great makers are liable to become managers/leaders. but the legendary leaders figure out how to remain (or once again become) makers.
AI unlocks the era of “leader makers.” Watching teams emerge w/ superior alignment, collapsed talent stacks, and unfathomable potential to build.
Running AI agents on a headless Mac Mini?
You still need to see what's happening. Check logs, restart stuck tasks, monitor outputs.
So we built Astropad Workbench. High-performance remote desktop for Mac, works on iPad and iPhone.
Built for the AI era.
https://t.co/CWICkzjQKh
I know Silicon Valley startups don't want to hear this.....
But the combination of someone in the trades with deep domain expertise and Claude Code will run circles around your generic software.
I talked to Cory LaChance this morning, a mechanical engineer in industrial piping construction in Houston. He normally works with chemical plants and refineries, but now he also works with the terminal
He reached out in a DM a few days ago and I was so fired up by his story, I asked him if we could record the conversation and share it.
He built a full application that industrial contractors are using every day. It reads piping isometric drawings and automatically extracts every weld count, every material spec, every commodity code.
Work that took 10 minutes per drawing now takes 60 seconds. It can do 100 drawings in five minutes, saving days of time.
His co-workers are all mind blown, and when he talks to them, it's like they are speaking different languages.
His fabrication shop uses it daily, and he built the entire thing in 8 weeks. During those 8 weeks he also had to learn everything about Claude Code, the terminal, VS Code, everything.
My favorite quote from him was when he said, "I literally did this with zero outside help other than the AI. My favorite tools are screenshots, step by step instructions and asking Claude to explain things like I'm five."
Every trades worker with deep expertise and a willingness to sit down with Claude Code for a few weekends is now a potential software founder.
I can't wait to meet more people like Cory.
Writing code by hand was walking
Using Cursor was getting in a car
Claude Code in an existing repo is an airplane
Claude Code in a new repo is getting in a rocket
This is the age of CEOs crushing 10 people’s work with Claude Code in nights and weekends and I am so here for it
The fire in your belly that got you here never really goes out and now we are all cooking 20 hours a day
@mronge It feels like a fever dream. I find myself waking up in the night or too early because I am so excited to crank on something. But then I'm shredded by 5pm, but get another burst of energy in the evening and keep going. "My brain is full."
The skill that makes you good at building systems is the same skill that makes you good at running a company is the same skill that makes you good at working with agents. Context is context. The reps transfer.
Running a company is just context engineering internally.
Now that skill has even more value in the agentic world. Us tech founders have been doing reps to prepare for this.
Running a company is just context engineering internally.
Now that skill has even more value in the agentic world. Us tech founders have been doing reps to prepare for this.