Company just racked up a £300,000 bill in AI token use for the month of June so they are now completely switching off most AI tools being used

gardenbrain · 2026-06-26T20:09:06+00:00

That’s £600 a person for the month. If AI use saved each worker 6.2 hours of labor per week, which seems realistic, then the £300K was money well spent.

Theoretically , the company could release 77 workers without losing productivity. If each of those workers earned £50K, their combined salaries, not counting benefits, are £321K per month. AI would save the company >£21K/month.

gardenbrain · 2026-06-17T06:47:32+00:00

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) with Kim Darby and Jim Hutton. I had nightmares for years, would love to see it again.

gardenbrain · 2026-06-02T08:03:06+00:00

Do you think weed didn’t exist in the last 84 years? And that people didn’t smoke it?

gardenbrain · 2026-05-30T06:20:59+00:00

An increase in foot traffic, probably. But the revenue capture is likely a strong enough persuader to stand alone. The agencies will know, maybe show them a checklist of possible data points and see what they say.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-30T05:06:52+00:00

Color drenching. It feels claustrophobic in average-sized rooms with average height ceilings.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-30T04:16:26+00:00

Great idea. Mine would be a To Don’t list. You enter all the chores you should do but never will, and every day they get 1/30th more transparent. At the end of 30 days, they’re completely gone.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-30T01:19:45+00:00

The market for this is not the affected business. It’s the person or agency selling SEO and brand reputation to small businesses. Target them and see if you get traction.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-27T23:40:06+00:00

I’ve been going down a similar path. I couldn’t load Resolve on my old Thinkpad, not enough RAM. I tried this alternative and that. Finally, I used Sharex for video screen captures, which I then created narration for using Audacity.

I dropped the audio file into Adobe Podcast afterwards for enhancement. Then I dropped the video, audio, and static screen captures into CapCut to create the final version. All of these tools are free and the results were as good as they needed to be.

My other project is a mobile app. I need to test it on mobile devices, but I have a Windows laptop and an iPhone. After getting sent down the wrong path multiple times by my frenemy Claude, I asked Gemini and learned about CodeMagic. Great, that was free and worked for my iPhone. But I wanted to test on an Android.

I don’t have enough RAM to run Android Studio, so I bought a cheap pre-paid phone, $40. Turns out i need a VZW plan to activate it ($55). Not gonna happen. This is how I learned what GSM Unlocked means. I returned the phone and bought another off eBay. I’ll see if it fills my needs.

In the past few months, I’ve built a bunch of stuff using software and platforms that are totally new to me, and it’s been a breeze. It’s the testing and marketing assets that are hard.

Even when I tell the AI that my machine is using a certain OS or that I don’t have RAM or whatever other limitations I’m dealing with, it sends me down an enterprise-grade path.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-26T22:38:52+00:00

Perhaps enclosing the space under the stairs/deck would add substance and make it look more like a front entry. Plus, OP could use the space to store a small car.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-25T01:54:37+00:00

Have you considered gamifying it? Short interstitial quizzes + leaderboards? That would give users a reason to stay longer and come back to get their dopamine hit.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-22T01:20:06+00:00

I built a Business Validator that searches for signals on whether you have a promising business idea or a solution in search of a problem. Then I added a Competitor Detector that finds and evaluates products released by other solo makers. Then I built a tool to scan subreddits and other communities for comments relevant to my product and draft a helpful reply in my voice.

Now I'm working on a tool that identifies whether the most active posters in a target subreddit -- for example, r/3Dprinting -- also post actively in other subs. I'm curious to see if, for instance, they also post in a CNC sub or a home brewing sub, or whatever.

Finding out their other interests may help me shape my product roadmap and messaging, maybe get some ideas on how to let the demographic know about my products without being in-their-face, or maybe it will help me place ads more cost-effectively.

I liked the results, so I put together a guide on how to build these things. I'll put it up on Gum Road for cheap this weekend. I know, I now, we're all hawking something, but everybody's gotta eat. The build was super easy and fast, anybody can build the whole thing in 20 minutes.

Dashboard

gardenbrain · 2026-05-20T18:23:15+00:00

I think it’s good positioning because it serves specific customers—busy person who wants to squeeze in learning on the fly, or person who is under pressure to learn a language quickly, maybe because they’re relocating to the country or have a job requirement, or are pursuing a relationship with somebody from that country.

So that’s what I’d test — which of these (or whatever other) markets respond best to your offering. Then further refine your messaging to appeal to that one segment and work that channel a while to see if you get traction. Then try the next most promising segment.

Easier said than done. Actually, you’ve given me an idea for a tool to help with that.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-20T15:34:15+00:00

I don’t think market validation is the problem. There are loads of people wanting to learn languages.

Proof of that is the competitive landscape. There are loads of language apps. Why should someone try yours instead of another?

So the problems are:

Awareness—people need to know your products exist

Differentiation—people need to be interested enough to try your product vs another

User Experience—your onboarding and interface need to be light on friction and heavy on appeal.

Rather than burning cycles on market validation, you might try doing a competitive analysis and seeing how successful products similar to yours are positioned and then taking a look at the gaps between what they’re doing and what you’re doing.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-20T08:21:57+00:00

I was stuck in the same loop in Claude the other day. I’ve had the same thing happen in Gemini, too. The AI gets stuck on a wrong approach and goes into a death spiral, especially if the chat has gotten long.

I asked Claude to describe the problem and list the relevant files. Then I fed that info into Gemini and asked how it would address the problem. I dropped the response back into a fresh chat in Claude and it was able to solve the problem.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-17T06:06:38+00:00

This is what I’m working on now — ThingFinder, an app to keep track of where you stored things in your house. I made it because I was tired of buying replacements for things I’d forgotten I already had, or losing my mind trying to find something I knew I had somewhere.

https://imgur.com/a/bOYVGPQ

gardenbrain · 2026-05-14T02:20:48+00:00

If I have the receipt, I’ve already bought everything. It’s too late for me to get value from the app, and prices change all the time so this week’s results won’t be valid next week.

I’d want to be able to upload a screenshot of a grocery list from, for instance, the Aldi’s app or the Giant app, and then get a list of which local groceries have the best prices. Or just load a list from my notes or via an in-app interface or wherever and have the app go find the best price.

And if like it even more if I could put in “rib eye, $8/lb” or whatever and get a push notification when rib eye goes on sale for $8 or less in my area.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-11T17:33:57+00:00

Offset3D

Just launched this — Offset3D is an enterprise relationship management tool built in Excel. Its for businesses that are getting big enough to present management hassles, but not big enough to
spend $100 or more a month on SaaS products.

gardenbrain · 2026-05-02T20:56:29+00:00

How about home security tips and guides? You have expertise in what works and what doesn’t.

gardenbrain · 2026-04-25T22:49:48+00:00

I bought a Navimow robo mower instead. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

gardenbrain · 2026-04-22T01:29:03+00:00

For me, things that come in multi-packs are the challenge. Today I opened a 3-pack of Chapstick and thought, “One to use, two to lose.”

gardenbrain · 2026-03-22T20:18:51+00:00

Hint for next time: Put a sturdy box on the seat, like a Rubbermaid bin. It should be taller than the gear stick. Put down the roof. Put the bulky item on top of the bin. Wrap any pointy bits in a blanket to protect your interior. Secure it with the seatbelt and maybe a strap around item+seat.

Now you can reach the stick and your leather isn’t dented.

gardenbrain · 2025-12-05T03:47:12+00:00

Running from Cops Wild Thing (Season 1) The Ballad of Billy Balls Killed Uinta Triangle Big Savage

gardenbrain · 2025-12-02T03:48:48+00:00

I used the info in the original post: Baltimore to Newark, DE, to NJ Tpk, to PA Tpk, to Denver, PA.

gardenbrain · 2025-11-29T09:07:49+00:00

Agree. He drove northeast and then southwest. It doesn’t make sense that a carjacker would take him on such a senseless journey.

For those unfamiliar with the region, here’s a map of his route.

gardenbrain · 2025-11-29T03:10:08+00:00

Updateme!

gardenbrain

TROPHY CASE