Move the field, even a little.
You are a practitioner. Level 5 points you at contribution: original research, novel systems, category-defining products, open-weight training, or foundation infrastructure. There is no finish line here, and that is the point. Ongoing, indefinite.
What contribution looks like
- You have contributed original work: a paper, a novel system, a widely used tool, or open-weight training
- You engage with the research community rather than reading it from a distance
- You have a point of view on where the field is going, and you act on it
- For companies: category-defining product, open-source contributions, industry-recognized capability
Level 5 has no exit criteria in the usual sense. The question is not "did I finish." It is "did I move the state of the art forward, even a little."
What is inside
Ten modules on the Individual track pointed toward original contribution, and six on the Company track for frontier lab operations, with research templates in the shared folder. The map here is a compass, not a checklist: Level 5 is aspirational and non-linear by design.
Where this meets the doctrine: the guide ends with a system that keeps standing without you watching it. The Curriculum ends with you contributing to the field that system runs on. Both are open and ungated on purpose: the fastest way to make the standard the standard is to give it away.
How to start
- Confirm Level 4 holds, and write down your point of view on where the field is going.
- Find your community: research group, employer, or funding path.
- Pick one contribution and start it. Small and real beats grand and imagined.
Read Level 5 on this site Start Level 5 on GitHub The whole book (PDF)