Call Summary: Resistance as the Devil's Weapon and Daily Spirit Breakthrough

Overview

Breakthrough strategy call where Tim provided feedback on Gary's Applied AI Society launch post, leading to a major title improvement ("Why 2026 Belongs to the Applied AI Engineer"). The conversation evolved into a profound theological discussion reframing "resistance" (the concept from Steven Pressfield's War of Art) as the devil's primary weapon against believers. This led to a powerful reframe of The Daily Spirit ministry: from daily encouragement to "crushing the daily devil." The call also established Tim's first Applied AI assignment: building a LinkedIn outreach machine.

Key Topics Discussed

Applied AI Society Launch Post Editing

• Original Concern: Post felt too general, not compelling enough, unclear target audience (engineers vs. businesses)
• Tim's Feedback: "Make it super short and super clear blunt... make it obvious that this is the thing I should be doing"
• Title Breakthrough: Changed from generic title to "Why 2026 Belongs to the Applied AI Engineer" - Gary: "That's curiosity inducing"
• Target Audience Clarity: Engineers who want to help businesses + the businesses themselves
• Travis as Co-Author: Changed "founding sponsor" to "founding adviser" to avoid appearing bought
• Format Strategy: Long origin post for Substack + shorter social media wraps + video invitation

Capital Factory Event Confirmed

• Date: January 29th locked in
• Status: Capital Factory finally responded after delays from "downgrading people"

Tim's First Applied AI Assignment

• Task: Create LinkedIn outreach machine for cold outreach to ~1,000 people
• Gary: "This will be like your first applied AI engineering project. Seriously."
• Scope: First degree connections + cold outreach to anyone who could benefit
• Documentation: Will document the playbook for Applied AI Society repo

Travis Oliphant Time Logging

• Tool: Harvest time logging software
• Gary's Concern: Whether he needs to log full 8 hours
• Tim's Advice: "They're going to judge you mainly based on the outcomes" - don't stress about exact hours early on, prove value first

The Resistance Revelation

• Source: Tim mentioned Dawson has War of Art by Steven Pressfield; Gary knew the concept from Better Ideas YouTuber
• Core Insight: Resistance is the devil's primary weapon - a spiritual force keeping people from their calling
• Gary's Articulation: "There's literally a force. It's a spiritual force. It's like an unseen spiritual force that keeps you away from doing what God had ordained you to do."

Daily Spirit Reframe: "Crush the Daily Devil"

• Gary's Reaction: "You just made the daily spirit go from a cute name to a daily weapon that you would kill the freaking devil with every day"
• New Framing: "I'm giving you a weapon... I'm reminding you that you are a weapon. You have the Holy Spirit weapon to crush the devil every day."
• Purpose Clarified: "The daily spirit is for developing flourishing disciples"
• Content Direction: Generate images of the devil getting crushed; normalize talking about spiritual warfare

Mike Ajouz Critique Revisited

• Gary's Point: "My whole critique with Mikey Jews, bro. Is that he just wants to fight human enemies."
• Gary's Response: "If you focus on the tools, you just become the tool yourself. Devil is smart, bro."
• Contrast: Fighting Somali population vs. fighting the actual spiritual enemy

The Power of Naming

• Biblical Foundation: Adam named animals in the garden - naming is creative power inherited from God
• How Evil Gets Named: After the fall, humans can name evil things (transgenderism, new sins)
• Apostle Delmar's Method: Getting doctors to name diseases so they can be cast out specifically
• Framework: "Name it, then you can conquer it"
• Gary on Naming: "We can literally create our own sins now... We have literally invented new things that can possess us"

Memetic Warfare Reframed

• Gary: New words as memetic warfare "not against fellow humans, not to create FOMO... but to help people understand our reality more"
• Application: Creating vocabulary that helps believers flourish

2026 as Pivotal Year

• Numerology: Hebrew letters of Yahweh add up to 26 - "year of Yahweh"
• Gary's Frame: "My evolution in baptism represented a whole new version... This is 2.0"
• Vision: "Gary post-baptism supercharged with Russian superpowers"
• 250th Anniversary: Significant marker for the year

Perpetuity of Faith

• Tim: "So much about faith is just perpetuity. You just perpetually trust God. Jesus is perpetually with you."
• Cycle: Guard up → forget about devil → guard down → get hit → repeat
• Solution: The Daily Spirit as "perpetual war machine" - constant spiritual armor injection

Key Quotes

On Resistance as the Devil:

"Resistance is from the devil. This is how I feel about this. There's literally a force. It's a spiritual force. It's like an unseen spiritual force that keeps you away from doing what God had ordained you to do. From becoming who God ordained you to become." (Gary)

On Crushing the Daily Devil:

"The daily spirit is to fight the daily resistance... Crush the daily devil." (Gary) "You just made the daily spirit go from a cute name to a daily weapon that you would kill the freaking devil with every day." (Gary)

On Fighting the Wrong Enemy:

"If you focus on the tools, you just become the tool yourself. Devil is smart, bro." (Gary)

On Naming Power:

"Name it. Name it. Name it. And then you say, I conquer your situation... It's not that complicated. When you name it, then you can conquer it." (Gary)

On the Launch Post:

"We gotta bait them... There's so much noise right now. So we can't afford titles... that doesn't make it obvious that this is the thing I should be doing." (Tim)

On 2026:

"The foundation that we lay in this year is completely catalytic for the rest of our lives, completely honestly." (Gary)

Tim on His Assignment:

"This will be like your first applied AI engineering project. Seriously. Like, that shouldn't be that hard... it should totally be possible with all these AI marketing tools now." (Gary)

Applied AI Society Strategy Clarifications

Why Travis Matters

• Gary: "The reason why Travis is so important because he's like, not Gary... I'm just a random dude. Travis is... everyone knows him in the AI space."
• Tim's Brother: Even recognized "oh, that's cool, you're working with a numpy guy"

Post Structure Decision

• Long origin post explaining what/why/how of Applied AI Society
• Shorter CTAs for social media
• Video invitation with Gary's face as community leader
• Targeted ads on LinkedIn

Key Messaging

• "It's amazing to us how little this is talked about. Even though this is clearly the gap."
• Not about foundation models - about solving the last mile problem
• "The question is no longer 'can AI do this?' It's 'who can help organizations actually use it?'"

Tim's Orthodox Christmas Plans

• Tim mentioned potentially attending nocturnal liturgy for Orthodox Christmas (January 7)

Action Items / Takeaways

• Tim to research LinkedIn filtering options for outreach machine
• Gary to finalize Applied AI Society launch post
• Create Docusaurus repo at docs.appliedaisociety.org
• Luma page already has 30 RSVPs
• Gary to create a "resistance" chapter in Way of Fire repo
• Gary considering another TikTok experiment on resistance theme
• Daily Spirit content direction: Visualizing and defeating the devil daily
• Tim heading home tomorrow at 1pm, currently slightly sick

Closing Prayer Themes

• Tim's Prayer: Gratitude for the call revealing how to connect resistance to a personified enemy; asking for guidance in the pivotal year ahead
• Gary's Prayer: Gratitude for breakthrough revelation; acknowledging every day reveals at least one step forward; "The devil equals resistance" as an oversimplification he's "happy to brand himself with"