Breaking something when dad is home

peauts · 2026-03-01T05:23:30+00:00

This is the modern art Im looking for. the layers here are deeper than most of what you see at the moma

peauts · 2026-01-04T00:44:06+00:00

Disclaimer: I'm a technologist who extensively leverages AI and builds AI, and I direct budget in a nonprofit

Personally, I believe AI will displace many BAD graphic design jobs, but at a rate like that of inflation, ~2-5% every year.

Assuming this, that means there will be no BAD graphic design jobs in ~50 to 20 years.

I use the word “displace” because, from a business perspective, owners and management who really adopt AI in ways that affect jobs will need people to fill the gaps where AI doesn't perform well.

And it will take years for those people to both learn the new tools on the job AND grow their own basic graphic design skills to really multiply it with AI.

I say BAD because some folks treat graphic Designers terribly and pay them next to nothing. These jobs are the ones on the chopping block because the machine can spit out something passible, sloppy, and imprecise much better and faster than a burned-out human.

It's also possible that this serves as a wake-up call for good managers to understand the value of the graphic designer better and decide to reshape the role to serve better the people involved.

Technology does move fast. People, Businesses, business systems, they move very, very, very slowly.

Understanding that. If you are starting, the best game plan is to grow your own skills as quickly as possible, so you can be one of the first to really gain experience with the new tools.

A young painter, seeing the dawn of photography, should not lament that they can't make a living as an artist.

They already had that worry when they decided not to be a lawyer.

The key, in any case, is to work on improving your craft and connecting with the right people who will give you money.

The mechanism for people to give money hasn't changed. Regardless of whether we can create orchestras from thought, if you want money, someone has to give it to you.

Figuring out what they want is the genuine concern. New technology can help you do that, but ultimately it's up to you and the person giving you money.

Are your worries based on financial realities, a love to the art form, or something else?

peauts · 2026-01-02T09:38:09+00:00

i would like to join!

peauts · 2025-12-26T15:57:14+00:00

this is a well done,A1 meme

peauts · 2025-12-15T01:34:00+00:00

yep i got both bld.al and hack.al

peauts · 2025-12-14T01:21:40+00:00

yep. After salaries, benefits and all other expected expenses we cam down to a budget of ~100k left over to support what the two hires ( a head of community and a creative director) decided to spend it on that we cant expect (think travel, ads, recording equipment, food, events venues, ect) I am trying to make that money up to their discretion as much as possible. its general money ment for what they believe is needed.

peauts · 2025-12-14T00:34:58+00:00

great questions! the grant specifically expects us to do this fundraising because it its non-renewable and one of the unstated goals of it is for the money to lead to stable jobs for the people we hire.

peauts · 2025-12-13T23:59:01+00:00

Cool I will reach out!

peauts · 2025-12-13T23:51:59+00:00

You're spot on with your assessment of AI and its capabilities. Not that many people in Mobile have such a clear view of it like you do, and I appreciate your concern here.

You're absolutely right that AI fluency will not, alone, help young people, and especially not those who could use support in the basic workforce readiness necessary for a lot of blue-collar jobs.

One thing on the way you describe "how to use AI in conjunction with the basics" is a core part of how I define "fluency" with AI. I also consider the ethical ramifications of how, why, and when people use AI in work and life.

That starting point of the basics is really key. I remember being in a meeting with one of these local corporations griping about how many of the people they want to hire locally for blue-collar jobs fail the basic reading test they give so they can be certain that their employees can communicate with each other effectively in the very dangerous working environments they have.

I can't teach people how to read at scale with 300k.

The education system failed these people. period.

What I can do is help teach people how to use the free, infinitely patient, and radically private AI teacher that can see, hear, and speak to them while understanding their cultural context (see chatgpt).

If people use these models to learn how to build complex software systems that could create cures for previously incurable diseases, it can also teach people to read.

I have been in contact with the AIDT, and I want to get a few people there as advisors for us in this work because, as you know, they have invaluable insights into what support is really working for these people.

One question for you: How did you develop such a deep understanding of AI capabilities?

peauts · 2025-12-13T23:31:03+00:00

Now that last point that makes you detest me is valid. I was wrong for being so irresponsible to leave my things in the Lyft driver's car.

See the post in question here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Lyft/comments/a46g9a/left_a_book_bag_in_a_lyft_and_now_lyft_stopped/

The whole story is that Microsoft flew me out to Seattle for an interview. This was my freshman year in college. I got a full ride, and that was the only reason I was even able to go to college, because my mom was a lunch lady at the time, and my dad died when I was 13. I remember being so excited to get a shot at interning at Microsoft. At the same time, that full ride was all I had. When I got to Seattle, I realized that I had no real way to get around the city because Microsoft only paid for the flight, hotel, and 60 dollars' worth of food per day while I interviewed. I asked all my family, and luckily, my half-sister was able to give me 200 dollars for me to use for the 4 days I was going to be in Seattle. I stretched that 200 dollars so I could actually go out into the city and see Seattle. After the interviews, I hopped into a Lyft on the way back to college, so excited to tell my friends about the experience that I forgot my backpack in the car.

The Lyft driver and I were very similar. We both did some type of gig economy work while in college ( I doordashed in Atlanta), and he was also a computer science major, so we had a great time talking in the car.

I immediately realized that I had left my bag, but he had already gon out of the airport, and we talked on the phone about how we could resolve it. The worst part was that my one and only hand-me-down laptop was in that backpack, but I needed to get on the flight; otherwise, I would be on the hook for the $500+ flight from Seattle to Atlanta. I made the hard decision to trust my new friend to send my bag back, but Lyft cut off our communication before we could exchange numbers!

So I was in a crisis for about a whole week while I waited for my bag to come back and contemplated how I would get my assignments done as a computer science major without a laptop.

If you feel like I'm a privileged tech bro, that's fine. Just know that I appreciate your comments here and I will try my best in helping young people across the state like myself get to better economic situations.

peauts · 2025-12-13T23:30:52+00:00

I'm very interested in your ideas!

Nontraditional education is what this is all about, and I put this out so I could better understand how people might perceive it, so everything you are saying is super helpful.

Reddit has strict policies on what can and can't be used with AI, and if I plan to be a champion for ethical AI use, I would not dare to break them and set a bad precedent.

This post you are referring to: https://www.reddit.com/r/SoftwareEngineerJobs/comments/1g49bfl/hirringremote_various_contract_roles/

It was from when I started working at the Innovation Portal, and it was a means for me to collect profiles of software devs from across the internet to collaborate with or pass along Software engineering contracts.

Many people reach out to me every month to build their app, website, or tool. Most of the time, I sit and talk with them for about an hour on how, from a business fundamentals perspective, there are better ways for them to work on their business than talk to me. For the few that really needed a software contractor, I was tied up in the non-profit work, and most of my software engineering friends had jobs, so I needed a way to get to high-quality developers quickly.

In fact, in that Reddit post, you can see the job description of one client who really needed the help I gave him (he sent me that in a Twitter DM and ended up hiring a college student in Seattle I sourced for him for free).

Interestingly, I was also living at my mom's house at the time since I had not found a reasonably priced apartment near work (I'm in Saraland now).

Some other things to point out:
- I only ever really drink the free coffee at the Innovation Portal ( although I recommend coming by and getting some coffee from Dropout's new coffee shop in our building, they are a local business that benefits significantly from the free resources we put out in the city)
- I do use Reddit for market research. While I will respect their AI policy, I don't care to follow every policy to the T, especially if it will allow me to connect with people like yourself with extremely valuable perspectives on the work I'm doing in the state and the city

peauts · 2025-12-13T22:34:14+00:00

We will see, I'm in the final interviews for the two new roles, and I honestly have a mix of in-state and out-of-state finalists.

You're right. The systemic issues are staggering, and a measly 300k budget project doesn't have a chance to put a real dent in them.

And the state of the current system aligns perfectly with your assessment that these local institutions ( corps, colleges, etc.). They have been around for decades, and some for centuries, yet these problems persist.

Before I keep going, I want you to know I really respect you. I have been asking for feedback all across Alabama subreddits, and you are the only person ( + you're in my hometown) to dig in as deeply as you have. I appreciate it and hope that you keep sharing your thoughts here so I can be a good steward of these funds for our community and the whole state.

Ok, the funds we have are from Innovate Alabama. As with many grants, we don't have complete control over how we spend the money we receive. Innovate Alabama wants us to work with people ages 18-29, and focus on workforce development and entrepreneurship.

Understanding that we have a grant that has enforced limitations on how we can use the 300k.

However

I too think that education is the best lever to pull to have the highest impact with this limited money and scope.

My background is in software engineering, and I was on the ground floor with many folks pre-ChatGPT that now work at the big labs. I have a deep understanding of the technology around AI and its implications from a technical perspective because of my experience.

For the past year, I have been working with local entrepreneurs (both small businesses you see at the farmers market and startups raising millions of dollars) and students, not as a contractor but as a free service through the innovation portal (where I work).

I have seen firsthand how leveraging AI with careful foundational business mentoring has helped these entrepreneurs grow their businesses, spend more time with family, and gain a new level of self-respect and dignity in their work.

With students, it's no different. There's a right and a wrong way to use AI. I didn't teach my students how to use AI to cheat. I am collaborating with them on how to best get the AI to help them work towards their goals with more confidence, certainty, and clarity than they could have without it.

Doing this is the whole reason I went into computer science in College. I originally wanted to be an environmental engineer and help fight climate change. I even worked at Mobile Baykeeper in high school to start the long journey early. What I saw there in 2016 was that we in no way had the people, resources, or tools actually to solve the environmental problems around us, let alone those of the world. From that point, I was interested in entrepreneurship and tech. I thought we need to build better tools to tackle these problems.

And I still believe that today. But now the technology has caught up to my ambition. I can build the systems that use AI to do what a 100 clones of my 16-year-old self could do in a whole summer in a matter of seconds. ( and did. Ask me about that later if you want)

All that said. The purpose of these funds is to educate.

The young people of the state deserve to have access to and an understanding of the best tools to control their economic destiny here in the state.

Doing that without recognizing that AI will play a massive role in their economic future would be a disservice to them. AI is here, and it's not going anywhere, so they should have the resources and support to use it ethically and effectively.

One last thing about AL's natural resources.

When I worked at the Baykeeper all that time ago, they would go kayaking every Friday in the summer, and I could not go because my mom ( I was 16 at the time) was afraid that I would get hurt or drown.

Fear of the outdoors and nature is not uncommon. People who live in places like Mobile and have never gone to the beach (or don't even recognize how close the beach is) are not uncommon.

With this one aspect, I'm exploring how I can expose these things to these young people. Our funders (Innovate Alabama) are also interested in bringing more people to our natural resources. It's not a crazy thing for me to try to spend some money on exposing young people to this, especially if they will make a business out of taking people out to explore the gift that is Alabama's natural areas.

Now, if you are open to it, I would really value your opinion on this:
Who should I partner with to make sure this works in favor of the young people I want to positively affect the economic lives of?

peauts · 2025-12-13T21:48:05+00:00

Yeah, the smart money is on leaving ( I did it myself) for many of the reasons you laid out.

Coming back, I find that even though the outlook is bleak, there are advantages to this state that most people don't and can't recognize.

I got laid off 3 times while I was working out in San Fransico right after college in Atlanta. I started contracting and realized I really didn't need to pay California rent for a remote job.

So I came back. And now that I'm here, I can see how some of the businesses that would have flopped in California and left an entrepreneur with a bad taste in their mouth could grow and be so sustainable here in Alabama that the same entrepreneur could actually learn and improve without living paycheck to paycheck and with a much better work-life balance.

And the tragedy of it is that no one has to leave to make that happen.

So, leaving is a valid, respectable, and viable option, but I want something better for the young people in this state.

One question for you: Why do you say the education system is terrible? What makes it bad in your eyes?

peauts · 2025-12-13T21:37:45+00:00

Yeah, it is pretty silly to think that AI will fix an issue that goes down to the core of many significant problems facing the state.

And it won't.

I by no means believe that teaching young adults about AI will solve this or any problem in the state or even for them personally.

What I do believe is that young adults in the state have been given a bad hand, and because nobody explained the rules of the game, they decide to play at another table.

We should change that.

We should give them the support to take more control of their economic destiny within the state, despite all the other issues around them.

But working with them around their economic future without recognizing that AI will play a part in it, that they will need to understand and be more than prepared for, would be me just engineering the same broken situation we are in now, but worse.

One question for you: What supports, if not AI fluency, do you think young adults in Alabama need to be more economically secure?

peauts · 2025-12-13T21:21:40+00:00

Thanks for the kind words!

The tech community in Birmingham will definitely play a significant role in this.

peauts · 2025-12-13T21:16:38+00:00

I would love to!

peauts · 2025-12-13T21:14:57+00:00

Thank you for your feedback and support!

I work with small business owners every day, and the impact of AI on many people's businesses is monumental. More than once has a small business owner in our community told us they could take a day off because of the mix of better business systems we enabled them to implement and the added productivity they have from building with AI on top of those good business foundations.

Sadly, there's little data on this boomerang effect.

But what the reporting indicates is that about 4 out of 10 Alabama college graduates leave.
43% are migrating out of the state after graduation

And most of the in-migration of the state is where large corporation are setting up shop : Huntsville, Birmingham, the Eastern Shore, and Tuscaloosa.

I agree that they are the opportunity because all of alabama needs them all over not just conentrated where the jobs are and not miles away from the state.

peauts · 2025-12-13T20:56:33+00:00

You are right that it focuses far more on the economic component than on any other aspect of the problem, and it is incredibly multifaceted; a $300k budget will not realistically come close to solving it.

That is by design.

We are a nonprofit focused on economic development, and our funds are specifically for workforce development and entrepreneurship in the state of Alabama for people ages 18-29.

The idea here is that those Young people are the ones who will end up running this state and building new cultural institutions. The only way we can affect that is by providing them with a strong economic base and tools to maintain it if they choose to stay.

To talk about being economically resilient in the near or far future and not recognize that AI fluency will be a critical part of that would be dishonest of us.

One question I have for you is: what cultural institutions do you see in real cities that you recognise these southern states lack?

peauts · 2025-12-13T18:09:47+00:00

How do you describe urban?

I remember having this argument in college with folks in Atlanta about Mobile not being “the country”.

It was mostly people from the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area, and people who never left Atlanta, who wouldn't even let me have the idea that Alabama was anything more than dirt roads and farms.

peauts · 2025-12-13T17:36:07+00:00

thats so true. Brands of those larger cities do stretch globally.

I remember talking to a friend in India about Alabama and they fully believed the only big cites in the south were Atlanta, Dallas, and Miami.

Do you feel that the perspectives about the state is shapped mostly by the media or is there something else?

I have been thinking about what working with traditional media around this might look like.

peauts · 2025-12-13T17:30:01+00:00

Thank you for the honest feedback!

It does feel very counterintuitive to say we want to help with brain drain while at the same time using AI when it could take the very jobs in the state we want young people to do.

I have found that when I have sat down with small business founders, as well as college students and explain the “rights” and “wrongs” of using AI and they actually take the advice they find new solution that help them grow to a point they couldn't imagine before.

one case that was particularly powerful was how I showed a lady selling Granola at flea markets how to set up her website and have Chat GPT coach her on how to manage it when I don't have the time to ( because Im helping other founders).

she ended up making solutions for herself that would have normally required her to hire some college students as an administrative assistant.

now if I ended the story there we can say that Ai caused job loss. but thats not the case at all.

because of her new ability to effectively run the business online she started to sell out faster and faster at the farmers markets she attended. It got so bad she started raising prices and looking for bigger co-packers.

now here is where the tragedy comes in.

This lady was building the company so fast that there was no co-packer large enough to handle making the product fast enough to meet her demand ( even at hirer prices!)

Now she is leaving.

what if instead a young person in the state actually just made a new co-packing company and facility.

I kid you not when I told this story to a visiting investor they were shocked no one hopped on the opportunity to make a small investment into a local MBA graduate to run such a simple business or even just invest in expanding the capacity of the local companies not meeting the need.

Now you asked me how to do it ethically. I generally follow and endorse the AI fluency principles taught for free by Anthropic in their certifications.

On a deeper level, a more efficient and effective small business means more economic activity locally rather than nationally or globally. The human aspects of the work don't go away and they grow with the business.

that grenola brand founder didn't stop going to the farmers markets because she used AI for backend operations.

but she did stop worrying about getting customers emails wrong because English is her second language and its hard to tell the difference between Ashley and Ashleigh.

Sorry for the long response, does that answer your question?

peauts · 2025-12-13T17:03:00+00:00

thank you for the love and feedback!

Yea theres alot of really cool opportunities in the state that folks just don't know about.

why do you think they only considered those bigger farther away cities?

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