Optimizing for Agency Not Just Speed

The Good Stuff, with Pete and Andy - Episode 30: AI Tools That Give Agency

00:00 - Episode 30 milestone and introduction

00:35 - Vibe coding workshop recap: tired, distracted, hectic

00:49 - Challenge: normies building Bitcoin wallets from phones

01:30 - Learning DNS, routing, and nginx on the fly

01:58 - Workshop success despite constraints

02:09 - Lost internet, crammed courtroom, Starlink saves the day

02:37 - 15 people build custom Bitcoin wallets in 30 minutes

03:33 - Group learning dynamics and organic collaboration

04:14 - Reverse engineering the Replit stack

05:12 - Why CLI tools create barriers for normies

05:55 - Inventing app hosting inside Wingman

06:22 - Building subdomain routing and DNS management

08:30 - Reverse proxying and security considerations

10:45 - Phone-based development: the ultimate accessibility test

13:00 - Wingman as "replete for your own box"

15:20 - Users own their data and infrastructure

17:30 - Local LLMs vs cloud models: the sovereignty question

20:00 - Replit's business model vs individual agency

22:45 - Building tools for non-technical users

25:15 - File browser, code editor, and hosting in one

27:30 - Workshop format: chaos, breakthrough moments, and Bitcoin transfers

30:00 - Vibe coding: removing friction from creation

32:15 - AI as enabler of individual agency

34:45 - Small business vs enterprise: different needs

37:00 - Not convincing boards, just building what works

39:30 - Corporate products vs tools for builders

42:00 - Model flexibility: switching between providers

44:15 - Data sovereignty and GitHub integration concerns

46:30 - Bringing AI into your infrastructure, not vice versa

48:45 - Local models for sensitive business data

51:00 - Model selection: right tool for the task

53:30 - Microsoft Copilot vs Wingman positioning

54:36 - Building for small business, not enterprise

56:00 - Access to models without vendor lock-in

56:55 - Enabling agency rather than creating dependency

57:20 - Data access without platform lock-in

58:13 - Model selection: cheaper models for simple tasks

59:00 - Terminal amnesia: the universal developer experience

59:15 - Future: natural language command execution

59:53 - Model lobotomization drama and platform switching

01:00:08 - "That could have been a Wingman" - wrap up