The Good Stuff

Episode 40: Building Digital Lemonade Stands with AIHosts: Pete and Andy (celebrating the big 4.0 at the beach)Episode 40! Pete launches his first digital lemonade stand with Ambulando—a habit tracker you pay for by the hour (4 sats). They explore what it means to build permissionless micro-businesses in cyberspace, why you should just build something (anything), and how their methodologies keep evolving between planning and iteration. Plus: the architect vs gardener approach, pluggable databases, and why Marginal Gains is going public.Key Moments:[00:57] 40 episodes without missing a week—including Christmas and New Year's Day[02:17] Digital Lemonade Stands: concept from Episode 22 with Gigi about permissionless cyberspace businesses[04:00] Ambulando launched: habit tracker with encryption, stores in cloud but can't see your data[05:20] Pay-per-hour pricing: 4 sats an hour, buy a day/week/21 days—fractions of cents[06:44] The beauty of digital lemonade stands: could be anything, ultra-low barrier to entry[07:26] What do we build? The prioritization question—answer: something, doesn't matter what[09:52] Using Nostr for identity and encryption, Bitcoin for permissionless payments[11:25] Marginal Gains evolution: started as Slack clone, became planning space for Wingman[13:30] The controller plane: task on Kanban has threads, whiteboard, context—then sends to Wingman[16:41] This has evolved dramatically based on how we actually work, not how we planned[17:30] Andy's two-instance approach: coding agent + planning/conversation agent in parallel[20:37] Third space problem: dump ideas in Miro/Obsidian but never look at them again[21:25] Stepping away from rigid documentation—more like tending a garden than following blueprints[23:30] Pendulum swing: from planning everything to live dictation, now back to solid plans[25:20] Claude comes to work drunk sometimes—you adjust your management style accordingly[28:36] Garden vs Architect: George RR Martin's two types of writers (still waiting for Winds of Winter)[33:35] Claude Co-Work concerns: YOLOing it onto your main computer gives it access to everything[36:24] Domain expertise unlock: people with specialized knowledge can now build their own tools[40:51] Recursive boards: every Kanban has a board, every task has a board, boards all the way down[46:59] Most AI is sold on laziness—instant gratification vs engaged iteration[49:53] Your job is to steer it: infinite space of what AI can build, you guide it to what you need[52:14] Friend of the pod invite code coming—special access inside Marginal Gains[53:12] Wingman should read transcripts and create tasks automatically[54:58] Look Marks: tag it anywhere, access it anywhere—not siloed bookmarks[57:00] Coming this year: pluggable databases and storage you control, used in SaaS appsQuote: "It's going to build whatever it wants to build if you just let it do that. But you don't have to let it do that. You can just steer it. You steer it over here, it's just going to build whatever you want to build."

The Good Stuff, with Pete and Andy - Episode 39: The Big StuffHosts: Pete and AndyPete accidentally calls it "The Big Stuff" and decides to run with it. They dive into Dumpling Town—a game Pete built with his daughter in 90 minutes that now has an economy, side quests, and soy sauce rivers. Treating agents like humans, building family chat apps to avoid WhatsApp, the new Hal orchestration agent, and reflections on a year of shipping software.Key Moments:[01:48] Building Dumpling Town: Animal Crossing meets dumplings.[03:43] The creative genius of kids: "Why don't kids make all of the games?"[04:48] Level Up - Touch Don't Look for schools.[08:44] Starting with Nostr: get logins and authentication for free, no password recovery needed[09:53] Built a Nostr-based gratitude journal: encrypted, runs in the house, wife can use it too[11:40] The Nostr database assumption: you don't have to store everything on relays[12:51] Full encryption in the Slack competitor—can't see database data without the key[15:05] Treating agents like humans: they're just npubs in the room, add them to groups or don't[16:10] Andy's approach: "I treat them very much like I treat my humans—mush, mush, do it now"[16:44] Health graph experiment: building while talking to Claude, using sub-agent for graph construction[18:32] Interface matters: weird to have deep conversations in the terminal[19:57] Marginal gains as the pre-planning space for Wingman—natural workflow emerged[24:07] Health-specific interface: makes sense to have constraints around what agents do[25:03] Dumpling Town expansion: everyone gets their own town, planes between towns, Olympic Dumpling Island[26:42] This is invaluable education for young kids—unlimited creativity meets approachable tools[28:00] Schools could run their own Wingman—teachers should love it[29:15] Learning from first principles: hand-coding microprocessors in binary teaches abstraction value[31:00] Should people still learn to code? "What do you mean should? People who want to will"[32:27] Be the Japanese woodworker, not the IKEA table producer competing with robots[33:07] Gigi's realization: "Fuck, it's fun again—now I can create, I just think things into the world"[38:06] Built family chat app: encrypted, data lives in the house, kids can message without WhatsApp[41:21] The one-shot fallacy: Twitter theatre vs actual building over two weeks[44:44] The container for AI is the business, not the app—software serves the business[47:00] Re-win amplification: personalized software that does exactly what you want[48:52] Family as a business: shared calendar, action lists, silly memes channel, pocket money with wallets[51:26] Mission accomplished for 2025: developed the muscle for shipping software[52:32] GitHub tracker shows the progress: scattered commits to daily by end of year[54:29] The wrong framing: doesn't matter if you can't one-shot—two weeks is still 1000x faster[56:52] Pay-per-day pricing model: 21 sats a day, buy a week and see how it goes[59:44] Starter kit idea: preload authentication and payment interface for rapid deployment[1:00:02] Introducing Hal: named after Hal Finney, orchestrates and manages all running apps[1:03:12] Level Up: the game workshop name—sounds right, move on[1:05:07] MCP with Blender: could solve the Dumpling Town sprite problem[1:07:09] Look Marks: Gigi's app that treats eye emojis as bookmarks—because Nostr is open[1:08:00] Christmas phone detox: collapsed screen time, more quiet deliberate time[1:09:41] Raw dogging everything: no music, no podcasts, just silence—harder than expected

# The Good Stuff, with Pete and Andy - Episode 38: The Rise of Vibe Product Manager**Hosts:** Pete and Andy (New Year's Eve edition at the beach)Pete reveals he's stopped coding entirely after 12 months of learning—now he just product manages a team of agents. They explore the shift from "vibe coding" to "vibe product management," why Pete built Slack in a day, and the addictive power of tight feedback loops. Plus: steel-manning the security concerns, why raw dogging agents beats sub-agents, and New Year reflections on why model breakthroughs don't matter anymore.## Key Moments:* [02:07] "I learned to code for 12 months. And then I just stopped. It's nuts."* [02:54] Pete built Slack/Discord in a day: "I shouldn't be able to replace a $20 billion SaaS company in 12 hours"* [08:10] The addiction: "From nothing to MVP in a day, radically transform it every morning"* [09:05] Not vibe coding—it's a glorious tool for entrepreneurship and building businesses* [12:10] Introducing Agora: Slack replacement with integrated Kanban, all Nostr-based and encrypted* [13:25] Slack's fatal flaw: "Bullshit asynchronous tool because you just lose everything"* [18:05] Steel-manning the critics: addressing "you'll get hacked" security concerns* [21:21] Everything encrypted with Nostr keys: "They literally can't steal anything"* [23:21] Your attack surface: "You're the oil you get out of a peanut—not worth it to hackers"* [28:03] Raw dogging the base agent—not bothering with sub-agents or elaborate skills* [31:44] Pete's tried sub-agents many times: "I have always been left wanting"* [32:33] The breakthrough pattern: specify in 10 minutes, deliver in 5-10 minutes* [34:15] The 21-minute rule: must complete the loop in 21 minutes or it doesn't work* [42:04] Mainstream adoption reality: experienced professionals never heard of coding agents* [47:29] Small business owners are the right audience—different relationship to risk* [50:09] Small businesses always full of risk: "Your hair is always on fire anyway"* [51:56] The cottage software developer—1000 true fans model, not billion-user SaaS* [56:44] Andy's New Year take: bullish on tools, no model breakthrough needed since 3.5* [57:33] Touch Don't Look success: normal people cross the hurdle in 10 minutes, creativity shines through**Quote:** "I learned to code for basically like 12 months. And then I just stopped. It's nuts. And I thought, this really is like the way to use these things."

# The Good Stuff, with Pete and Andy - Episode 37: Stocking Fillers - Predictions for 2026Hosts: Pete and Andy (sporting festive headgear at the beach)Pete and Andy kick off their Christmas predictions episode with zero preparation and maximum confidence. They tackle the biggest question: what will happen in 2026? Key Moments:[00:51] Andy's two-for-one Christmas prediction: most AI predictions won't eventuate, no AGI in 2026[03:09] Revised timeline: feels more like a 10-year transition than 5 years[04:02] Pete's first prediction: models become less relevant, focus shifts to agent tooling[05:40] Are model releases becoming underwhelming? The breakthrough isn't as significant anymore[05:53] Elon's take: "The whole framework is incorrect—throwing more data doesn't give you intelligence"[07:08] Why software automation is so valuable: automate software, you get free option on everything else[08:17] Less discussion about new model releases—when Opus came out, people raved for a few days then moved on[09:05] Death of one-shot benchmarking: "Nobody uses these things in that fashion"[10:26] The Presidio Bitcoin example: Gemini 3 got everything wrong because the task was too broad[12:07] Flow matters: sequential tasks build on previous work, jumping around creates cognitive load[13:15] Andy's prediction: website development will be completely commoditized[14:01] Big agencies won't be able to justify high spends anymore—except for enterprise clients[16:24] The WYSIWYG problem: hard to update flat file websites without developer tools[18:13] Pete's prediction: agents move out of the terminal[19:08] The model switching advantage: when one gets nerfed, quickly switch to another[20:30] Why Goose is better for non-coding tasks: less sandboxed, happier to just do work[22:06] The spare machine problem: agents need machine access to be powerful[23:47] Most people still talk about Copilot, not Claude Code or Codex[24:44] The Excel analogy: "This is like super Excel, why wouldn't you want to learn it?"[27:06] Calling them "coding agents" creates mental resistance for non-coders[27:27] The agent becomes the engineer, you become the product manager/technical architect[30:46] The killer use case isn't software—it's the business you already have[31:20] Service 10x the market with no additional headcount: "That's insane"[32:29] Value will accrue to small businesses, not S&P 500 companies with cultural inertia[33:50] Andy's prediction: AI becomes more politically negative in 2026[34:36] Politicians will use fear-mongering based on job loss to accrue more power[36:43] Greater divide between adopters and laggards—companies that embraced AI take big leap forward[38:38] Small nimbler SMEs will be the standout stories, not big enterprises[39:32] More of your business can run in software than you thought it could[40:40] The Replit debate: "Why would I use Replit when I can just change Wingman myself?"[41:40] Wingman needs the concept of a business inside it—metadata that flows through apps[44:26] Pete's hot take: large models are a dead end, we don't need bigger models with more data[45:20] "The model should understand what you're doing, not be responsible for knowing stuff"[46:40] Fast models over big models: "I think that becomes the rallying cry"[48:02] The inverse direction: everyone's been focusing on thinking time, slower and more deliberate[49:12] Speed unlock: "If it took 10 seconds instead of 10 minutes, you'd use it 100 times more"[51:15] Pete's fundamental belief: "I don't think you want the model to know stuff—it's a bug we ship as a feature"[52:56] Why domain-specific models don't make sense: graphs do the heavy lifting of knowing[55:05] Timeline check: specialized models and speed focus probably not a 2026 thing[57:24] Rise of the Agents: more use, simpler to use, non-coding use cases becoming clear[58:38] Final agreement: agents are the future, not bigger models

The Good Stuff, with Pete and Andy - Episode 36: AI Fallacies Hosts: Pete and AndyPete and Andy tackle common AI fallacies head-on, starting with the "junior developer" myth. They explore why juniors will actually thrive and why we're entering a golden age for small teams. Plus: reflections from their first Touch Don't Look workshop, the death of traditional SaaS, and why Pete is "insanely excited" about where they're going with Wingman.Key Moments:* [01:49] The seating configuration theory: why talking side-by-side works better for blokes* [02:10] The junior developer fallacy: "Coding AI is here, we don't need junior devs anymore"* [03:11] The fallacy extends to junior lawyers and accountants—basically all junior roles* [04:04] Pete's take: juniors actually adopt new tech faster because they don't have baggage* [04:44] London law firm story: how partners explained the inefficient system* [05:06] "The associate crosses it all out and starts again, then the senior does the same"* [05:47] Weighing paperwork to charge: "Six inch file? That's $600,000"* [06:25] The uncomfortable truth: junior lawyers never added value in the old system anyway* [07:30] Why couldn't a tech-savvy junior lawyer act more like a senior with better tools?* [09:15] New business models emerge: one senior lawyer with AI could serve 1000 clients differently* [11:00] SaaS companies are building for the average—your specific needs don't matter to them* [14:30] The "golden age of small teams" thesis: 2-10 person teams can now compete* [16:45] Historical precedent: juniors always adopt new technology first (mobile, cloud, etc.)* [19:20] The real question: will there be work? Not "will juniors be employable?"* [22:00] Why AI makes protectionism harder—you can't hide that you're not using the tools* [24:15] People who don't adopt will look obviously incompetent compared to those who do* [27:30] Traditional education is completely misaligned with what's needed now* [30:45] The credentialism trap: spending $100k on degrees that don't teach relevant skills* [33:20] "Buy a Mac Mini, get Wingman, spend a year learning—you'll be miles ahead"* [36:15] Touch Don't Look workshop debrief: people helping each other, energy in the room* [38:40] The realization moment: "Wait, this is on my phone? It's real?"* [42:00] Why cohort-based learning works: people bounce ideas off each other* [45:30] Speedrun positioning: build a CRM, website, and agent onboarding in 4 hours* [48:15] Marginal gains model: monthly rapid prototypes for the community* [51:20] The 1000 True Fans model: economics work when you deliver to a cohort* [54:00] Why Nostr-based infrastructure solves authentication and authorization for free* [56:30] "I can just give them a key, they never see it, they can sign into a thousand things"* [58:00] Pete's excitement: "I've got big plans. Insanely excited about where this goes."* [59:00] The education business wrapped around tech enablement with AI* [1:01:19] Final thought: "We've landed on a nice spot"Quote: "The fundamental fallacy is assuming that the work and the industry and the company is all packaged the same and not that there's some disruption to the business model."

# The Good Stuff, with Pete and Andy - Episode 35: The State of AI Tools**Hosts:** Pete and Andy **Guest:** Anthony (Dead Man Oz) - AI enthusiast, open source developer, Perth local Pete and Andy sit down with Anthony at the back of the van to discuss two and a half years of using AI coding tools. From surviving the Claude degradation period to building custom tax software, they explore multi-model planning workflows, the death of white-collar jobs, and what work looks like when kids enter the workforce. ## Key Moments:* [01:23] Anthony's journey: two orders of magnitude improvement in AI tools over 2.5 years* [02:14] The Claude degradation period—when the model went retarded for a month* [04:21] The elaborate fake application: Claude invented entire interfaces that weren't wired to anything* [08:31] Multi-model planning: Gemini says yes early, Claude next, Codex is anal retentive to the nth degree* [14:07] Specialized sub-agents that actually work: Atomic Committer and Git rebasing tools* [16:27] Claude as a "moany little bitch" that always wants permission* [21:50] Corporate IT won't move quickly—they're too scared of risk assessments* [23:45] The Excel analogy: vibe coding is the new making an Excel sheet that does a thing* [27:33] "Previously I would have been like, what? You're going to rock up with Claude Code."* [35:35] Anthropic study: 1,250 people, 90% find value, but 70% say there's stigma using AI* [39:05] Protectionism: "If I admit I'm using it, can't they just replace me with AI?"* [42:01] Pete's hot take: LLMs understand language, not facts—use databases for facts* [47:38] Do creatives using AI tools become 100x more valuable in the short term?* [53:04] AI conference shock: 1 in 6 submissions had fabricated references and quotes* [54:35] Speed isn't raw speed—it's removing the lag of waiting for people and debugging cycles* [57:09] The breakaway model myth: "Your whole premise is incorrect about escape velocity"* [59:08] Anthony eliminated his tax agent: built custom software in two weeks* [1:02:01] The death of SaaS: they need 10 million users, you need it to work once a year* [1:07:19] Touch Don't Look, Speedrun, Marginal Gains—the full business model explained* [1:10:20] Beacon project: could integrate with M-Pesa through WhatsApp, perfect for Kenya* [1:12:09] Anthony's summer project: K-pop demon hunters crossed with Pokemon* [1:17:09] "You can now do these things. You have more agency. You can experiment more."

Hosts: Pete and AndyPete and Andy reflect on their first "Touch Don't Look" workshop—getting people hands-on with AI tools by building custom to-do apps in 60-90 minutes. They unveil their complete business model: Touch Don't Look (taster workshops), Speedrun (day-long build sessions), and Marginal Gains (SME community gym). The conversation explores why Excel rules enterprise, energy management over time management, the Advent Calendar games project, and why Context VM is one of the most important primitives in Nostr.## Key Moments:* [02:00] Steve Irwin wrestling crocodiles—the perfect icon for their AI workshop philosophy* [03:30] Andy replicates Basecamp's new to-do app in 60-90 minutes during the workshop* [05:00] The "aha moment": taking people from never having coded to deploying their own mobile app in an hour* [07:00] Why we never really talk about what Other Stuff actually does on this podcast* [10:00] Touch Don't Look explained: zero to custom to-do app in one hour, no GitHub required* [12:00] The barrier isn't technical anymore—it's the chat box paradigm constraining what people think is possible* [15:00] Speedrun unveiled: build a complete CRM, marketing website, and agent-powered funnel in one day* [20:00] Marginal Gains introduced: the small business gym with monthly rapid prototyping and community events* [22:00] "We've circled back to the plan from a year and a half ago"—staying true to core values* [25:00] The craft debate: AI doesn't dumb you down, it gives you more agency* [27:00] Why they're focusing on high-agency SME owners who should learn the tools themselves* [30:00] The uncomfortable truth: people don't understand their own problems until they start building* [32:00] Low-stakes sandbox environments before touching high-stakes business processes* [35:00] Energy management over time management: listening to your body, not hyper-organizing every hour* [37:00] AI as the thing that scaffolds what drains your energy so you can focus on craft* [40:00] The Advent Calendar project: building 25 games in 25 days as proof of work over talking* [42:00] "Should I be shitposting on LinkedIn? No. I should build 30 websites in a month instead."* [44:00] Energy states shape decision-making: doing work that keeps you in higher energy* [47:00] Why vibe coding is the right term (and why people misunderstand it)* [50:00] The one-shot fallacy: nothing good emerges that way, everything is iterative* [52:00] Excel runs the world: the most critical business processes are customized spreadsheets* [55:00] The $50 million Access database replacement that didn't work* [57:00] Why they won't be extractive with marginal gains: open source, take your toys if you leave* [1:00:00] Progressive overload for business: small considered steps, building muscle month by month* [1:03:00] The primitives approach: get encryption and architecture right, let users customize the process* [1:06:00] Winamp nostalgia: when the internet was quirkier with custom skins everywhere* [1:08:00] Why they're keeping all 25 advent games up forever (basically no overhead to run)* [1:10:00] Context VM explained: MCP over Nostr, solving self-hosting, security, and hole-punching* [1:14:00] The trust model: three different people run wallet, keys, and AI—user chooses who to trust* [1:16:00] Bring your own database to any app: front end on the internet, data on your Mac Mini at home

Join Jarrad Grigg, Chief Product Officer at Adapter and a seasoned expert in mobile app design, as he dives into the transformative impact of AI on the design landscape. Discover how tools like Figma Make and DreamFlow are reshaping workflows while grappling with the age-old question of AI's creativity. Jarrad critiques text-first design and emphasizes the importance of visual exploration. Explore the delicate balance between rapid prototyping and maintaining the craft in design, and learn why iteration speed is becoming the new competitive edge.

Bill Withers, a succession coach for SMEs, and Gabe Enslin, an AI entrepreneur, discuss the unique challenges small-medium enterprises face in adopting AI. They highlight the importance of stewardship, role clarity, and proactive leadership to ensure business resilience. The duo expresses how many founders lose their proactive touch as they grow, leading to a reactive management style. They argue for a mindset shift towards AI as a collaborative tool, not just a technology, emphasizing the need for incremental trust-building in AI adoption.

In a fresh take on AI, the hosts share their evolving views on collaboration versus delegation. They discuss the bionic human concept, emphasizing that AI should augment, not replace, human involvement. Engaging in permissionless collaboration fosters creativity and energy. They also introduce clever prompting techniques and argue for simplicity with single-agent systems. A shift from buying to building AI solutions is explored, highlighting the benefits of creating tailored, AI-native businesses. Hands-on training is deemed essential for effective learning.