💯 Digest: I'm nervous about this launch

30 Days of AI | Launch Event | Past Issues 

👋 Hey, it's Max

I’ve sitting here with pre-race jitters. In 4 days, we launch 30 Days of AI, and I’m equal parts terrified and buzzing.

Let me tell you a story that’ll explain why…

Three weeks ago, I was reviewing our beta content. Ciara and Stefy and the entire team had done incredible work (solid learning principles, thoughtful progression, all the right ingredients).

But something was missing. I didn’t want to be “that guy” but that’s also kind of my job - so I sent a Slack message that made my team's hearts sink:

"Hey team! 👋 ... Just finished reviewing the 7-day beta content - first off, the content itself is solid and follows good learning principles. However, I have significant concerns..."

I basically called our baby ugly. Not because it wasn't good. But because "good" wasn't good enough. Not when I'm going through your emails in my community inbox every single day:

• "Tool overwhelm. Which ones will even exist next year?"

• "I want AI to be like talking to a friend, not memorizing prompts"

• "ChatGPT can't even count properly. It goes 1, 2, 3, 4, 97..."

• "I'm drowning in tutorial hell"

The other day, someone emailed saying they're joining because they want to "silence the monsters in their head telling them their skillset is becoming irrelevant." and damn, that hits hard. This is so much more than a technical problem - it’s about behaviour change, so the experience we put out there needs to match.

This meant throwing out weeks of work. Started over. And rebuilt everything around one principle: You don't need to become an AI expert. You need to become you, just WITH AI. A designer with AI. A marketer with AI. A writer with AI, etc… We're not teaching you to run someone else's race. We're teaching you to find your pace, style, and rhythm…WITH AI.

So yeah, I'm nervous. And what’s keeping me up at night is not how many people signed up (5k as of last Fri). I'm nervous because we want to help you become confident, independent, and ready to lead - with AI in the loop. That’s a very different thing to creating a Chat-GPT power user course. One improves your technical skillset, the other fundamentally changes how you work, with AI. Maybe we're being too ambitious, but if we weren't, we wouldn't be doing it at all. Let’s see!

One thing I do know from 5 years of teaching 50,000+ professionals: Everyone thinks they're the only one confused. Meanwhile, literally EVERYONE is confused. The people winning with AI aren't the ones who know everything. They're the ones who started anyway. Speaking of starting…

🎽 Join Wednesday’s Pre-Race Meetup (our live launch event)

Before every big race, there’s a warm up. A space where runners (you) can gather together, meet their fellow runners, share energy, and realize they’re not alone in this.

Wednesday, we're hosting our own ✨

We'll talk about how each day is structured. Share what's actually working. Probably laugh about our collective AI frustrations and get your biggest frustrations answered live.

Plus, we're revealing our new 100 School OS. More on that in a sec...

🎨 Your Creative Mission

Speaking of our OS... we sent a brief to everyone that’s signed up to 30 Days of AI last Friday. What you’re looking at below is the 00000000.1 version that Claude spun up for me as I was concepting what this could be.

This chrome extension is going to be the glue that sticks our challenge experience together. New tab = new lesson, community feed, resources & more.

But we need your help.

The Wallpaper Challenge 🖼️

Create an AI-generated desktop wallpaper so good, we'll feature it in our OS for thousands of learners to see.

The specs:

• Dimensions: Landscape (16:9 preferred)

• Format: JPG, SVG, or PNG

• Vibe: Cool, inspiring, AI-themed (YOUR interpretation)

• Easter egg: Hide '100' or our logo somewhere for us to find

• Tool: Whichever AI generator you prefer

• 💡 Moodboard: check out our internal team brief if you're curious about our process or surprise us with something we never would have thought of.

Pro techniques to try:

• Tips & prompting examples to try in the Gemini App.

• The feedback loop way to make generative art.

• The best free and paid AI image generators.

• Turn any phrase into bold experimental typography using GPT-4o.

Want more inspiration? Check out my newsletter issue on Nano Banana.

RACE WEEK CHECKLIST ✅

Every runner has one! Here's yours:

• Join the challenge (last day to sign up is Sep. 17th)

• Block 30 mins daily on your calendar (morning runs hit different!)

• Find your community using #100school hashtag and connect with them.

• Set up your "running playlist" (whatever helps you focus!)

• Register for Wednesday’s launch event

• Tell your running buddy (accountability partner) to join you

• Hydrate! (with knowledge... and actual water)

The hardest part about a race isn't mile 20. It's not hitting the wall. It's not even the training.

It's deciding to show up at the starting line.

Your move 🏃‍♂️

Max 👋

P.s Want to make your team & company AI-first? Let us help here.