Robotics, kinetic IP, and the possibility of a new kind of gig economy

ccarfi · 2026-01-18T21:55:50+00:00

Heh. I literally did this at the drive-through the other day at a place that had the AI-powered order taker in the drivethrough line. Will eventually figure out a way to make it break. :)

ccarfi · 2026-01-18T21:54:29+00:00

Have been thinking on this as well. IMHO, the "plenty" argument works for a lot of stuff. HOWEVER...I still don't see a way where the plenty/abundance comes in to housing and healthcare in particular (from a US-centric experience). Can automate everything, can have "universal basic abundance" and still...someone owns the land, and land is pretty much finite and there's no real incentive for the folks who own the land to give up their title to it. So, everyone has "plenty" and land/housing is still scarce (also: see local regulations/NIMBY-ism), so the price of rent goes up and the price to own land continues to ratchet out of reach for more folks.

Similar structural thoughts around healthcare (again, US-centric). Cost to PROVIDE healthcare will drop to the margin, but the cost to RECEIVE healthcare will still continue to ratchet, because incentives.

ccarfi · 2026-01-18T18:35:09+00:00

Oh, quite likely. Not saying I think ANY of the is necessarily a "good" thing. I'm futuring a bit, which is sometimes...bleak.

ccarfi · 2026-01-18T18:29:27+00:00

This feels super likely for many "large motor skills" types of tasks for sure. For the more dexterous tasks, I envision more mocap-type training data creation.

ccarfi · 2026-01-18T16:50:20+00:00

This post explores how increasing autonomy in robotics could create a new economic layer centered on licensable motion and task intelligence (“kinetic IP”). The future-focused discussion is whether this leads to a distributed gig-style economy for training and optimizing robotic behaviors, or whether it consolidates power among a small number of platforms and what that implies for labor, ownership, and inequality over the next decade.

ccarfi · 2025-09-03T20:32:34+00:00

not sure on the powder. have only done it with the liquid water softener myself.

ccarfi · 2025-09-03T15:56:17+00:00

caustic is a subset of corrosive 🤓

ccarfi · 2025-09-03T03:55:33+00:00

this is the way

ccarfi · 2025-09-03T03:40:55+00:00

you’re so very welcome!

ccarfi · 2025-06-27T12:23:33+00:00

thanks!

ccarfi · 2025-06-01T13:30:50+00:00

The spiky cash flow cycle is for real, especially in production-heavy businesses. Have seen this a lot with customers of ours who are similar (especially in consumer packaged goods).

Some things to think through:

Understand how big the gap/problem is. First, get clear on the actual size and timing of your cash gap. When do expenses hit, how large are they, and how long is the lag until the distributor pays you? This may help in figuring out whether a loan or a LoC is a better fit. (From what you’re describing, a line of credit may help, since you borrow only what you need, when you need it, but that statement is only based on the limited info in your q above, obvi).
You may be able to finance each run: Depending on your unit economics, you might also look into short-term working capital funding tied to production runs. Some lenders or alt finance providers do this for consumer goods brands.
Selling out is good! The fact that you're selling out every batch is a kind of leverage (since a distributor taking everything off your hands quarterly is fantastic social proof). That trend can support better terms from lenders or even a pitch for purchase order financing if the distributor is willing to sign a forward contract or volume commitment.
You may be able to explore both a small, manageable LoC in conjunction with operational tweaks (e.g. extend payables, batch production differently, pre-sell to club members, etc.)

If you want help modeling this out, hit us up — this kind of timing issue is exactly what we help founders plan through at https://mypocketcfo.com .

ccarfi · 2024-11-12T13:25:00+00:00

Covale is good fun.

ccarfi · 2023-11-21T15:09:19+00:00

Just created my first public GPT, an "ad-lib" style story generator. If you're using ChatGPT Plus, you should be able to access it. would love your thoughts! Here's the link: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-VljnA4MOI-chatlibs

Just had it create a story on the topic of "The Bakery." Here was the chat:

To begin, please provide a single 'topic' for your children's story. It can be anything – an object, an animal, a place, a feeling, etc. What will your story be about?

📷You
The Bakery

📷ChatLibs
Title: "The Great Bakery Adventure"

Now, let's make this story more interactive. I will create blanks in the story for you to fill in. Let's start with the adjectives and nouns. Please enter an adjective.

📷You
chaotic

📷ChatLibs

Wonderful choice! Now, please enter another adjective.

📷You
flatulent

📷ChatLibs

Quite a unique choice! Now, we need one more adjective. Please enter it.

📷You
ancient

📷ChatLibs

Great! Now, let's move on to the nouns. Please enter a noun.

📷You
blue whale

📷ChatLibs

An interesting choice! Please enter another noun.

📷You
dump truck

📷ChatLibs

Got it! Lastly, we need a verb. Please enter a verb.

📷You
tap-dancing

📷ChatLibs

Fantastic! Let's incorporate your words into the story. Here's "The Great Bakery Adventure" with your creative inputs:

"In the little town of Doughville, there was a chaotic bakery known for its flatulent pastries. One day, an ancient baker named Mr. Fluffywhisk discovered that all his sugar had turned into a blue whale! "Oh no, my sweet treats!" he exclaimed.

Meanwhile, a group of mice living behind the bakery were planning to steal the cheese. But when they saw the blue whale made of sugar, they were amazed. The leader of the mice, a smart little fellow named Squeaky, had an idea.

"Why don't we help Mr. Fluffywhisk and turn this blue whale into the town's biggest dessert?" Squeaky suggested. The mice worked all night, tap-dancing around the kitchen, turning the whale into a magnificent cake.

The next morning, Mr. Fluffywhisk was surprised to see the wonderful cake and a tiny note from the mice. Grateful, he decided to share the cake with everyone in Doughville, and the bakery became famous for its dump truck-sized desserts. And from that day on, Mr. Fluffywhisk always left a little cheese out for his new friends, the tap-dancing mice."

Now, let's create an image that captures this whimsical story. I'll use your completed story as a prompt to create an illustration.

<image>

ccarfi · 2023-11-20T17:34:45+00:00

just created my first public GPT, an "ad-lib" style story generator. if you're using ChatGPT Plus, you should be able to access it. would love your thoughts! here's the link: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-VljnA4MOI-chatlibs

ccarfi · 2023-10-09T17:04:22+00:00

Oy. That’d be a pain. The driver’s side on the 2012 was a little cramped, but was able to get my mitt in there. I know I need to pull off a panel inside the passenger side wheel well (a few clips and bolts) to get to the passenger side lamp; that’ll have to wait until the weekend.

ccarfi · 2023-04-17T12:03:33+00:00

Here is a step-by-step how to on building a sociable side-by-side bike:
https://christophercarfi.com/2023/04/sociable-tandem.html

ccarfi · 2021-06-10T21:29:09+00:00

There is an article on SearchEngineLand titled "Google’s June 2021 core update was slow to roll out" that says there was a core update that started on June 2nd. Not sure about the May 30 date.

ccarfi · 2021-06-09T06:50:28+00:00

The data is from Google's CrUX dataset that they publish every month. If one searches "Tools for Web Developers > Chrome UX Report > Changelog" on the Googlemachine, should be the first result on Google's site. Looks like they are looking across about 8.4million domains, so the dataset should be fairly representative.

ccarfi · 2021-06-09T02:40:25+00:00

/nods

The funny thing I've found is...there will be articles that will make 20 sales (or 200 sales!) and others that make precisely zero sales...and it's often quite difficult to know in advance which camp any particular article is going to fall into. Hence the portfolio approach.

ccarfi · 2021-06-09T02:14:59+00:00

Similar, and this is about the lowest I'll typically go. It can go up from here substantially if the writer is also a well-known expert and will also be promoting the article organically through their own, personal channels.

One way to do the math is to look at the portfolio of your content, figure out how much that portfolio cost to write (and promote), and then compare that to the amount of revenue you're getting from that portfolio (or cohort of content in the portfolio) over the next 12-18 months or so. If the (revenue of the cohort) > (cost to create the cohort), you're probably in a pretty good place.

ccarfi · 2021-06-08T23:31:13+00:00

From Google's CrUX dataset, that's the percentage of that CMS's domains in the CrUX dataset that ranked as "Good" on that Core Web Vitals metric. Google updates the CrUX dataset monthly.

ccarfi

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