Blood, Sweat & Tokens

What happens when your boss offers to pay you in AI tokens instead of cash? NVIDIA's Jensen Huang recently suggested exactly that—and it's not the innovation he thinks it is. This week, we unpack how "tokens as salary" echoes the historical company store system that trapped workers in cycles of dependency and debt. Drawing parallels between 19th-century coal mining scrip and modern AI token econom...

The conversation covers a range of topics including personal reflections, book discussions, natural language, content management, complexity in architecture, Lego and Nintendo Labo, opting into complexity, the happy path and MVP, and agent interactions and tooling. The conversation covers the concept of the happy path in developer experience, the benefits of Open Router for model selection, and a...

In this wide-ranging Episode 7, Taylor and Sean dive deep into how AI is fundamentally reshaping the build-versus-buy decision for software tools and business solutions. Fresh from Cincy AI Week, they explore the tension between corporate-sponsored AI events and grassroots community meetups like "Cincy AI for Humans." Key Topics: - The Shifting Economics of Custom Software : Why paying $20 in toke...

The conversation covers a range of topics including the impact of AI on context switching, the transition to asynchronous workflows, transcription and automation, the role of technology in human relationships and business strategy, the impact of technology on humanity and society, the acquisition of Contentful by Salesforce, vendor lock-in and market impact, and open source solutions and cost cons...

The conversation delves into the importance of feedback loops and latency in agentic workflows, exploring the challenges of negotiating conflicts and managing parallel work environments. It also discusses the role of caching, server-side rendering, and the impact of parallelism on reducing latency. The conversation delves into the challenges of decoupling from CMS and considering the website as th...

The conversation covers a range of topics related to content management, AI, and product development. It delves into the challenges of multi-agent workflows, the total cost of ownership for CMS, the importance of control and feedback in content management, and the role of immediate feedback and communication in content management. The discussion also explores the sustainability of inference models...

The conversation explores the concept of total cost of ownership in software development projects, focusing on the challenges and costs associated with CMS implementation. It delves into the impact of AI on reducing friction and improving the success rate of technology projects. The discussion also touches on the development of prototypes and the potential for AI tools to revolutionize the develop...

In this episode, Taylor MacDonald and Sean C. Davis discuss the impact of natural language processing on content management systems and user experience. They explore the problem with traditional content management systems, the potential of natural language processing to eliminate friction, and the ideal state for content management in both greenfield applications and established systems. The conve...

The conversation explores the challenges of content management systems (CMS) and the impact of AI on reducing friction in content management. It delves into the frustrations with CMS, the evolution of CMS, and the future of content management. The use of voice automation and workflow integration is also discussed as a means of reducing friction in content management. Takeaways Reducing friction th...