For the last year and a half, I’ve been using AI extensively, mostly for coding (although I code for 35 years).
I started with Claude, got into the Max subscription pretty fast, and I was mesmerized. For a while, it was really great. But then the Mythos / Fable circle ensued and I lost trust.
When fear mongering started, I also started to look elsewhere, so I ran a few experiments, trying to see if I can find a reliable replacement for Claude.
In the end, I switched to Grok – since version 4.5, mind you, before it was even cool. I still kept minimal subscriptions to Codex and Cursor. I also maintain what I call “a constant attention budget” aimed at free models. I have this hate for getting caught unprepared, so I go over my way to be prepared. Sometimes I overdo it, but that’s me. So I sometimes route work to free models, and I am experimenting at least once a week with local AI.
What Are My Work Surfaces Now
I maintain 13 apps in the App Store (12 built in the last 6 months). I aim at releasing at least 1 more app every month. I also maintain this 20 years old blog (which still brings in decent traffic), a content site, and 2 SaaS.
On top of coding, there’s a lot of maintenance, content production and marketing.
I normally split work like this:
- Grok Bot for automations (mobile and web analytics, mobile app releases, new apps brainstorming and building MVPs, general admin support).
- Grok Build for hardcore coding (yes, I still do a lot of this). Difficult rewrites, major new features, bottom to top SaaS building.
- Grok web chat for menial, short questions. Sometimes I just want a quick check on a feature, or just on some trivia Cursor for some legacy agents (most of them are migrated to Grok Bot).
- The quality of the output is above median, always. There are times when it’s mind blowing, but even when it’s “meh”, it’s just good enough, and sometimes that’s all I need.
How Do I Feel? What Is My Role Now?
And with that we get to the core of the article.
I feel like a small business owner. I know how it feels to be a small business owner, because I’ve already been there. I started my first company when the Internet was just a “fading moment” and I built it for 9 years, until I made a successful exit. At the top, I had 25 employees and 20+ vertical portals, 2 of them being market leaders.
I have weird deja vu feelings. It all looks like when I started my company.
I am not the indie dev that started this journey in February this year, and I’m not saying this with an easy heart. I thought I can make it just by being an indie dev. Back then I thought we need to up our game 100x to be successful (5x just to stay relevant). I got that right, it really needs 100x more work.
What I didn’t get right is the type of work and my role there. I thought if I just amplify my activity with AI 100 times, that’s it. Well, it doesn’t work that way.
The whole AI thing is like a small army of employees that need constant steering, clear objectives and constant verification. It’s not just building a feature. It’s really about managing an entire company. You get stuff done for you, but you still have to decide what’s done, what’s the direction, how to reach the goal and who does what.
It’s literally about building a team, not a portfolio of apps.
And that team needs to be responsive, available and reliable. I don’t need Mythos drama. I don’t need OpenAI’s civilizations of agents. I just want to get to my 100x amplification level.
So, here I am, back to where I started 25 years ago. A new startup, but my partner is now an AI model.
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