Walter Budzian

Isn't it astonishing that using only images or text, human behavior can be guided along an invisible route? How we craft messages in our emails, pitch decks, advertising, or websites can drive consumers to spend their time and money or run in the other direction, never to be seen again.

I got good at influencing investments of time and money after I spent five years learning about the science of human motivation with the PhDs who created Self-Determination Theory. I got to apply the learnings to companies like IBM, Uber, Atlassian, Sony, and Warner Bros., helping them understand their users and create experiences that would be satisfying for the long term.

During that time I also was the co-founder and creator of motivationWorks, software to help managers learn how to create environments that enable people to do the best work of their lives. This was many moons before today's explosion in AI. LLMs weren't really a thing then, but we implemented state of the art NLP and personalization technology to deliver the right message to the user at the right time based on their individual responses. Way ahead of it's time.

While my role is often 'guy who comes in and fixes thing' one other common theme is a responsibility for executing on go to market strategy and business growth. I've done this at Tailscale, the easiest way to securely connect machines regardless of location. as well as most recently with the AI Devtools startup, Mirascope.

Now, I help startups and scaleups design the workflows and implement the tools that acquire, retain and monetize users with my consultancy, Budzian Group.

Oh, I also have trained an LLM to provide what I think is the most mind-boggling salient guidance for people interested in integrating difficult life experiences into personal growth at Deathless. Deathless exists to take what we know about consciousness, spritual wellness, and the strange terror of our own death compeling us towards meaning ☠️ ☠️ ☠️ and alchemize that into actionable plans for personal growth based on the science of self-determination theory.

If LLMs and AI are of interest to you, I've written extensively on developing for LLM-powered applications. Here is some of my work:

It's not all work, death, AI overlords and taxes though. I moved to Western North Carolina to live the good life and do that by exploring waterfalls and creeks with my family, breweries with friends, growing mushrooms, doing a lot of psychotherapy, and trying to understand Heidegger, Whitehead, and Schopenhauer.

Now you know about me. Please let me know about yourself and what you're trying to get done in this world. Email Walter.