The Curious Tech Nerd Who Fell Behind#
I used to work with technology that most people hadn’t even encountered yet.
I loved it.
Not because I knew everything, but because there was always something new to investigate, another problem to solve, or some technology I wanted to understand.
Then I stepped away from that world.
Three years later, I realised I was still using technology every day.
Even AI.
But mostly to help write emails and reports.
Useful? Absolutely.
But somewhere along the way, I’d gone from exploring technology to simply using it.
And the technology world had been rather inconsiderate and continued developing without me.
Rude, really.
😂
I felt excited about everything there was to learn.
And a little frustrated that I’d fallen behind in a world I used to know so well.
So, how does a slightly out-of-practice, tech-curious project manager catch up?
A course? Online tutorials? Some sensible, structured learning programme?
Unfortunately, I know myself.
I learn best by experimenting, making mistakes, figuring out why something broke, and trying again.
I also like having the freedom to spend eight hours investigating something simply because it interests me.
My preferred learning methodology is essentially:
Click around and find out.
With slightly more documentation these days.
So I needed a project.
Something complicated enough to teach me how AI systems actually work, including the things I didn’t yet know I needed to learn.
After some thought, I decided to build a recruitment automation system.
Recruiter Bot.
Do I desperately need one?
No.
I can already find jobs and use ChatGPT to help prepare documents.
There are existing tools that could do much of what I’m building.
But that’s not the point.
I didn’t need a recruitment system. I needed something to build.
And naturally, I went from zero to an unnecessarily ambitious project almost immediately.
Very on brand.
😂
Now, here’s where my approach might seem a little backwards.
I’m building my first prototype using n8n, Google Sheets, AI components, and GitHub, with ChatGPT helping me understand each stage.
I’m deliberately working through the data structures, integrations, workflow logic, validation, and testing.
Could I jump straight into an AI coding platform and ask it to build something for me?
Absolutely.
And I intend to explore that too.
Just not yet.
First, I want to understand the machinery.
How information moves between components.
Why things break.
How to recognise when a proposed solution might create a different problem.
Once I have a working prototype and understand its architecture, I plan to explore recreating it using Claude and an AI-assisted coding approach.
I want to experience both ways of building.
Not because everyone should do it this way, or because using AI to write software is cheating.
But because I’m trying to learn how the system works, not just produce a working system.
There’s another part of this that’s new to me.
I’ve worked with software development teams, coordinated builds, implemented software, and participated in architecture discussions.
But I’ve never been solely responsible for designing a system from beginning to end.
Now I’m making the architecture decisions, figuring out how the components fit together, and learning what happens when things go wrong.
With ChatGPT as my endlessly enthusiastic development partner.
Which is great.
It’s remarkably patient when I need something explained for the fifth time.
Although it occasionally suggests things that make me stare at the screen and think:
Are we absolutely sure about that?
😂
Recruiter Bot isn’t finished.
And I don’t know exactly what the final version will look like.
But I’m enjoying being back in a world where I get to investigate, experiment, and build things.
Not because I already understand everything.
Because I can’t resist finding out how it works.
And apparently, one ambitious AI project wasn’t enough.
I’ve now decided it needs its own LinkedIn article series.
Which means I’m writing two series simultaneously.
Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself, it’s that when something interests me, I apparently have absolutely no intention of doing it in moderation.
😂