Simeon | AI in the real world

AI is only as good as the human taste behind it. Helping SMBs ship AI in the real world. Ex-IBMer. Product, UX, agents, and what survives the next 18 months.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

Most people think AI has no taste. It does. It just inherits yours.

My approach to building: spend an hour with Gemini on vision and tone, then have it write my Figma Make prompt.

First output = final output.

Stop blaming the model. Start auditing the human at the keyboard.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@grinich I’ve heard this one too many times: “the thing that nobody tells you”

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

Turns out you can't just tell your AI agent to build you a Shopify app that you were planning to launch in July.

You still have to do some work, either editing code or telling your agent what to do and what to correct, to make sure that your customers have a great user experience.

Launch is just around the corner.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

Thinking of a Shopify app to #BuildinPublic

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

$15 - $20k/month AI bill isn’t waste if you are getting 10x the value. It’s the cost of running a full software factory with parallel Devin agents that write, review, test, and ship ~30 PRs a day while he sleeps.

I’ve not tested this but I believe subscriptions alone can’t handle that scale or speed, so he’s eating raw token costs on frontier models (plus credits).

Moreover, you have to go the route of Enterprise API if you don’t want the models to train on your data.

He’s already planning to slash it by routing most work to cheaper models. This is what real high-velocity solo building actually looks like in 2026.

[Ryan Carson @ryancarson]

I'm starting to hit $15-20k per month in token spend for engineering - just for myself.

Next month I'll be looking to implement the kinds of things that Brian is doing here at Coinbase.

Most likely switching to GLM 5.2 as default and only using frontier models for harder tasks.

I can probably get that $20k down to <$5k pretty easily.

I'm pretty sure we'll see everyone doing this.

It's just not financially viable to do everything with frontier models

This is another reason I think we'll see people move away from choosing a lab for their harness (CC or Codex) and move their code factories to in-house agents like @tryramp or agent labs like @DevinAI @FactoryAI @cursor_ai @AmpCode

The labs are not incentivized to drive down your token costs

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

Day 8 of building my Shopify app. What’s the one thing you would recommend to launch this effectively?

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

Thinking of a Shopify app to #BuildinPublic

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@ryancarson I’ve read your responses and other comments but still don’t understand why your bill is that high. Genuinely curious, are you using an Enterprise version of Devin?

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@jackfriks I’m yet to be a believer in this. I think it depends on what you are building. For simple projects, yes. For complicated projects e.g. Enterprise solutions, helll no

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@grinich Love it. Makes sense that your time is most spent with people now. Curious, was it mainly spent on coding in the early days of building WorkOS?

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@ryancarson Nice to hear this coming from you. I will drop you an email later tonight about the solution I have in mind.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

Claude is back online

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@thepatwalls If you survive Reddit, you can make it anywhere.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@pcshipp If you survive Reddit, you can make it anywhere.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

If you survive Reddit, you can make it anywhere.

[pc @pcshipp]

I’ll never promote my app on Reddit again.

I got 15 downvotes, and people started making fun of me in the comments. It honestly feels embarrassing.

Why are Reddit users often so rude?

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

Facts. Well said, Ryan. I get more than at home than in the office. In the office, there are side chats and distractions. My office at home has boundaries and the kids know when to come in or not.

The truth is there are lazy people at home and there are lazy people in the office. It’s all about hiring the right people with the right mindset.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@grinich Wild times and the future is bright.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

People keep saying to add typos to your AI work so it looks "human."

Nonsense. The effort was never on the surface.

The machine can write, review, even critique itself. What it cannot do is the deciding. The taste that picks the right answer from its own output.

That is the job now.

Blame the slop on the human who added nothing, not the tool.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@HarryStebbings Incredible achievements. Don’t fck it up. Happy birthday dude 🍾🥳

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

Trying this #buildinpublic 🥸with my first Shopify app. Looking to #connect with other #founders, builders &amp; growth people. particularly interested in:
&gt; Al startups
&gt; Indiehacker
&gt; Growth and marketing people
&gt; Entrepreneurs
Happy to share ideas on what i'm learning on AI🤖

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@elonmusk @Austen For now! Someone said Electric cars were impossible and guess who pulled it off.

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

There's still a market for luxury. Just think about it: as you get older, your taste changes, but there's a whole generation coming up that still have a taste for status symbol and loud luxury.

Yes, the growth has slowed down, but the demand is still around. Otherwise, this company should be putting -40%+ sales decline.

[Aria Radnia 🇮🇷 @ariaradnia]

LVMH the parent of Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Sephora and 70+ other luxury houses

Has now put up SIXTEEN consecutive quarters of de-accelerating growth

$LVMUY $LVMH $MC.PA

[Simeon | AI in the real world @SIM3ONBUILDS]

@X I’m building cool useful products that solve real pain points. Will soon start documenting my journey, share posts on AI and any tips that work for me.

#Connect me with people that are interested in following the journey. They should be:
- founders
- AI peeled
- entrepreneurs

#BuildinPublic