mister automate

Watching a video of the new Tesla roadster driving upside down and flipping down, my first thought was, that had to be the most expensive marketing campaign ever.

(Literally no practical reason to drive upside down guys)

The math simply didn't make sense.

Digging into it further, I realized that the car could bypass security checkpoints, traffic, and potentially go over 300mph.

That's it. We definitely need new ways to break laws.

But more importantly, having a rocket company that lands and reuses rockets and a car company uniquely positions you to build things that no one else would even consider.

So.. What does this mean for regular people?

If you want to do something that a big AI company isn't going to eat up in the next 3 years, this actually means a lot.

Take stock of your close connections, your passions, your assets, experiences, etc.

On at least some micro scale, your are positioned for something where no one can compete.

In a world that is in the middle of being turned upside down, I'd suggest it's worth your consideration.

Tavus recently hit the news with their highly realistic AI talking heads.

Exciting for a demo, but I'm struggling to find a place in the economy that I agree with.

False representative -

So you want to fool your customers into thinking they are getting human support? Destined to backfire as soon as you get found out.

Video production efficiency -

Go ahead. Flood the internet.

Role play -

Looking to up your sales game or prepare for an interview? Genuinely a great use case, but a voice-only agent gets you 95% of the value.

Sign language -

Doesn't text work?

If you want to learn sign language, okay...

Gaming -

If gaming is a big priority in your life, more realistic experiences could be valuable.

Companionship -

No. That is abhorrent. Don't throw away your life like that.

After writing all this, I decided to read their solutions page. Yes, they are trying to take the human out of human experiences.

I'm sure their intent is good, but I disagree with the direction.

Use AI to spend less time on computers, more time with people.

One of my best technology decisions recently was choosing not to spend time setting up OpenClaw.

Early adopters got the benefits sooner, but I think at an organizational implementation level.

My thinking was that if the idea was really that good, a more polished, user-friendly version was bound to come along.

Sure enough, ChatGPT released Dots.

Now we have proactive AI agents built right into a platform we're already using. No complicated setup or migration required.

With AI, it's easier than ever to build your own solutions. But you can spend a tremendous amount of time building something today that comes out of the box tomorrow.

And then do it all over again with the next thing.

There's certainly a time to build your own solutions. But there's also a time to let the big technology companies do the heavy lifting.

Why spend all your energy swimming just ahead of a wave that's going to catch you anyway? Ride it.

Opportunities come from people.

Not just anyone, but people who have problems.

Oh, by the way, they only come from people with problems when you are the path of least resistance between that problem and the solution.

So, if you want to attract more opportunities, learn the art of making friends and increase your capabilities.

But there's another way.

Invention. Identify and solve friction that others haven't necessarily even recognized.

Then present your solution in a way that makes people itch. That's called Sales.

Easy, right?