Summary · Third quarter
Spending by category
| Category | Total | vs. Q2 |
|---|---|---|
| Transport | 412 | +18% |
| Materials | 268 | −4% |
| Connectivity | 150 | 0% |
Transport is the only line that really moved: start there.
Beyond the chatbot
Stop asking it things. Start directing it.
A chatbot answers you. An agent does the work with you: it reads your files, follows a plan and hands you the document. Learning to direct it is the skill that’s coming, and from Venezuela you can start today: free, and without knowing how to code.
I have three spreadsheets with this quarter’s spending. Merge them and give me a one-page summary.
- spending-july.csv
- spending-august.csv
- spending-september.csv
On it. Here’s my plan:
- Read your instructions
AGENTS.md - Read the 3 spreadsheets$
head -3 spending-*.csv - Reconcile the categoriesWrote
reconcile.py$python3 reconcile.py spending-*.csv - Compare against the previous quarter$
python3 compare.py --against spending-q2.csv - Save the summary to your folderWrote
summary-q3.md
Saved to your folder · summary-q3.md
Looks good. Put it in Excel for the meeting.
On it, moving it to Excel:
- Used the skill
xlsx - Put the table in an Excel sheet$
python3 table_to_excel.py summary-q3.md - Save it next to the summaryWrote
summary-q3.xlsx
summary-q3.xlsx
Saved to your folder · summary-q3.xlsx
The network we’re weaving People, mentors and cities
CaracasValenciaBarquisimetoMaracaiboMéridaSan CristóbalCumanáCiudad Guayana
The shift
From asking to directing
Chatbots already read your documents and hand files back. The difference is how much of the work is still yours. An agent works in your folder, follows a plan and checks what it does: the task gets done while you do something else, and the judgment stays yours.
The same task: merge three months of spending and decide where to cut.
With a chatbot
It reads your files and hands documents back now too. But every fix and every file still goes through you.
- You You upload the three sheets and ask for the summary.
- Chatbot It hands back a summary and a file to download.
- You You check it and see it mixed up two categories.
- You You explain, upload again, download again.
- You You save it in your folder. Next month, you start from scratch.
4 of 5 steps are yours to do.
With an agent
It works in your folder, follows a plan and checks what it does. You decide.
- You You point it at the folder and say what you need.
- Agent It builds a plan and shows it to you before starting.
- Agent It opens the three sheets, reconciles the categories and checks the totals.
- Agent It saves the summary and the Excel file in your folder, next to the originals.
- You You check it and decide where to cut. Next month, you ask in one line.
2 of 5 steps are yours to do: asking and deciding.
The same argument, at length (in Spanish): Por qué dejé los chatbots
What we do
Three doors
Come in through whichever one is closest to you. None of them asks you to know how to code.
Open Demos
Two to five minutes: you show the tool that has been useful in your work, what went wrong before it worked, and how you got there.
Who it’s for Anyone who has built something and wants to show it, or to learn from someone else’s attempt.
Workshops
Hands-on sessions in small groups, one topic at a time. You learn to direct an agent on real tasks, on your own computer, using sample files.
Who it’s for Open groups and teams from organizations, schools and universities. Knowing the basics of a computer is enough.
Hackathon for non-technical people
One day in small teams, with a mentor per team. Each team picks a real task and solves it with agents, and what it builds is published openly for anyone.
Who it’s for People who have been through a workshop or the demos and want to go further.
Mentorship at every hackathon, one mentor per team, from choosing the task to presenting it. Included.
Glossary
Four words you’ll hear
You don’t need them to sign up.
- Agent
“Merge these three sheets.”- A program that takes a task, makes a plan and carries it out on your computer: it opens files, runs commands and hands you the result to check.
- Skill
skills/xlsx- A recipe that teaches the agent to do one thing well, like building a spreadsheet or a deck. You install it once and it uses it whenever it needs to.
- Instructions
AGENTS.md · CLAUDE.md- A file in your folder where you write how you want it to work: your tone, your formats, what it must not touch. The agent reads it before every task.
- Your folder
Documents/Ateneo- You give the agent a folder to work in. What it produces stays there, on your computer, where you can check it.
Where this goes
Same room, same resources, same chance.
There are public libraries where it doesn’t matter who you are: they lend computers, teach people who have never touched a keyboard, and sit you next to people working on the same problems as you. Knowledge, networks, infrastructure and a culture of technology, open to anyone. That’s what we want for Venezuela. We’re starting small; the horizon is a space like that in every city.
- Today Open demos, workshops and hackathons, in small groups.
- Next Partnerships with universities and organizations, alongside formal education.
- Horizon An open space in every city, where what matters isn’t who you are or where you come from, but where you want to go.
CaracasValenciaBarquisimetoMaracaiboMéridaSan CristóbalCumanáCiudad GuayanaPuerto Ayacucho
Zona en Reclamación
Principles
How we work
Four rules you can see in everything we do.
Open first
We start with open-source tools you can use without paying and without depending on a single company.
You decide
You give the instructions and you check the result. The agent works for you, not the other way around.
Your files are yours
Your work lives in your folder, in open formats any program can open today and in ten years. When you need Word, Excel or PowerPoint, the agent produces them from there, so the final file doesn’t tie you to any platform.
Resilience
Everything we teach runs on a modest laptop, and there’s always a free way to start.
Hear it
What they can’t take
Where this comes from: a generation that went abroad to study and came back to teach, a country that lost that path, and the question of what we can do in the meantime. Skills nobody can take from you, and opportunities within anyone’s reach.
You know this floor. This time it is not for leaving.
Stay in the loop
Join
We’ll let you know about the next hackathon and open demo. Nothing else.
Do you fund, teach, or have a space? Write to us: ateneo@aragort.com