
That’s how you learn AI.
Not by reading prompts.
Not by 'AI-enabling' your job.
But by building that one idea you always had in the back of your head.
Passion projects are the on-ramp to AI fluency.
If you’re a founder or a leader and you truly want your team to embrace AI, don’t force tools on them.
Instead:
- Give them time to build something personal
- Encourage them to ship side projects
- Stop measuring ROI in the first 2 weeks
Most employees today don’t have mental bandwidth to experiment. Startups are fast. Deadlines are tighter. No one has 2 weeks to 'figure it out with AI.'
But they will find time for something they love building.
And once they do, AI becomes second nature.
So if you’re serious about AI adoption in your team:
Let your people build passion projects.
That’s where the magic begins.
This post was originally shared by on Linkedin.