8 answers
Katelyn
Student
Nevada City, California
5
Questions
Asked
1768 views
Associates degree in business?
Do you guys think I could get a good paying job with just my associates degree in business if I were to stop here?
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8 answers
Melanie Anderson
Associate Director
46
Answers
Elmont, New York
Updated
Melanie’s Answer
Hi Katelyn!
Absolutely! You can land a well-paying job with an associate degree. Many companies are eager to hire you. For example, Verizon offers programs where you can climb the ladder or move around within the company. You can earn a good salary, and with tuition assistance as part of your benefits, you could even get your MBA and boost your earnings. Lots of companies set your starting pay based on your degrees. If you need a break, go ahead and take it, then dive into your career. Remember, nothing is permanent, so make any changes you need to feel happy and fulfilled.
I believe in you! You’ve got this!
Absolutely! You can land a well-paying job with an associate degree. Many companies are eager to hire you. For example, Verizon offers programs where you can climb the ladder or move around within the company. You can earn a good salary, and with tuition assistance as part of your benefits, you could even get your MBA and boost your earnings. Lots of companies set your starting pay based on your degrees. If you need a break, go ahead and take it, then dive into your career. Remember, nothing is permanent, so make any changes you need to feel happy and fulfilled.
I believe in you! You’ve got this!
Doc Frick
Career Coach and Mentor
1870
Answers
California, CA
Updated
Doc’s Answer
Katelyn if you want to get started in a business career quickly, you might consider pursuing an associate's degree in business management. This degree takes two years to complete and gives you core business knowledge that employers value. An associate degree in business can provide an affordable and flexible option for job advancement. There's a wide variety of business-related careers in areas like human resources, sales, data and healthcare management. Learning about careers available with an associate degree in business can help you plan your professional path and properly consider your education options.
🩻 BENEFITS ADMINISTRATOR: $60,000
Benefits administrators are professionals in a company's human resources department who manage employee benefit programs such as health insurance, life insurance, flexible spending plans and retirement plans. They research possible changes to benefit programs, make recommendations and implement any programs the company chooses, which can include negotiating rates with vendors. They also serve as a contact person for employees to help them understand and use their benefits. Other responsibilities include maintaining employee benefit databases, coordinating benefits processes and ensuring compliance with government rules and regulations.
🌐 BUSINESS CONSULTANT: $65,000
Business consultants are professionals who work with a company to form strategies for growth and improvement. They usually begin by analyzing a company's existing activities and strategies to identify what's working and what could benefit from a change. They make recommendations to the company and may also help implement any new strategies or processes. Responsibilities can include collaborating with employees, creating detailed strategy documents and presenting their ideas to senior management.
💰 INVESTMENT BANKER: $70,000
Investment bankers are financial professionals who act as advisers for corporations and governments to help them raise money. This may involve helping a corporation raise money for expansion or helping a government entity raise money for the construction of a municipal project like a bridge or highway. They primarily acquire this financing through knowledgeable use of stocks and investments. Investment bankers are often involved when companies decide to go public and may need to launch their initial public offerings (IPOs).
🧭 PURCHASING MANAGER: $70,000
Purchasing managers obtain the resources a company needs to operate, such as products, equipment and services. They identify options for suppliers or vendors, compare them, choose which one the company might work with and negotiate rates and prices. Their role can differ depending on the size of the company they work for, since a purchasing manager at a smaller company may handle purchasing personally, while a manager at a larger company may direct junior agents who perform those tasks. Other responsibilities can include making payments, scheduling deliveries and keeping detailed records.
🧿 MARKETING DIRECTOR: $75,000
Marketing directors lead A marketing team at a company, guiding the team through each step of the marketing process. With their team, marketing directors form ideas for marketing strategies, perform customer research, plan the strategies and implement them. After the completion of a marketing campaign, they often analyze the results, identify areas of strength and areas for improvement and present those findings to the team. Responsibilities include developing a company's brand, planning promotional events, monitoring the company's online presence and managing the marketing team.
🌀 PROJECT MANAGER: $75,000
Project managers act as the liaison between upper management and a team during a project. They may work in many industries, such as information technology, finance, architecture and construction. They manage a project from conception to completion, which includes evaluating the costs of the project, managing the budget and keeping the project on schedule. Other responsibilities can include obtaining resources or additional financing, identifying potential issues, problem-solving and reporting on the project's progress to management.
Hope this is helpful Katelyn
🩻 BENEFITS ADMINISTRATOR: $60,000
Benefits administrators are professionals in a company's human resources department who manage employee benefit programs such as health insurance, life insurance, flexible spending plans and retirement plans. They research possible changes to benefit programs, make recommendations and implement any programs the company chooses, which can include negotiating rates with vendors. They also serve as a contact person for employees to help them understand and use their benefits. Other responsibilities include maintaining employee benefit databases, coordinating benefits processes and ensuring compliance with government rules and regulations.
🌐 BUSINESS CONSULTANT: $65,000
Business consultants are professionals who work with a company to form strategies for growth and improvement. They usually begin by analyzing a company's existing activities and strategies to identify what's working and what could benefit from a change. They make recommendations to the company and may also help implement any new strategies or processes. Responsibilities can include collaborating with employees, creating detailed strategy documents and presenting their ideas to senior management.
💰 INVESTMENT BANKER: $70,000
Investment bankers are financial professionals who act as advisers for corporations and governments to help them raise money. This may involve helping a corporation raise money for expansion or helping a government entity raise money for the construction of a municipal project like a bridge or highway. They primarily acquire this financing through knowledgeable use of stocks and investments. Investment bankers are often involved when companies decide to go public and may need to launch their initial public offerings (IPOs).
🧭 PURCHASING MANAGER: $70,000
Purchasing managers obtain the resources a company needs to operate, such as products, equipment and services. They identify options for suppliers or vendors, compare them, choose which one the company might work with and negotiate rates and prices. Their role can differ depending on the size of the company they work for, since a purchasing manager at a smaller company may handle purchasing personally, while a manager at a larger company may direct junior agents who perform those tasks. Other responsibilities can include making payments, scheduling deliveries and keeping detailed records.
🧿 MARKETING DIRECTOR: $75,000
Marketing directors lead A marketing team at a company, guiding the team through each step of the marketing process. With their team, marketing directors form ideas for marketing strategies, perform customer research, plan the strategies and implement them. After the completion of a marketing campaign, they often analyze the results, identify areas of strength and areas for improvement and present those findings to the team. Responsibilities include developing a company's brand, planning promotional events, monitoring the company's online presence and managing the marketing team.
🌀 PROJECT MANAGER: $75,000
Project managers act as the liaison between upper management and a team during a project. They may work in many industries, such as information technology, finance, architecture and construction. They manage a project from conception to completion, which includes evaluating the costs of the project, managing the budget and keeping the project on schedule. Other responsibilities can include obtaining resources or additional financing, identifying potential issues, problem-solving and reporting on the project's progress to management.
Hope this is helpful Katelyn
Shaun Collins
Project Management
10
Answers
San Mateo, California
Updated
Shaun’s Answer
Hi Katelyn,
You are on the right road, please stay on it and reach the Bachelor's degree! Those lower division classes you take in Business, will not add much value. Please use the AA as a spring board to the BA or BS in business. Your upper division classes in finance, marketing and management are the most valuable. As a hiring manager in a fortune 500 company for many years, I would focus on those with the four-year degrees or higher (MBA). Stay focused. Those next two years will be invaluable as you move up you career. Don't short yourself or your career. If you are looking for jobs in the six figure range range stay focused in college now that you are young and have the time and energy to make it happen. The fact that you got the BA or BS shows hiring managers you have what it takes to be a success!
You are on the right road, please stay on it and reach the Bachelor's degree! Those lower division classes you take in Business, will not add much value. Please use the AA as a spring board to the BA or BS in business. Your upper division classes in finance, marketing and management are the most valuable. As a hiring manager in a fortune 500 company for many years, I would focus on those with the four-year degrees or higher (MBA). Stay focused. Those next two years will be invaluable as you move up you career. Don't short yourself or your career. If you are looking for jobs in the six figure range range stay focused in college now that you are young and have the time and energy to make it happen. The fact that you got the BA or BS shows hiring managers you have what it takes to be a success!
Chris Narmi
Software Technology Strategy
2
Answers
Wellington, Florida
Updated
Chris’s Answer
Hi Katelyn,
This may not be the answer you expect, but I hope it might prove useful nonetheless. I'll apologize in advance for the length. This writing method helps me to clarify my own thoughts, but you skim or skip as you feel appropriate for your needs.
Cheers,
Chris
To answer directly, yes you can, and you can maybe get a better paying job later if you stick it out to get the Bachelor's degree.
That said, the old adage is that your degree gets you your first job, and what gets you your second job is how you did in your first.
FWIW, a Master's degree is usually considered to be the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree plus 5 years of experience.
I don't know what the difference between an Associates degree and a Bachelors is in terms of "experience."
Another approach is to pursue a career in an area where no traditional degrees exist. The best I can think of today is a field called "Prompt Engineering." It's not really any kind of "engineering" and doesn't require any math or science.
Prompt Engineering is knowledge/skills about how to ask todays' AI questions to get useful answers. That is the fundamental skill, and there are many additional tid-bits that can make the response from an AI much more useful. OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, Anthropic's Claude are all free AI products you can learn to question (prompt) online from your web browser. There are other more sophisticated AI-Agent tools too that can be used for free on a limited basis.
There aren't any degrees in prompt engineering because it isn't so much a discipline as it is just a skill set. I would not recommend paying anyone for a program of webinars to teach prompt engineering. There is so much available for free via YouTube and another online resources that it isn't really necessary. It doesn't take long to gather enough skills to be useful in prompt engineering.
One way to make money with it (we call that a Use Case) is to offer to create one or more prompts for a person or business who pays you for the time, or the result. I recently saw a YouTube video interview with the Chief Product Officer at OpenAI. One use case he thinks the AI models were capable of now, and that nobody has built a killer-application for, is personal tutoring. Personal Tutor is what we would call a greenfield application of AI.
I'm doing a little experiment on this topic which I'll share with you. You might want to do something similar and use it to tutor yourself in something. If it is successful, you'll be able to show people how you did it, and perhaps they will be willing to ask you to help them in a similar way. Perhaps they will even pay you for the effort.
I'm hoping my Personal Tutor can help me to learn how to use a Personal Knowledge Management System product called Obsidian. Obsidian is free to use: https://obsidian.md/
My goal is to lean to use the features of Obsidian to create a body of knowledge, i.e., corpus, that can later be reused by others (in conjunction with an AI) like an expert system.
It didn't take me long to realize that to make/use the tutor to create the kind of knowledge management system structure I wanted, I'd would need to have a subject about which I wanted to create a body of knowledge. I wanted something simple but useful for my own purposes, so I chose the subject of the philosophy of Stoicism. You might choose something more in line with your own interests. I tell you this only so that you will recognize in the prompts below how all this fits together.
**Note:** A long running conversation with an AI acting as a Personal Tutor will necessitate the AI has the ability to accumulate and use memories across chats and prompts. If you use OpenAI's ChatGPT, you will need the Plus subscription. The Plus subscription costs $20/month. There is an option for students to use a Plus subscription for free for a period of 2 months. If you were to pursue this project, you could complete it in 8 weeks. Check out [chatgpt.com/students](https://chatgpt.com/students) to sign up for the free two months of Plus subscription at OpenAI.
So to summarize:
**Goal**: create an AI personal tutor using prompt engineering in OpenAI's ChatGPT 4o.
**Objective**: Use the Personal Tutor to accelerate learning how to use Obsidian software to organize information into a corpus that could later be turned into a subject matter expert.
Test Case: Stoicism philosophy
So my little personal tutor experiment is just getting started, but here is how I set it up:
1. Install the personal knowledge management (PKM) software called Obsidian. It's free. If you have both a PC and a phone, you can use Apple's iCloud to synch your Vault between devices.
2. Get an OpenAI Plus account so you can use ChatGPT 4o, and create a project for your Personal Tutor. I named my project "PKM."
3. At the Project Level add Instructions that will be applied to all the prompts (chats) to keep the context of the chats in the project focused on the goal. (Remember, my goal is to learn to use Obsidian, and the body of knowledge is Stoicism).
- You are a Master User of the personal knowledge management system product named Obsidian. You are also an expert at markdown language formatting rules and how to make the most effective use of it for maximum readability.
- You have agreed to be my consultant and tutor to answer questions, and if asked, to provide exercises of increasing sophistication to coach me along the path to mastery of both Obsidian and Markdown Language. As such, it will be necessary to maintain the entire history of our chats in this project in memory for all future chats in this project.
- My goal is to create Obsidian Vaults on various topics, some work related, some hobbies, some just for intellectual curiosity. Each vault will be a living and growing corpus of knowledge in a specific domain.
- I plan to offer these Obsidian Vaults later for use as billable experts in areas where I have accumulated deep experience and expertise, with unique and valuable insights into a specific area of interest.
- The vaults should be designed such that expert AI systems may be built with them. These systems will have users who subscribe to an expert service and ask questions, solicit advice, ask for work products based on the expertise of the corpus, and other reasonable requests.
- In the expert systems both the questions and answers will be recorded and fed back into the corpus, as well as any feedback from users on the accuracy, usefulness, and value of pervious responses to users' requests.
- The expert service will always reflect on the request, even if the request is a simple System-1 Thinking request. In the beginning, any System-2 Thinking request will be alerted to the vault owner, who will have an opportunity to review and amplify the response before it is supplied to the user.
- Please keep these outcomes in mind as you respond to prompts about how to design the architecture of these Obsidian vaults. Maximize the use of Obsidian's features and the features of all the available plugins for integrating knowledge to enable the synthesis of new understanding, deepen expertise, and create new insights.
- Feel free to ask questions to clarify my intentions in any prompt.
- Know in advance that I am grateful for your assistance, and looking forward to this long-running exercise.
- You are also an expert in Philosophy, in particular Stoic Philosophy, deeply steeped in the classical texts and their interpretations, but also keenly aware of the modern applications of Stoicism. Any requests relative to ethics, aesthetics, and morality should be answered in the context of modern applications. Reference and discussion of the interpretation of the classical texts should only be brought into the context of a chat if the user wants to get into that depth.
4. Enter a prompt to get the Personal Tutor started:
- I have installed Obsidian and it synchronizes across all my devices. I have started a vault and created a folder in which I want to collect knowledge about Stoicism. This will be my learning project towards building an expert system from a personal knowledgebase. I am especially eager to understand how best to design the architecture of the system and use the features to create a useful knowledge graph.
- Given that this is our first introduction, feel free to ask me any questions that will help you to understand my objectives with this project.
- There after we can begin the learning process with the Stoicism knowledgebase.
5. To which ChatGPT replied:
- That’s a fantastic project—both intellectually rewarding and practically valuable. Thank you for inviting me to be part of your journey.
- To tailor my guidance and coaching to your specific goals, here are a few clarifying questions:
1. **Scope of the Knowledgebase**: Do you want the Stoicism vault to focus primarily on _classical texts and interpretations_, or also include _modern applications_, comparisons to other philosophies, and your own _personal reflections or journaling_?
2. **Intended Audience for the Expert System**: Is this just for your personal understanding, or do you eventually envision others querying this system (e.g., clients, students, readers of your work)?
3. **Your Preferred Working Style**: Do you prefer daily writing/journaling, structured research, thematic exploration, chronological reading, or a blend of these?
4. **Tool Familiarity**: Are you using any plugins yet (e.g., Dataview, Canvas, Templater, Excalidraw), or would you like help installing and configuring those?
5. **Knowledge Graph Utility**: How important is _visual navigation_ to you versus _query-based extraction_ of insights (e.g., finding all references to a concept like “prohairesis” across your vault)?
6. To which I replied:
- Answers:
1. Scope: I want the outcome to be of practical use to anyone regardless of philosophical inclination or mindset. The outcome should be a trusted advisor grounded in timeless universal ethics, aesthetics, and morality. I believe it will require both classical texts and interpretations for anyone who wishes to explore an issue deeply, but the modern applications will likely be the most useful. I do plan to use the system myself, and my own reflections and journaling, and welcome your tutoring on my additions too. I will adjust the project level instructions to include your expertise in Stoicism.
2. Audience: It will accessible by anyone of any age from any culture (with parental approval as necessary).
3. Working Style: I prefer all of those styles. I am not yet a practiced journalist but will be starting and hope to get to the point where I can make time to journal every day.
4. Tool Familiarity: As a first time Obsidian user, I know nothing of those things. I will need help doing everything. Explain those things to me as if I was a 9th grader. It does appear Obsidian supports some kind(s) of scripting. I'd like to dig into that too to make the most of the tool. I have not coded since C++ was a big deal, so Typescript, JavaScript, etc. are all new to me, but I have a fundamental understanding of OO programming techniques.
5. Knowledge Graph Utility: My primary interest is in being able to generate insights or more insightful answers. To that end I don't know if visual navigation or query based extraction will be more important, or if they are even necessarily mutually exclusive. The goal is to produce a corpus of knowledge that is suitable for use in creating highly capable, finely tuned, AI Agents that are subject matter experts. Please use that goal as the basis for making recommendations about how to architect the Obsidian platform.
7. Which trigged the Tutor to begin with the following:
Thank you—your clarity and ambition set the stage for a truly exceptional vault. Here’s how we’ll proceed:
---
# 🏗️ Phase 1: Foundational Vault Architecture for Stoicism**
🔹 Folder Structure
Here’s a simple and extensible structure for your vault:
📁 Stoicism/
├── 📘 00_Classical Texts/
├── 🧠 01_Concepts/
├── 📍 02_Principles/
├── 🗣️ 03_Quotes/
├── ✍️ 04_Reflections/
├── 🧩 05_Applications/
├── 🛠️ 06_Tools_Queries/
├── 🤖 07_AI_Training_Notes/
└── 📑 Index.md
Brief explanations:
00_Classical Texts: Translations and commentaries (Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca…).
01_Concepts: Core ideas like prohairesis, eudaimonia, apatheia, etc.
02_Principles: Actionable Stoic principles (e.g., Dichotomy of Control, View from Above).
03_Quotes: Curated quotes with metadata and sources.
04_Reflections: Your journal and notes.
05_Applications: Modern contexts (e.g., leadership, parenting, grief, productivity).
06_Tools_Queries: Templates, Dataview snippets, scripts, automation.
07_AI_Training_Notes: Special formatting for eventual AI model ingestion.
Index.md: Table of contents with links to major areas and how to use the vault.
# 🔌 Phase 2: Essential Plugins for Insight and Automation
These plugins will help you generate a powerful knowledge graph and automate insight synthesis:
📊 Dataview – lets you turn Markdown into a database (powerful for querying quotes, notes, etc.)
🧠 Juggl or Graph Analysis – enhances the visual graph.
📝 Templater – create dynamic templates for consistent note structure.
📅 Daily Notes + Calendar – helps build a journaling habit.
📦 Canvas – visual workspaces for synthesis, comparisons, or philosophical mapping.
I'll walk you through installing and using each one when you're ready.
# 🔍 Phase 3: Metadata Standards (Your Vault’s DNA)
Metadata helps AI (and you!) make sense of the vault.
Every note should start with a YAML frontmatter block like:
type: concept
tags: [stoicism, virtue, temperance]
author: Marcus Aurelius
source: Meditations
date: 2025-05-11
related: [dichotomy-of-control, discipline]
This will:
- Support precise queries
- Help connect related ideas
- Feed into AI preprocessing and training later
# 🧠 Phase 4: Your First Learning Loop
Here’s what I suggest as a starting point:
1. **Add three quotes** that resonate with you.
2. **Create one reflection note** on a recent decision or struggle and evaluate it through Stoic lenses.
3. **Pick one Stoic concept** (e.g., _Dichotomy of Control_) and create a dedicated note. I’ll help you fill it out with structure.
We’ll iterate from there—with increasing sophistication.
Would you like me to walk you through setting up the first plugin (Dataview or Templater), or start with some initial content and examples to copy into your vault?
---
You should get the idea...
This may not be the answer you expect, but I hope it might prove useful nonetheless. I'll apologize in advance for the length. This writing method helps me to clarify my own thoughts, but you skim or skip as you feel appropriate for your needs.
Cheers,
Chris
To answer directly, yes you can, and you can maybe get a better paying job later if you stick it out to get the Bachelor's degree.
That said, the old adage is that your degree gets you your first job, and what gets you your second job is how you did in your first.
FWIW, a Master's degree is usually considered to be the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree plus 5 years of experience.
I don't know what the difference between an Associates degree and a Bachelors is in terms of "experience."
Another approach is to pursue a career in an area where no traditional degrees exist. The best I can think of today is a field called "Prompt Engineering." It's not really any kind of "engineering" and doesn't require any math or science.
Prompt Engineering is knowledge/skills about how to ask todays' AI questions to get useful answers. That is the fundamental skill, and there are many additional tid-bits that can make the response from an AI much more useful. OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, Anthropic's Claude are all free AI products you can learn to question (prompt) online from your web browser. There are other more sophisticated AI-Agent tools too that can be used for free on a limited basis.
There aren't any degrees in prompt engineering because it isn't so much a discipline as it is just a skill set. I would not recommend paying anyone for a program of webinars to teach prompt engineering. There is so much available for free via YouTube and another online resources that it isn't really necessary. It doesn't take long to gather enough skills to be useful in prompt engineering.
One way to make money with it (we call that a Use Case) is to offer to create one or more prompts for a person or business who pays you for the time, or the result. I recently saw a YouTube video interview with the Chief Product Officer at OpenAI. One use case he thinks the AI models were capable of now, and that nobody has built a killer-application for, is personal tutoring. Personal Tutor is what we would call a greenfield application of AI.
I'm doing a little experiment on this topic which I'll share with you. You might want to do something similar and use it to tutor yourself in something. If it is successful, you'll be able to show people how you did it, and perhaps they will be willing to ask you to help them in a similar way. Perhaps they will even pay you for the effort.
I'm hoping my Personal Tutor can help me to learn how to use a Personal Knowledge Management System product called Obsidian. Obsidian is free to use: https://obsidian.md/
My goal is to lean to use the features of Obsidian to create a body of knowledge, i.e., corpus, that can later be reused by others (in conjunction with an AI) like an expert system.
It didn't take me long to realize that to make/use the tutor to create the kind of knowledge management system structure I wanted, I'd would need to have a subject about which I wanted to create a body of knowledge. I wanted something simple but useful for my own purposes, so I chose the subject of the philosophy of Stoicism. You might choose something more in line with your own interests. I tell you this only so that you will recognize in the prompts below how all this fits together.
**Note:** A long running conversation with an AI acting as a Personal Tutor will necessitate the AI has the ability to accumulate and use memories across chats and prompts. If you use OpenAI's ChatGPT, you will need the Plus subscription. The Plus subscription costs $20/month. There is an option for students to use a Plus subscription for free for a period of 2 months. If you were to pursue this project, you could complete it in 8 weeks. Check out [chatgpt.com/students](https://chatgpt.com/students) to sign up for the free two months of Plus subscription at OpenAI.
So to summarize:
**Goal**: create an AI personal tutor using prompt engineering in OpenAI's ChatGPT 4o.
**Objective**: Use the Personal Tutor to accelerate learning how to use Obsidian software to organize information into a corpus that could later be turned into a subject matter expert.
Test Case: Stoicism philosophy
So my little personal tutor experiment is just getting started, but here is how I set it up:
1. Install the personal knowledge management (PKM) software called Obsidian. It's free. If you have both a PC and a phone, you can use Apple's iCloud to synch your Vault between devices.
2. Get an OpenAI Plus account so you can use ChatGPT 4o, and create a project for your Personal Tutor. I named my project "PKM."
3. At the Project Level add Instructions that will be applied to all the prompts (chats) to keep the context of the chats in the project focused on the goal. (Remember, my goal is to learn to use Obsidian, and the body of knowledge is Stoicism).
- You are a Master User of the personal knowledge management system product named Obsidian. You are also an expert at markdown language formatting rules and how to make the most effective use of it for maximum readability.
- You have agreed to be my consultant and tutor to answer questions, and if asked, to provide exercises of increasing sophistication to coach me along the path to mastery of both Obsidian and Markdown Language. As such, it will be necessary to maintain the entire history of our chats in this project in memory for all future chats in this project.
- My goal is to create Obsidian Vaults on various topics, some work related, some hobbies, some just for intellectual curiosity. Each vault will be a living and growing corpus of knowledge in a specific domain.
- I plan to offer these Obsidian Vaults later for use as billable experts in areas where I have accumulated deep experience and expertise, with unique and valuable insights into a specific area of interest.
- The vaults should be designed such that expert AI systems may be built with them. These systems will have users who subscribe to an expert service and ask questions, solicit advice, ask for work products based on the expertise of the corpus, and other reasonable requests.
- In the expert systems both the questions and answers will be recorded and fed back into the corpus, as well as any feedback from users on the accuracy, usefulness, and value of pervious responses to users' requests.
- The expert service will always reflect on the request, even if the request is a simple System-1 Thinking request. In the beginning, any System-2 Thinking request will be alerted to the vault owner, who will have an opportunity to review and amplify the response before it is supplied to the user.
- Please keep these outcomes in mind as you respond to prompts about how to design the architecture of these Obsidian vaults. Maximize the use of Obsidian's features and the features of all the available plugins for integrating knowledge to enable the synthesis of new understanding, deepen expertise, and create new insights.
- Feel free to ask questions to clarify my intentions in any prompt.
- Know in advance that I am grateful for your assistance, and looking forward to this long-running exercise.
- You are also an expert in Philosophy, in particular Stoic Philosophy, deeply steeped in the classical texts and their interpretations, but also keenly aware of the modern applications of Stoicism. Any requests relative to ethics, aesthetics, and morality should be answered in the context of modern applications. Reference and discussion of the interpretation of the classical texts should only be brought into the context of a chat if the user wants to get into that depth.
4. Enter a prompt to get the Personal Tutor started:
- I have installed Obsidian and it synchronizes across all my devices. I have started a vault and created a folder in which I want to collect knowledge about Stoicism. This will be my learning project towards building an expert system from a personal knowledgebase. I am especially eager to understand how best to design the architecture of the system and use the features to create a useful knowledge graph.
- Given that this is our first introduction, feel free to ask me any questions that will help you to understand my objectives with this project.
- There after we can begin the learning process with the Stoicism knowledgebase.
5. To which ChatGPT replied:
- That’s a fantastic project—both intellectually rewarding and practically valuable. Thank you for inviting me to be part of your journey.
- To tailor my guidance and coaching to your specific goals, here are a few clarifying questions:
1. **Scope of the Knowledgebase**: Do you want the Stoicism vault to focus primarily on _classical texts and interpretations_, or also include _modern applications_, comparisons to other philosophies, and your own _personal reflections or journaling_?
2. **Intended Audience for the Expert System**: Is this just for your personal understanding, or do you eventually envision others querying this system (e.g., clients, students, readers of your work)?
3. **Your Preferred Working Style**: Do you prefer daily writing/journaling, structured research, thematic exploration, chronological reading, or a blend of these?
4. **Tool Familiarity**: Are you using any plugins yet (e.g., Dataview, Canvas, Templater, Excalidraw), or would you like help installing and configuring those?
5. **Knowledge Graph Utility**: How important is _visual navigation_ to you versus _query-based extraction_ of insights (e.g., finding all references to a concept like “prohairesis” across your vault)?
6. To which I replied:
- Answers:
1. Scope: I want the outcome to be of practical use to anyone regardless of philosophical inclination or mindset. The outcome should be a trusted advisor grounded in timeless universal ethics, aesthetics, and morality. I believe it will require both classical texts and interpretations for anyone who wishes to explore an issue deeply, but the modern applications will likely be the most useful. I do plan to use the system myself, and my own reflections and journaling, and welcome your tutoring on my additions too. I will adjust the project level instructions to include your expertise in Stoicism.
2. Audience: It will accessible by anyone of any age from any culture (with parental approval as necessary).
3. Working Style: I prefer all of those styles. I am not yet a practiced journalist but will be starting and hope to get to the point where I can make time to journal every day.
4. Tool Familiarity: As a first time Obsidian user, I know nothing of those things. I will need help doing everything. Explain those things to me as if I was a 9th grader. It does appear Obsidian supports some kind(s) of scripting. I'd like to dig into that too to make the most of the tool. I have not coded since C++ was a big deal, so Typescript, JavaScript, etc. are all new to me, but I have a fundamental understanding of OO programming techniques.
5. Knowledge Graph Utility: My primary interest is in being able to generate insights or more insightful answers. To that end I don't know if visual navigation or query based extraction will be more important, or if they are even necessarily mutually exclusive. The goal is to produce a corpus of knowledge that is suitable for use in creating highly capable, finely tuned, AI Agents that are subject matter experts. Please use that goal as the basis for making recommendations about how to architect the Obsidian platform.
7. Which trigged the Tutor to begin with the following:
Thank you—your clarity and ambition set the stage for a truly exceptional vault. Here’s how we’ll proceed:
---
# 🏗️ Phase 1: Foundational Vault Architecture for Stoicism**
🔹 Folder Structure
Here’s a simple and extensible structure for your vault:
📁 Stoicism/
├── 📘 00_Classical Texts/
├── 🧠 01_Concepts/
├── 📍 02_Principles/
├── 🗣️ 03_Quotes/
├── ✍️ 04_Reflections/
├── 🧩 05_Applications/
├── 🛠️ 06_Tools_Queries/
├── 🤖 07_AI_Training_Notes/
└── 📑 Index.md
Brief explanations:
00_Classical Texts: Translations and commentaries (Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca…).
01_Concepts: Core ideas like prohairesis, eudaimonia, apatheia, etc.
02_Principles: Actionable Stoic principles (e.g., Dichotomy of Control, View from Above).
03_Quotes: Curated quotes with metadata and sources.
04_Reflections: Your journal and notes.
05_Applications: Modern contexts (e.g., leadership, parenting, grief, productivity).
06_Tools_Queries: Templates, Dataview snippets, scripts, automation.
07_AI_Training_Notes: Special formatting for eventual AI model ingestion.
Index.md: Table of contents with links to major areas and how to use the vault.
# 🔌 Phase 2: Essential Plugins for Insight and Automation
These plugins will help you generate a powerful knowledge graph and automate insight synthesis:
📊 Dataview – lets you turn Markdown into a database (powerful for querying quotes, notes, etc.)
🧠 Juggl or Graph Analysis – enhances the visual graph.
📝 Templater – create dynamic templates for consistent note structure.
📅 Daily Notes + Calendar – helps build a journaling habit.
📦 Canvas – visual workspaces for synthesis, comparisons, or philosophical mapping.
I'll walk you through installing and using each one when you're ready.
# 🔍 Phase 3: Metadata Standards (Your Vault’s DNA)
Metadata helps AI (and you!) make sense of the vault.
Every note should start with a YAML frontmatter block like:
type: concept
tags: [stoicism, virtue, temperance]
author: Marcus Aurelius
source: Meditations
date: 2025-05-11
related: [dichotomy-of-control, discipline]
This will:
- Support precise queries
- Help connect related ideas
- Feed into AI preprocessing and training later
# 🧠 Phase 4: Your First Learning Loop
Here’s what I suggest as a starting point:
1. **Add three quotes** that resonate with you.
2. **Create one reflection note** on a recent decision or struggle and evaluate it through Stoic lenses.
3. **Pick one Stoic concept** (e.g., _Dichotomy of Control_) and create a dedicated note. I’ll help you fill it out with structure.
We’ll iterate from there—with increasing sophistication.
Would you like me to walk you through setting up the first plugin (Dataview or Templater), or start with some initial content and examples to copy into your vault?
---
You should get the idea...
Chiquria Willis
Loan Processor - Rocket Mortgage
94
Answers
Dearborn Heights, Michigan
Updated
Chiquria’s Answer
Absolutely! You can definitely secure a well-paying job with just an associate’s degree in business. While the positions may start at an entry-level compared to those with a bachelor’s degree, many people have built thriving careers from this starting point. By gaining experience and enhancing your skills over time, you can achieve great success.
Here are some common jobs you can pursue with an associate’s in business:
- Administrative assistant or office manager
- Sales associate or account representative
- Customer service supervisor
- Bookkeeping or payroll clerk
- Retail manager or assistant manager
- Marketing assistant
- Data entry or operations coordinator
Roles such as sales or retail management can lead to higher-paying positions as you gain experience and demonstrate strong performance. Plus, many companies offer support for further education, helping you advance even more.
To boost your earning potential:
- Gain work experience through internships or part-time jobs while studying
- Earn certifications like Microsoft Office, bookkeeping, or sales
- Explore growth industries in your area, such as healthcare, logistics, or finance
In summary, an associate’s degree in business can definitely land you a solid entry-level job. With dedication, networking, and skill development, more opportunities will come your way—and you always have the option to pursue a bachelor’s degree later on if desired!
Here are some common jobs you can pursue with an associate’s in business:
- Administrative assistant or office manager
- Sales associate or account representative
- Customer service supervisor
- Bookkeeping or payroll clerk
- Retail manager or assistant manager
- Marketing assistant
- Data entry or operations coordinator
Roles such as sales or retail management can lead to higher-paying positions as you gain experience and demonstrate strong performance. Plus, many companies offer support for further education, helping you advance even more.
To boost your earning potential:
- Gain work experience through internships or part-time jobs while studying
- Earn certifications like Microsoft Office, bookkeeping, or sales
- Explore growth industries in your area, such as healthcare, logistics, or finance
In summary, an associate’s degree in business can definitely land you a solid entry-level job. With dedication, networking, and skill development, more opportunities will come your way—and you always have the option to pursue a bachelor’s degree later on if desired!
Poorvi Mehta
Business Account Manager
11
Answers
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Updated
Poorvi’s Answer
Yes, you can get a decent-paying job with an associate’s degree in business — but the range of roles and salary potential may be more limited compared to those with a bachelor's. That said, many people have launched strong careers starting with an associate’s, especially if they build relevant skills and gain work experience early.
Having said this, it is always good to continue learning further.
Having said this, it is always good to continue learning further.
Jamie Williams, CEBS, PMP
Senior Engagement Manager
51
Answers
Woodstock, Georgia
Updated
Jamie’s Answer
Hi Katelyn -
My son is in college working towards an Associate Degree in Business. I would say this degree comes with some great perks: it's cheaper and faster to complete than a Bachelor's, lets you start working sooner, and gives you a taste of different business areas before you choose a specialty. Plus, it's a solid base if you want to study more or climb the career ladder.
Cost and Time:
An associate degree usually takes two years, which is half the time of a bachelor's degree. This means you can start working sooner and might avoid piling up student loans.
Career Entry:
With an associate degree, you can land entry-level jobs in business, like bookkeeping, accounting, or being an administrative assistant. These jobs help you gain experience and figure out if you want to go for a bachelor's degree or advance in your career.
Exploring Business Fields:
These programs often have a variety of electives, letting you try out different business areas and get a broader view before you specialize.
Foundation for Further Education:
An associate degree can be a stepping stone to a bachelor's degree. Many credits you earn can transfer, making the bachelor's degree quicker and cheaper to finish.
Career Advancement:
While an associate degree might not get you into high-level jobs right away, it can help you move up in the business world. With experience and more training, you can reach higher positions.
Flexibility:
You can complete associate degrees online, which is great if you're working while studying.
Marketable Skills:
These programs teach you key business skills, like accounting, marketing, and management basics.
Demonstrates Commitment:
Getting an associate degree shows employers you're serious about a business career and willing to invest in your education.
My son is in college working towards an Associate Degree in Business. I would say this degree comes with some great perks: it's cheaper and faster to complete than a Bachelor's, lets you start working sooner, and gives you a taste of different business areas before you choose a specialty. Plus, it's a solid base if you want to study more or climb the career ladder.
Cost and Time:
An associate degree usually takes two years, which is half the time of a bachelor's degree. This means you can start working sooner and might avoid piling up student loans.
Career Entry:
With an associate degree, you can land entry-level jobs in business, like bookkeeping, accounting, or being an administrative assistant. These jobs help you gain experience and figure out if you want to go for a bachelor's degree or advance in your career.
Exploring Business Fields:
These programs often have a variety of electives, letting you try out different business areas and get a broader view before you specialize.
Foundation for Further Education:
An associate degree can be a stepping stone to a bachelor's degree. Many credits you earn can transfer, making the bachelor's degree quicker and cheaper to finish.
Career Advancement:
While an associate degree might not get you into high-level jobs right away, it can help you move up in the business world. With experience and more training, you can reach higher positions.
Flexibility:
You can complete associate degrees online, which is great if you're working while studying.
Marketable Skills:
These programs teach you key business skills, like accounting, marketing, and management basics.
Demonstrates Commitment:
Getting an associate degree shows employers you're serious about a business career and willing to invest in your education.
Monica S.
Finance
35
Answers
Savannah, Georgia
Updated
Monica’s Answer
Hi Katelyn,
Thanks for sharing your question! To answer, it is do-able. I am not sure if you have any work history already but you can definitely carve out a career path with the skills and training you already possess.
For example, if you took alot of math/finance coursework and worked as a cashier...you can leverage better jobs by emphasizing your ability to manage money. Which can land you entry level jobs at the bank, loan companies, ATM management services, financial firms etc...
Sometimes god will place you where you need to be! I say this because there are companies that will provide training and pay for continual education.
Whatever happens...You got this! Just have faith! ❤️
Take care,
- M.S.
Thanks for sharing your question! To answer, it is do-able. I am not sure if you have any work history already but you can definitely carve out a career path with the skills and training you already possess.
For example, if you took alot of math/finance coursework and worked as a cashier...you can leverage better jobs by emphasizing your ability to manage money. Which can land you entry level jobs at the bank, loan companies, ATM management services, financial firms etc...
Sometimes god will place you where you need to be! I say this because there are companies that will provide training and pay for continual education.
Whatever happens...You got this! Just have faith! ❤️
Take care,
- M.S.