Much more useful than using an LLM
Marcus Lee · Thailand
Full-Stack Python Engineer
Marcus was one of my first two clients. He reached out to me looking for guidance on what to learn next. He described feeling overwhelmed and not always knowing where to focus his time.
What was the obstacle that would have prevented you from buying this service?
I guess there are two things. One, if the program asked for payment up front, that would have been a turn-off. I’ve had other services where having a free consultation up front was helpful. The other was pricing; if I didn’t have a job, I would have been hesitant. I wasn’t sure how Tim worked with timeslots, but the calendar to pick out available slots worked well.
I did use a service before, Cloud With Django on YouTube. I did 1:1 consulting for an hour, six sessions. He was more based on Amazon and DevOps, but I wanted to get more technical, “How do I do this, how do I do that?” That’s what I’m getting from Tim. The one free session is very convincing.
What did you find as a result of our collaboration?
What I’ve learned a lot is getting more confident about the problems I bring up. Tim has an opinion on a lot of things, and hearing those helps me form my own. The medium is unique. Getting a real experience from a person is much more useful than using an LLM. I don’t have to ask, “Is this real? Is this true?” The validation from another human is valuable, and getting feedback on patterns and opinions is helpful.
I have a pattern where, after our meeting, I take an hour to reflect and decide where to apply what I’ve learned. Then I use that as a framework to determine where things have moved forward. It’s helped me see where I’ve become more confident.
What specific facet did you like most about this service?
Tim has a well-rounded area of expertise. I can talk about several things: resources, career growth, workplace dynamics, technical topics. There’s a lot of breadth to the conversations.
What would be three other benefits about this service?
- The pair programming on open source code
- The connections Tim provides
- The flexibility with scheduling
Would you recommend this service? If so, why?
Yeah, definitely. Though I can only speak for people who would be in my shoes, transitioning careers. For me, it was a lack of confidence and not knowing where to go next, or where to find the right sources. So if someone is in the middle of a career transition, this would be helpful. I wish I had come across this a long time ago.