Tips on this: content creators tend to be more open to and better at explaining things, and you get to see their ability to explain before you pay them. If you can, overpay them - students need the money more than you do :-)
This is also a great way to do interviews if you have a small number of candidates: Just make them explain a final year BS / first year MS topic from the beginning without handwaving.
This works for him and tbh it works for me too. I guess my advice is that the important part is not sourcing the expert it's putting in the work to come with enough context to get something out of talking to an expert and to leave them without the feeling like you've wasted their time. Follow people on the socials, read their code, show up at NeurIPS with actual good questions to ask people in person on the hallway track.
Without the _hard work up front to get good questions to ask_ you're in danger of finding a good expert and them deciding you're just another starry eyed kid that doesn't know for just how many years longer you wouldn't even pass the screening call for an interview.
Just my two cents, hope this helps!
ADDED: you've also described how networking actually works as opposed to the stereotypical networking event where a bunch of people desperate for jobs all show up which are basically useless.
AI is very broad, what exactly are you wishing to learn/build/accomplish and where are you in the process?
I specialize in ML that intersects with time-series, sensor/IoT data and audio. Info in profile if anyone is interested.
But their SEO must be excellent. I still get web traffic and referrals from there.
The more specific you can be with what you want to learn, the better off you'll be though. "AI expert" is still pretty broad.
"Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask"
The economics dont really math out with software development, because to be a good software developer usually means you are smart enough to see when you are being exploited and nope out as soon as possible.
Then mentioning AI is an even deeper layer of "nobody wants you to know the tricks that is making them scam money"
Solve that problem and move onto the next. Via a string of problem fixes you gain more domain knowledge and you'll retain more as you struggled through it and deeply understood it.
People could put up basic profiles with their skills listed and you could purchase a time slot with them. It’d be relatively low commitment for both the experts and also the advice seekers.
Some technical problems might be verifying expertise but this could be handled with a sort of social proof like how LinkedIn allows users to vouch for certain skills. In fact you could probably facilitate account creation by pulling from the LinkedIn api.
But yeah, good luck if you build it!
I made some money on Codementor for a time and enjoyed it while I was between jobs, but wasn’t easy to balance that with FTE so I dropped it after a while.
Not necessarily tutors, but I run into the same issue in Product Management. I need to do customer research, but the process of finding people to speak with is time consuming and very much like sales. To have 10 conversations, I'll probably have reached out to at least 40-50 people. I have to build a "funnel" of people in order to maintain having a few conversations per week.
Note: I experience this problem at startups that don't have existing customer bases. With companies that have existing customer bases, finding people to validate ideas and get feedback is not arduous .
Super-well paid is a matter of perspective. As I recall it was about $500 for an hour call but it's not like I personally got all that and was pretty normal as a consulting rate.
Irony aside, finding an expert for anything is difficult. Not because they don't exist, but because there's a lot of charlatans aiming to profit from the non-expert not really being able to tell. Do not underestimate their ability to BS even smart people, at least for a while.
My approach is usually to just ask around until I get a recommendation, a web of trust model if you will. I could for example recommend what I'd consider an AI expert to you. But you don't trust me because you don't know me, so by extension you have little reason to trust them. And that's what I'd advise: Find someone you trust, directly or by proxy.
If that's not a viable path, I would personally look around and try to figure out where relevant people hang out, write to one of them out of the blue. It appears people are more helpful to strangers than I previously assumed, though many do ghost. Many people have reached out to me this way, and I've sometimes ghosted them for embarrassing reasons like forgetting to answer, I've never once been annoyed by someone asking for my help.
I always offer payment, no matter how I found someome, based on the rate they name. I find that respectful, and some respectfully take it, others can't be bothered to write an invoice, and prefer to just do it pro bono. Though since you said it's intense, I would probably insist on paying them :)
- authors of leading textbooks or (open source or commercial) (hardware or software) systems;
- people that have many patents to their name in the respective area;
- scientists that have many peer-reviewed conference and journal publication to their name that are cited often;
- people that have or had O1 visa status ("outstanding scientist") or that served in committees for scientific bodies or governments, or as expert witnesses at trials.
I occasionally provide advice as a commercial service to find the right specialist for corporate clients for any given topic (knowledge brokerage).
I also offer a 1:1 "AI consultation" to CXOs in my own fields of expertise (machine learning, natural language processing, information retrieval, software engineering), pay per use or retainer when on the board of scientific advisors.
There is an ocean of tutorial videos out there, too, it all depends on how specific your need is.
The old Python usenet group had an informal custom that the more knowledgable users weren't expected to spend much time on newbie questions. If you were a newbie, you'd mostly ask easy questions (say about the break statement) that intermediate level users could answer, so they would. After a while, you'd become intermediate level yourself, and then you'd get to answer newbie questions, while more advanced users would answer your now intermediate-level questions, and so on. Finally, the big time gurus were lurking about and they would mostly answer questions that really needed attention from experts.
I felt like I'd "arrived" when one day, Guido van Rossum himself answered one of my questions. It wasn't that great or advanced a question, but still.
So yeah, if you're a beginner, maybe you can just post your questions or watch some videos, or take a class.
As for beginner AI stuff, I liked the fast.ai videos when I started watching them a few years ago, though I didn't get through that many. They have since been redone, so if I wanted to get into the subject, I'd start with them again at the beginning. I don't think I'd try to engage experts until I'd gotten through all the videos and tried other ways to deal with any stumbling blocks.
I will say the quality of the tutors varies wildly so you may have to do some digging depending on the specific domain.
I was able to find someone who currently works at the company the certification is through and it has been very helpful.
I will note that the whiteboard on the site is pretty bad so we just use something else.
It would help to know what your objectives are with learning more about AI. Otherwise we can only guess at your motivations.
Outside of that Upwork is generally where I go for any learning task where I need an expert for a short period. Good rates, 1:1 contracts and upwork overhead isn’t so high that it’s usury.
If it’s something super niche I can’t find there, then I’ll typically search for who is writing about the topic I’m interested in already, and then reach out if they have a public contact.
The last time I did that a few years ago I cold called a trash company in KS asking if there was anyone who would be willing to talk with me about getting into the business. The woman I called was the daughter of the owner and he invited me down to spend a few days in Russellville Arkansas learning how the trash business works.
That was a fascinating three day trip!
Andy mentions the increased availability of postdocs as tutors (video is timestamped):
I'm on the other side now, and actually struggle to get visibility. I focus on Knowledge Management, not software development so much these days. I hoped to be in a new category on platforms like MentorCruise, but they considered it too nice. So I rely on my blog, my newsletter, and Gumroad: https://developassion.gumroad.com/l/pkm-coaching?layout=prof...
In general, the wisdom of the tribe can't be given or taken... it is simply what you personally learn from the situation, and apply to internal problem solving processes. However, there are decent courses on specialty areas that often have a competent Prof/TA willing to chat with you about a specific subject.
Note, most "experts" are usually just perpetually improving students that see the bigger picture.
Best of luck, =3
Private tutoring is pretty common for learning languages, music, or for students in general. If you're willing to pay, it shouldn't be difficult to find a graduate students to teach you.
Sorry, not an AI expert.
Also, we host a free AI Playground and Workshop every Wednesday at 11am-12:30est.
VCs, devs, film makers, founders, artists, coaches, it’s a cool space.
a@175g.com for an invite
Or just drop into AnthonyDavidAdams.com/zoom
This may sound pedantic, but it's an honest question:
Did you really intend to write EST, even though the eastern U.S. is currently in EDT? Or maybe just "ET"?
I understand what est / edt mean.
Thanks. I’m 43. I’ve been doing it wrong all this time.
I am an "AI expert" in the sense that I have been focused on applying generative AI for the last two years, (since we had useful general purpose LLMs).
Give me an idea of what you are trying to do and I will give you search terms to put in Perplexity or Claude or ChatGPT or whatever.
You are not going to find anything close to what you would get as far as value for mentoring as you would with LLM tools like I mentioned.
(I work for one, but I won't mention who, as that's not the point of my post.)
Domain experts in vast majority are not interested in tutoring, while domain "experts" are.