3 months since I left my job to build in AI. The part I wasn't prepared for had nothing to do with the tech.

The tech part I figured out. That was always going to be figuring-out-able.

The part I wasn't ready for: how much of my identity was tied to a job title.

When someone asks "what do you do" and you say "I'm building something" — there's this half-second where you can see them recalibrate. Like you've given them an incomplete answer.

I notice I still sometimes default to "I used to work in X" before I say what I'm actually doing now. Like I need the credential of the old thing to make the new thing legible.

Working on it.

The actual building is going well. The AI space moves so fast that being in it full-time feels like the only way to stay honest about what's real vs what's hype — and there's a lot of hype.

For anyone who's made a similar jump — when did the old identity actually stop being the thing you led with?