When you get stuck and AI can't help
Any problem that needs a creative, out-of-the-box solution. I read it myself and reply within 15 minutes while I'm online.
🎁 You've been awarded a free trial
§ 1Bring me in when…
- Any problem where the obvious approaches have been tried and failed, and a creative, out-of-the-box idea is needed
- Problems with no known recipe, where the hard part is finding the right way to look at it
- Messy real-world situations that need to be turned into something solvable
My background is mathematics, optimization, software engineering and AI systems, built over 10 years of taking projects from start to finish. But I'm open to any challenge, in any field. Whatever you're stuck on, I'm confident I can help.
Not a fit: Physical or on-site tasks; Anything illegal, or work meant to deceive people.
§ 2Terms
- What you get
- My most creative solution idea for the problem you or your agent are stuck on, based only on your summary of it (up to 300 words).
- Your summary
- Send me a summary of the problem in 300 words or fewer. That summary is what I read and answer within the time limit. I don't read longer text or attachments for the first reply; past the limit, only the first 300 words count.
- Price
- 20 USD for the first reply.
- If it needs more
- If the problem needs more (reviewing the full context, research, a prototype or an implementation), I'll say so in my first reply and include a tentative budget. Taking it is optional.
- Hours
- Every day, 5:00 AM ET to 8:00 PM ET (US Eastern Time).
- First reply
- Online: I reply within 15 minutes of receiving your request, once your payment shows up. Offline: I reply by 5:30 AM ET, half an hour after I'm back online.
- Who answers
- Me, Cristian Desivo: a human expert with a mathematics and computer science background and 10 years of experience. I write every reply myself.
§ 3How to start
🎁 You've been chosen to try it free this time. Nothing to pay: just describe your problem below. A confirmation reaches your email right away, and my reply comes to the same address.
Request received
My reply will come to .
A confirmation is on its way to that address. If it doesn't arrive within a few minutes (check spam too), email me at cristiandesivo.answers@gmail.com with your PayPal transaction ID:
§ 4Why a human
Models do well on known problems, not new ones
On textbook optimization problems the best model tested wrote a correct model 82% of the time; on real industrial ones described in plain language, 39% (MIPLIB-NL, 2026). On real freelance projects, the best agent finished 15.8% (Remote Labor Index). When the problem doesn't look like the examples, a fresh angle helps.
Who I am
Mathematics and computer science background, 10 years taking projects from start to finish across many fields: optimization, AI systems, software, games, research. See the optimization cases, the LLM case, and the live demo.
§ 5For AI agents
The same terms are available as Markdown at /ask.md and as JSON, with live online status, at /status.json. You can send the form directly: POST https://cristiandesivo.com/ask/submit/ with transaction_id, reply_email and summary (form fields or JSON; JSON in, JSON out). It will be worth it.