Learning about Ideas & how to Execute them. Engineering | Storytelling | Business

"You are the world you have created."

That line from Cormac McCarthy hit me at month 7 of unemployment. 68.8% rejection rate. 1 month of finances left.

I wasn't getting rejected because I lacked skills. I was getting rejected because 10 years earlier, I'd made a choice I didn't know I was making. I picked legitimacy over authority. Proof over interpretation.

Engineering credentials over storytelling instinct.

Every project after that: one more vote for a future I didn't consciously want.
By the time I noticed, the shape was drawn. I was at the crossroads thinking there was a choice, but the choosing was done a long time ago.

I stopped applying to jobs.

For 4 weeks, I wrote. Not to explain what happened. To see what I'd been building without realizing.
The answer showed up in 15 minutes.

Short story writing wasn't a hobby. It was the access mechanism.

Stories surface assumptions before they harden. They let you test futures without betting your life on them first. They show you the world you're building while you still have time to choose differently.

I built a workshop around it. Ran 6 sessions in 2 weeks bfeore I even had a job offer.

A 30-year scenario planning veteran at Morgan Stanley told me: "I've been trying to do this for three decades. You just solved it."

Here's the method:
- Write for 15 minutes. First-person future. One day. 
- Don't think. Let details emerge.
- Signals guide the writing. Your unconscious does the rest.

What surfaces:
- Assumptions you didn't know you were making
- Prereqs you hadn't considered
- The gap between what you think you want and what you're actually building

A computer programmer: "Blank canvas that made me rethink what was possible."
A marketer: "More engaging than mood boards or strategy docs."
A startup chief of staff: "Discovered new angles to a problem I'd been stuck on."

I spent 7 months learning what McCarthy meant.
Now I help people see the shape before acceptance becomes the only option.
DM me if you're building something and want to surface what's driving it.

Mohammad Khan

She followed startup advice perfectly & created a disaster. 

Elizabeth Holmes followed advice you’d find “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel
• Built a monopoly (proprietary blood testing technology)
• Eliminated competition (aggressive NDAs, patents) 
• Created switching costs (Walgreens and Safeway locked in multi-year contracts) 
• Owned her category (redefined blood testing)

Succeeding at everything Peter Thiel teaches. Except the technology didn't work. She was a fraud.

By the time anyone discovered this:
• $700M trapped in investments
• Partners locked in multi-year contracts
• Patients receiving false medical results
• Employees silenced by NDAs

“Zero to One” can't distinguish between a successful startup and frauds like Theranos.

Both can claim they have products 10x better than competitors, capture markets, and make money.

Thiel's framework has no test for "does the technology actually work?"

Because the framework assumes you'll exit in 5-7 years. Well before the technology has to prove itself long-term.

You can't "move fast and break things" in cancer therapeutics. You can't "exit" before your technology proves it works.
But that's what startup advice assumes you'll do.

So what can deep tech founders do? 

Instead of focusing on growth & exiting, focus on proof points & partnerships. 

• Instead of Gatekeeping > Educating the market 
• Instead of eliminating competition > Transparent tech demos 
• Instead of optimizing for growth rate > Optimize for customer success rate. 

Same goal of building a successful company but on different timescales. Different worlds built, a sustainable one instead of extractive.

Elizabeth Holmes followed the playbook & built an extractive monopoly.

But the playbook doesn't care if the technology works. It only cares if you can build power before anyone finds out.

Deep tech founders can't afford that gamble. 
You're building for 20 years, not 5.

Teaching professionals to navigate uncertainty through short stories | Engineer building future-prototyping workshops in public

I read "Zero to One" in 2019. It changed how I thought about building a business. 
I read it again in 2024. It's an indoctrination manifesto.

Then I read Octavia Butler. She predicted what Thiel was building, 21 years before he published his playbook.
---

In 2019, I was devouring business books.

"Zero to One" was high on people's lists. And it made sense. A concise book on growing your business and what to aim for.

Took some notes & moved on.

2022: ChatGPT launches

A question stuck in my head 
"What problem does this actually solve?"

I couldn't answer it.

2024: I reread "Zero to One" 

ChatGPT broke every rule Thiel teaches.

Thiel's thesis: build monopolies by making something so uniquely and often 10x better that they escape competition

OpenAI didn't build 10x better technology. They published first with better marketing & lower costs.

And Thiel funded them anyway.

That's when I realized Zero to One isn't methodology. It's business ideology.

An indoctrination manifesto from survivorship bias that built the world we live in today. 

2025: I read “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler 

She wrote it in 1993 & set the story in 2024. And she showed me what happens when Thiel's ideology runs for 20 years.

Most startup advice assume you'll exit. But what if you can’t exit? 

What if these companies built themselves a monopoly they now have to manage and can’t exit? Something so entangled in the market where leaving risks collapse? 

What happens when you plan on exiting but can’t? 

In Butler's story:
• Corporations own entire towns
• Employees become debt slaves
• Technology serves monopolists only
• Workers can't leave (leaving means death)
• Corporations call this "providing value"

If “Zero to One” gives the extractive monopoly ideology, then “Parable of the Sower” shows you what happens when that ideology runs unchecked.

If you’re building technology that will take 20 years to mature, you should understand the world your advice is quietly trying to create.

A fiction book made me ask: What world am I building?
Then I rewrote my entire business model.

In 2025, I read “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler

She predicted what "build a monopoly" creates after 20 years:
• Company towns for employees
• Employees indebted to the company
• Technology serving monopolists only
• Workers can't leave (leaving means death)

Then I looked at my own positioning company.

I was helping science and engineering companies:
• Lock in customers (switching costs)
• Dominate categories (eliminate alternatives)
• Become the "only" choice (build monopolies)

Butler forced me to ask: What world is MY company creating?

If everyone wins by becoming a gatekeeper, everyone loses.
Customers lose freedom. Innovation slows. Switching becomes punishment.

I didn't want to make money building a world I wouldn't want to live in.

So, I pivoted.

Just published a newsletter on What world are you building?

Deep tech founders don't exit in 5 years. You live with what you build for 20 years.

Make sure it's a world you want to live in. 

Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ggN9us6v

In 2025, I trusted my future plan because it was clear. Turns out clarity can be the problem.

I had just gotten back from a long trip. It was Christmas. While others were decorating, I was sitting with my laptop open, staring at a plan that still made sense.

8 months & no job and the plan was coherent and useless.

The plan said, 'network to find work', but it didn't say what happens when your contact gets laid off the week before your coffee meeting.

Every milestone assumed nothing would go wrong. Not one backup. Not one 'what if this fails.'

So instead of refining the plan again, I changed the test.

I wrote two stories from first-person perspective.

Two story lines:

I wrote Tuesday morning, best case. New job, coffee with the team, solving problems.
 
Then I wrote Tuesday morning, month 9 unemployed. Checking the bank account. 

My original plan never asked, "what if no one picks you?"

Plans optimize for clarity.
Stories expose consequences.

It's not about making a better plan for the future, but what you do when your plan gets punched in the face

Habitual Line Stepper - Envelope Pusher - People Person. I prepare National Defense Professionals to fight the unknown.

Hi, I’m Danny! 

Are you afraid that our adversaries are making the world a more dangerous place while we wallow in bureaucratic ridiculousness?

Did working in the government turn you from an optimist into a cynic by beating the hope and creativity out of you time and again?

It’s Ok, I’ve been there, too, and I’m here to help! 

How? Join me in The LAB to have discussions on change, emergent threats, and adaptability, and I’ll show you. 

I am a teacher.  I prepare national defense professionals to fight the unknown.

No one likes surprises or the change that comes with it… especially defense professionals. 

But, I’ve spent most of my life dealing with change, like the time I tried to reopen an Iraqi milk factory, only to shoot artillery into it later that day because the enemy was using it to shoot mortars at my teammates. 

I learned to understand Arabic, I learned to speak Thai, I learned how to work in diverse positions, at diverse places, with diverse people. 

I opened my own Off-Broadway Zombie Apocalypse Show in NYC. I’ve appeared in nationally televised commercials. I have even fell out of a plane more times than I would’ve liked.

I’ve opened schools across the islands of the Maldives and helped clear active minefields in the jungles of Sri Lanka. I’ve taught Iraqi Soldiers how to fight, Mongolian Soldiers how to plan, and U.S. Soldiers how to negotiate. I even taught Special Operations personnel how to think. 

But the most important thing I ever taught was how to be adaptable, how to be creative, and how to deal with change and the unknown.   

In a bureaucracy, you can’t wait for your organization to change. You can’t buy innovation. 

No widget can do what the human mind can.

You are what’s needed right now! It’s your passion, your creativity, and your ideas, that will keep our country safe… but only if you prepare yourself. 

Sign up for a free session with me, and we’ll get ready for what comes next.

Daniel Gomez

Last week, my amazing team at First Person Xperience presented PROJECT GENESIS at "Think No More" a national defense AI workshop presented by Hallie J. Stern, Arizona State University, the McCain Institute, and absolutely wowed the participants!

Our mission was to create a unique immersive education experience to bring to life the risks and rewards of working with AI. 

We first established a baseline in AI foundations by partnering with Dan Manning, who offered his one-of-a-kind "AI for Decision Makers" abbreviated course. 

We then created a fictional company, Morning City, whose researchers would lead guests through training a highly advanced AI to assume the national defense responsibilities of the United States.

Guests were blown away when they discovered that they would actually be conversing with the AI, known as EVE. 

"I did not expect this!" "What is going on here?" "Oh wow!" "Is she real?" "I'm actually scared right now!"  "OMG she is real!" "I'm not ready for this!"
 
For the next 45 minutes, they engaged in the experiential learning model and put the lessons they learned moments earlier to the test... sometimes with disastrous consequences. 

In the end, they learned that because of their actions, the world would never be the same.... just like real life.

This was our first experience of the year, and it won't be the last! I'm so proud of my team and want to thank everyone who attended!

Shout out to Catherine M. Woods Jesse Levin Dr. Erick M. Dr. Lyla Kohistany (Ed.D), and more!

Habitual Line Stepper - Irregular Warfare Warrior - Mad Scientist. I prepare National Defense Professionals to fight the unknown.

SOF Truth #1 - Humans are more important than hardware

Meanwhile, SOCOM spending programs are 100% focused on the procurement of software and hardware.

We are trying to change that.

Artificial Intelligence, sensors, and societal trends are drastically changing what tomorrow's battlefield will look like.

The SOF Operator and National Defense Professionals need to prepare to fight in a way unlike ever before.

Next week First Person Xperience will showcase a new way of training National Defense Professionals at the "Think No More" AI Workshop presented by Arizona State University, the McCain Institute, and Hallie J. Stern. 

I'm blessed to have this opportunity and have an amazing team supporting me. I can't wait to see you there!

Let me know if you want an invite, I think we have 5 seats left!!!

Tomorrow, First Person Xperience presents PROJECT GENESIS to the lucky participants of "Think No More", an AI workshop on National Defense in conjunction with Arizona State University, the McCain Institute, and Hallie J. Stern.

Hallie sets the stage, Dan Manning sets the foundation, and we are the follow-through.

This will be our first fully immersive educational experience for National Defense Professionals, and we-just-can't-wait!

See you there!

I would love to share our Case Story on PROJECT GENESIS, our first xperience of the year!

We have received excellent feedback from our client Hallie J. Stern, who said, "You made this event! It was better than I could have ever imagined!" 

The best news we could get after toiling in the creativity mines for the past few months. Right? Dan Manning Ramsay Wood 😅  

If you couldn't make the event, this document is for you! 

If you did make it to the event, here is the process for how we made it awesome!

The bottom line is that by creating an entertaining, immersive experience backed by significant educational research and adult instructional methods, participants may forget what was said, but will never forget what they experienced! 

Please get in touch with us so we can make an amazing custom experience for your organization, too!

PROJECT GENESIS Case Story

The toughest challenge in training Special Operations Soldiers is for them to believe that what you are teaching them, can save their lives.

The best way to overcome this challenge is by fully immersing the Soldiers in realistic fictional scenarios.  

This is why the lessons taught to us in SERE School, Airborne School, and USAFKSWCS are incredibly sticky.

 Because when we are there, we are fully surrounded by challenges that require us to pay attention, or face severe consequences.

When First Person Xperience showcases its feature event next week, "PROJECT GENESIS," that's exactly what we are going to do.

Come join us, at "Think No More" a national defense AI Workshop presented by Arizona State University, the McCain Institute, and Hallie J. Stern.

Inches from disaster. 

Whether its stepping forward on a landmine filled battlefield or accidently training Artificial Intelligence to do something you didn't think it would do... 

The risks are very real.

And the consequences are usually written in blood. 

I have extensive experience with the former, while patrolling the streets of Iraq and the war torn jungles of Sri Lanka, but only now am I learning about the latter. 

Next week, First Person Xperience will showcase "PROJECT GENESIS," the first fully immersive experience that demonstrates the risks and rewards of AI on the battlefield. 

Come join us, at "Think No More" a national defense AI Workshop presented by Arizona State University, the McCain Institute, and Hallie J. Stern.

We are fully booked but I can probably still get you a seat! 😅

Woke up to the news that the amazing US Military captured Maduro, and the even better news that all of those men and women participating in the operation came home safe.

Although not on my BINGO card for the first week of this year, it is a welcomed event considering that my extended family personally knows the horrors of Maduro's regime firsthand.   

The ramifications on a geopolitical scale are countless, but as always, I and the rest of our military, will pray for peace yet prepare for war. 

In other news, ask me about our awesome National Defense AI workshop in DC in 11 days! It's going to be amazing!

taplio

The Battle

Mohammad Khan

Daniel Gomez

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The Battle

Mohammad Khan

Daniel Gomez

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Mohammad Khan's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreMohammad Khan's LinkedIn Performance