Synthetic Acceleration is one of the best features of the AI Age

👋🏼 Hi, I’m Moiz. I'm a Fractional Head of Product who helps top climate-tech teams build product from strategy, discovery, to execution. You’re receiving this because you’re building in climate and we’ve crossed paths. Each issue distills one proven concept that I use with my clients - and gives you a way to apply it to your work.

This edition is about the concept Synthetic Acceleration from the MIT paper "Some Simple Economics of AGI". It's about how building AI Coaches enabled me to rapidly gain fundamentals, practice them and then level up with a Human Coach.

Here's what's inside:

• Building an AI coach reinforces what you read in the book
• How to use coaches at the moment of need
• Why the AI coach doesn't replace a human specialist. It makes you a better client for one.

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Worth Repeating

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.”

-- Marie Curie

What is Synthetic Acceleration?

You've already experienced it in a small dose, any time you use AI.

The MIT paper says that Synthetic Acceleration, "accelerates the discovery of innate aptitudes, compresses the timeline to mastery, and allows a single individual to execute at the scale of a traditional startup."

This realization allowed me to lean into the concept of Synthetic Acceleration and I've really grown to appreciate it's power on me personally and professionally.

Here's the simple version: when you build an AI coach grounded in a specific framework or methodology, two things happen simultaneously:

1. The act of building a Coach forces you to encode the knowledge at a level that passive reading never does. That's taking steps towards mastery.
2. Once it's built, you have that expertise available on demand — at the moment of need, not the moment of availability.

Here's where the rubber meets the road. You have to make decisions about what matters. You have to figure out where the framework applies and where it breaks down.

Most people focus on the second part. The access. The on-demand expert in your pocket which is already there. That's real, and it's powerful. But you don't get there without earning the first part.

Applying Synthetic Acceleration in 3 Parts

I've now built three coaches, across three different domains. Here's how I approach building AI Coaches:

1. Build it

The first coach I built was Vera — my AI-powered customer discovery coach. Vera is the centerpiece of my Fractional PM practice and cohort course, and she helps product managers who are learning how to run discovery.

But here's what building Vera actually required: I had to write my own Skills. Not copy a framework. Not paste a methodology. Encode my own interpretation of what good discovery looks like, forged from years of practice at Opower and with clients.

That process made me a sharper discovery coach than any book or course had.

I've since built a Sales Coach grounded in Keenan's Gap Selling principles, and a Secure Attachment Coach grounded in Amir Levine's research on human relationships. Different domains, same dynamic: the builder learns more than the user.

2. Use it to refine your judgement

I never ask my AI Coaches for a Decision. I always ask for options. The options widen my lens. The judgment stays mine.

I provide it real world scenarios, in the moment, and then I make the call on what to do.

This allows me to rapidly apply what I learned, get feedback and refine my judgement.

3. Compound it with a Human

The AI coach doesn't replace the human specialist. It makes you a better client for one.

So I still hire coaches and work with specialists. What's changed is the quality of that work.

When I sit down with a great sales coach, a therapist, or a seasoned product leader, you're not spending their time — or your money — on fundamentals.

You've already done those reps. You arrive with a prepared mind. The conversation goes deeper faster. You're asking second and third-order questions instead of first ones.

From Insight to Action

• ​Here's my Claude Skill you can use to de-risk your launch. Copy/paste it into Claude and press enter.