When you go deep into something, you don't come back the same.

Same as when you go to high altitude—some athletes train in the mountains with thinner air so that when they come back down, they have a new level of cardiovascular fitness.

Whatever you immerse yourself into, remember: you are going to an extreme. Coming out of that period, when you return to what your life was before, you may have changed. Hopefully more skilled—stronger and for the better.

I noticed this recently. After a few months fully immersed in AI tooling, some friends asked me to show them the ropes. As I began to share, I realized how much context was necessary to get them up to speed. What feels like basics to me now are still new frontiers for most (and I was there too): the concept of a context window, token spend, which models are best for what tasks, how to parallelize agents, and more.

I've stumbled into this pattern before—usually in 3-month bursts. Spain to learn flamenco. Brazil to learn choro. A software bootcamp in San Francisco.

At the time, none of it felt like progress. It felt like struggling.

These periods aren't sustainable. But they're powerful.

The key: you don't notice your progress in the midst of it. Only when you surface for air—when you return to regular altitude—do you see how much you've changed.