Experience Is Loud—Turn It Down So You Can Learn
Hard‑won patterns sound like wisdom—until they echo so loudly you miss new ideas. This month I learned: AI model tuning isn’t just prompting, shutter‑speed instincts fail at 60 fps video, and Figma spacing ≠ CSS. Beginner reps, reverse mentorship, and stranger audits keep the channel clear.
Nino Chavez
Product Architect at commerce.com
Signal / StaticSignal → Patterns you’ve earned the hard way. Static → The same patterns looping until they drown out anything new.
Last week I drafted three posts for Signal Dispatch and kept tossing around “grid‑level thinking.” Sounded crisp—until a friend texted, “Cool phrase, but what’s it mean?” I’d been serenading myself, not the reader. Classic echo.
Three Fresh Blind Spots (This Month Alone)1. AI Upskilling I can prompt‑engineer a chatbot blindfolded, so tuning a custom model should feel familiar—right? Spent hours chasing temperature settings before realising the real block was my dataset hygiene. Different sport, different rules. 2. From Stills to Video Years of shutter‑speed muscle memory? Worth about five minutes when 60 fps enters the chat. My first reel looked like a slideshow narrated by a fog machine. Exposure triangles don’t rotate that way. 3. DIY Website “Spacing works this way in Figma, so it has to work that way in CSS.” Thirty commits later: nope. Browsers don’t care how pretty my design tokens look on a mood board.
Each time, the script in my head was the same: I know this in Domain A, so Domain B must play by the same rules. Spoiler: it doesn’t.
How I Turn the Volume Down
MoveWhat it ShattersMy Next RepBeginner RepsThe identity of expert.Shoot an entire roll of 35 mm film—manual focus only.Reverse MentorshipStatus comfort.Let a junior editor walk me through CapCut shortcuts.Silent FridaysVoice dominance.One day a week, no “advice”; only questions.Stranger AuditsFamiliarity blur.Ask a non‑tech friend to break my new site; fix what they find first.Write / Shred / RewriteAttachment to takes.Draft a stance on AI safety, delete, rewrite from the opposite view.
DispatchAsk one naïve question before noon; ship one imperfect draft before bed. Drop your latest “wow, I was wrong” moment in the comments so we can all lower the volume together.
Further Reading- Range — David Epstein Breadth as antidote to expert lock‑in.
- Liminal Thinking — Dave Gray Spotting the invisible frames around belief.