George Merchant

Veteran small business owner in Automation. Making Made in America possible
Offering blue collar perspective

[George Merchant @industryiq]

How to use a Multimeter to troubleshoot

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@LimitingThe @WR4NYGov To be fair to Brian much of the financial data available to us is in a weird place and tough to trust. What's true yesterday shifts tomorrow.
When I mapped out Charger compute opportunity I cut it back to be more conservative because I don't trust what I'm reading.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

https://t.co/9NVkqsYPvs

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@grok https://t.co/O7lIRcfiCL
Actual Grok reply not the X imbedded one.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

I almost exclusively use Grok for work, Gemini gets some general lookup use due to Google bar on phone.

My use case is Automation/Controls Engineering. Saves hours.

Example: @grok I need to source the fastest replacement fan for this.

[Jo Bhakdi @JOBhakdi]

AGI Notes to self:

1. I find myself working with Grok much more these days. It's getting very good (vs. ChatGPT and Claude).

2. ChatGPT remains heavily woke

3. Claude is fine with logic, but very very bad with English language - sounds like weird AI slop all the time

4. Especially with Grok and Claude, I notice constant capability changes day-to-day or week-to-week, independent of model versions. It seems like their harnesses (or LLM?) are being improved in real time.

5. English Writing remains a huge problem across all of them, Grok is the best. My suspicion is that advanced skills like Coding, Design, Writing need massive specialized harnesses, and there is none yet for writing. Claude Design (which is mindbogglingly good) shows that it is possible.

6. AGI: In a way, we are already here - we have now the intelligence core units available, and can build specialized AI workers (with a lot of effort) through harnesses; which in a way means we have the components of AGI. What is still missing is the meta-harness that can create specialized harnesses, which in theory should be possible to do.

7. It's a vast open field for innovators, but building these harnesses (prompts, loops, agentic systems) is a totally new discipline that requires a highly self-directed, scientifical and engineering mind, and the willingness to systematically dabble though hundreds of disciplined experiments. But the prizes are extremely large, and there are hundreds (or thousands?) of them. The grand prize - true AGI - might be achievable already; or maybe not yet. Hard to tell.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@grok I used this as an example because this fan kit is nearly 3K not counting our labor from the OEM. It's a 150 dollar part otherwise.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@ChipHaze @RueNahcMohr 😂

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@stevenmarkryan It's all about removing friction. Quick, secure, seamless.
It wasn't long ago and many still do keep records in a ledger, receipts, investment (several types)
This stuff is scattered out and disjointed.
One place to manage everything finance would be divine.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

😂

[stevenmarkryan @stevenmarkryan]

Don't tell the Europeans but I just installed 3 AC units on my outdoor balcony because IDGAF.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@nextbigfuture And you know it still ain't close to enough to meet demand. He is just doing what is possible to meet as much as can be achieved.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@alphafox Middle east abortion clinic.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@aaronburnett @Robotbeat Yes, rapidly deployable turbine units.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@RandyWKirk1 150K to 40K I felt this one, I was in my 20s.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

I predict due to inference demand that the Megapod will be installed in more non charger locations than chargers.

The amount of idle industrial power service is actually extremely high.

Most plants are in the 1/3-1/2 utilization from my experience.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@stevenmarkryan I wouldn't sweat it, this company is hands down the most difficult company to accurately valuate.
All I can do is be very conservative on what I see with high probability, and I'm still coming up with bonkers numbers.
My brain ain't accepting it.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

The biggest reason I took a major pay cut to start my own business is what the corporate environment was doing to me.
I am a solution oriented person, most of corporations are adult day care for degreed incompetence.

[TechOperator @TechOperator]

I hit eject on my career as an IT executive earlier this year.

The further I get from it, the more ridiculous it all seems. Not just my last role, but the industry and corporate America as a whole.

Here are the top 5 things that finally drove me out:

1. Private equity vultures
Investors are chasing quick flips at the expense of long-term viability and employee well-being. As a leader, you're forced to slash and burn, unless you're personally incentivized to do the cutting. Then it's just business.

2. Toxic urgency theater
Everything is a fire drill. Don’t reply to an email in minutes? Here comes the Teams ping. No response there? Now it’s a text. All this frantic escalation over the most trivial nonsense.

3. Manufactured deadlines
Timelines rarely serve the business or the client. They’re usually tied to an executive’s ego, a promotion cycle, or an arbitrary personal goal. The urgent constantly crowds out the important.

4. Employee engagement surveys
Leadership loves to say they care about engagement, until the results come in. “You Said, We Did” is performative nonsense, and the whole exercise feels like a box-ticking ritual rather than genuine feedback.

5. The HR department
HR isn’t there to support employees. It’s there to protect the company from legal risk. Nothing tanks morale faster than watching them shield non-performers under pressure from an overzealous legal team.

Corporate America has real problems when these dynamics are the norm. What are your least favorite aspects of corporate life?

I’d genuinely like to hear them.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@wholemars Inference demand has no limit, only constraint. Training will be cyclical by nature over time.
The Megapod is an immediate move to take advantage of existing infrastructure for inference, with Starmind being the ultimate answer.
Elon made things clear years ago.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@aaronburnett 👀

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@ChipHaze This one was nixed by a one of a kind multi tap transformer. We can repair the boards but the transformer was the wall.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

Long lead time on DC drive, let's make it AC instead.
We can do things.

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@elonmusk Will this be available for business accounts?

[George Merchant @industryiq]

@ChipHaze I'll cheer ya up. DC to AC motor and drive conversion, AC motor bolted exactly in same place. 1st time in my life.
Should I buy a lottery ticket?