A big % of tech people don't get it
Normies won't ask "build me software"
They will ask "I have this photo and I want to manually edit it" and it will spin up a Photoshop clone
They will ask "I need to know if sales are going up or down this quarter from all different ecommerce platforms we use" and it will spin up an analytics dashboard connecting all APIs with scheduled crons that keeps it up to date forever
They already do!
They won't know they're building software because their AI app/agent will do it for them
And then they'll stop using most regular software!
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109288526726549822
Read on levels.io β
Normies won't ask "build me software"
They will ask "I have this photo and I want to manually edit it" and it will spin up a Photoshop clone
They will ask "I need to know if sales are going up or down this quarter from all different ecommerce platforms we use" and it will spin up an analytics dashboard connecting all APIs with scheduled crons that keeps it up to date forever
They already do!
They won't know they're building software because their AI app/agent will do it for them
And then they'll stop using most regular software!
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109288526726549822
Read on levels.io β
π―2
I'd call this a bubble in a bubble
Tech people somehow still think normies are not spinning up personal software already
They're not doing it in Claude Code in a terminal like tech people for sure
But their AI chat app is already doing it for them without them even realizing they're building personal software, like generating PDF reports, full web app dashboards and even entire web apps
That will keep getting more advanced and soon ChatGPT will just spin up a Photoshop clone (but ofc only if they need it, preferring to just do their photo edits for them)
Everyone will mostly use personal ephemeral software inside AI chat apps I think
Some software moats will remain like social media (community), ecommerce (think like Shopify and Stripe), etc but they will just be used by AI to build the personal software with
So maybe that's the point here, become a tool agents use to solve their user's problems and charge agents for it (like many are saying)
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109268364572913953
Read on levels.io β
Tech people somehow still think normies are not spinning up personal software already
They're not doing it in Claude Code in a terminal like tech people for sure
But their AI chat app is already doing it for them without them even realizing they're building personal software, like generating PDF reports, full web app dashboards and even entire web apps
That will keep getting more advanced and soon ChatGPT will just spin up a Photoshop clone (but ofc only if they need it, preferring to just do their photo edits for them)
Everyone will mostly use personal ephemeral software inside AI chat apps I think
Some software moats will remain like social media (community), ecommerce (think like Shopify and Stripe), etc but they will just be used by AI to build the personal software with
So maybe that's the point here, become a tool agents use to solve their user's problems and charge agents for it (like many are saying)
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109268364572913953
Read on levels.io β
β€4π2π1π―1
As I posted before, I've cancelled almost all of the SaaS subscriptions for my business
The only thing I still pay for as a business:
- AI inference
- Hetzner server hosting
- Cloudflare storage
- Backblaze backups
- Taxes
Now I started cancelling personal subscriptions too and just vibecoding my own versions or using Claude to take an open source project that does the same and then customize it for myself
All I still pay for personally is:
- Claude Code
- YouTube (content)
- Spotify (content)
- Starlink (internet)
- Phone eSIM
- Personal cloud storage
- Electricity and water (utility)
- Taxes
So if we summarize it for both, I only still pay for:
- AI inference
- Content
- Cloud storage & hosting
- Connectivity
- Electricity & water
- Taxes
So to summarize all my money now goes to:
- Content
- Data centers
- Power plants + water
- Governments
I think we'll be facing a tidal wave of cancellations once people find out how much money they can save
It's just how the economy works
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109352968122515681
Read on levels.io β
The only thing I still pay for as a business:
- AI inference
- Hetzner server hosting
- Cloudflare storage
- Backblaze backups
- Taxes
Now I started cancelling personal subscriptions too and just vibecoding my own versions or using Claude to take an open source project that does the same and then customize it for myself
All I still pay for personally is:
- Claude Code
- YouTube (content)
- Spotify (content)
- Starlink (internet)
- Phone eSIM
- Personal cloud storage
- Electricity and water (utility)
- Taxes
So if we summarize it for both, I only still pay for:
- AI inference
- Content
- Cloud storage & hosting
- Connectivity
- Electricity & water
- Taxes
So to summarize all my money now goes to:
- Content
- Data centers
- Power plants + water
- Governments
I think we'll be facing a tidal wave of cancellations once people find out how much money they can save
It's just how the economy works
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109352968122515681
Read on levels.io β
β€5π₯3
I'd expand the moats left to:
- Proprietary data or content: data nobody else has, or unique content you can create
- Network effects / community: users make it more valuable for each other
- Audience / distribution: you can get attention on demand
- Physical component: hardware, locations, real-world operations
- Capital: owning assets and investing (esp into the AI companies as they are and will suck up large parts of the economy)
- Regulatory: licenses and legal barriers
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109653584706990506
Read on levels.io β
- Proprietary data or content: data nobody else has, or unique content you can create
- Network effects / community: users make it more valuable for each other
- Audience / distribution: you can get attention on demand
- Physical component: hardware, locations, real-world operations
- Capital: owning assets and investing (esp into the AI companies as they are and will suck up large parts of the economy)
- Regulatory: licenses and legal barriers
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109653584706990506
Read on levels.io β
π4π₯1
This is true
You can get very rich on helping IRL businesses with the transition to AI and automating everything for them
They'll have to to stay competitive because if one adapts AI, they all have to!
But again this is temporary for a few years, it's not a sustainable business as once it's automated the AI will exponentially self improve and people will figure out how to do this themselves of course
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109723310762123704
Read on levels.io β
You can get very rich on helping IRL businesses with the transition to AI and automating everything for them
They'll have to to stay competitive because if one adapts AI, they all have to!
But again this is temporary for a few years, it's not a sustainable business as once it's automated the AI will exponentially self improve and people will figure out how to do this themselves of course
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109723310762123704
Read on levels.io β
Let's try run Windows XP inside this tweet, tap to open https://pieter.com/xp/x
Drag mouse to move it, X Player doesn't let you do pointer lock so it has to work like that
This is a 100% non-commercial non-profit preservation project part of the @pieter computer museum
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109949585737052316
Read on levels.io β
Drag mouse to move it, X Player doesn't let you do pointer lock so it has to work like that
This is a 100% non-commercial non-profit preservation project part of the @pieter computer museum
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2109949585737052316
Read on levels.io β
π1
Data brokers are now buying up SaaS data sets for anywhere from $100K to $2M
SaaS are struggling now and some extra money to fill the gap by declining revenues is nice
That data is then re-sold to AI training companies and AI frontier labs for the exact purpose of integrating whatever that SaaS did into the AI frontier lab's app
Pretty obvious to see where this is going
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2110671750727946638
Read on levels.io β
SaaS are struggling now and some extra money to fill the gap by declining revenues is nice
That data is then re-sold to AI training companies and AI frontier labs for the exact purpose of integrating whatever that SaaS did into the AI frontier lab's app
Pretty obvious to see where this is going
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2110671750727946638
Read on levels.io β
π±5π3
We must pace the frontier in Europe
We're advancing too fast!
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2111058386959937970
Read on levels.io β
We're advancing too fast!
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2111058386959937970
Read on levels.io β
In a similar scramble I did to jump on AI in late 2022 (moving from remote work and nomads to AI apps), I am now scrambling to chase any remaining moats
As AI companies will suck up everything else (in my humble opinion)
So for every moat left I see where I can pivot towards to that with my sites/apps
Proprietary data or content:
- I launched a http://nomads.com paid data API for companies from $2,490/year to $9,990/year, the city data is great because it's made by real members who for example review/like/dislike a city after visiting it, or being able to see which places are growing or shrinking (interesting of real estate, coworking, or gym investors)
- http://hoodmaps.com neighborhood data is very valuable and I'm building a paid API for that too, as well as including it in the Nomads API
Network effects / community:
- I made the http://nomads.com community free (before $99, now just $1 to avoid spam), the more people, the more network effect
Audience / distribution: you can get attention on demand
- I have an @X audience and I get paid well for it (about ~$15K/mo), but I've also diversified that with my blog http://levels.io's email list and Telegram subscribers, which is now 187,279 people who get daily/weekly/monthly email digests of my posts
Physical component: hardware, locations, IRL:
- I have been improving and promoting http://nomads.com meetups, there's now 8 meetups planned in the next 30 days, but is has to keep growing, I've also added fitness meetups etc.
- I've been using and working on http://hotelist.com a lot and improving it, it seems to fill a real void in booking sites that all suffer from rating inflation and filters that are not modern, I'm adding features I want and it seems that's working. Today I'm adding a filter for Longevity Hotels, that have a strength training gym, wellness area, blackout curtains, as a counter balance to the boomer hotels with champagne on check in and a gym with only treadmills etc. Hotelist is fundamentally IRL because hotels are IRL
- Not really IRL but http://vibejam.com is an annual event that's every year has ~1000 people participating vibe coding games and this year had over 1 million people playing the games, and AI companies really like to sponsor it because it's a great way to get exposure for their AI building tools
- I am building a http://pieter.com 1990s retro PC mini remake, like the SNES Mini, or the ModRetro M64, a hardware product I can sell marketed for nostalgia, especially after the last few weeks where it took off finally, I think there could be some market, and hardware is fun to try
- I sell merch on http://levelsio.com and make about $1K/mo from it, I haven't been very active on it but could expand this if I want
[...]
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2111142856094265595
Read on levels.io β
As AI companies will suck up everything else (in my humble opinion)
So for every moat left I see where I can pivot towards to that with my sites/apps
Proprietary data or content:
- I launched a http://nomads.com paid data API for companies from $2,490/year to $9,990/year, the city data is great because it's made by real members who for example review/like/dislike a city after visiting it, or being able to see which places are growing or shrinking (interesting of real estate, coworking, or gym investors)
- http://hoodmaps.com neighborhood data is very valuable and I'm building a paid API for that too, as well as including it in the Nomads API
Network effects / community:
- I made the http://nomads.com community free (before $99, now just $1 to avoid spam), the more people, the more network effect
Audience / distribution: you can get attention on demand
- I have an @X audience and I get paid well for it (about ~$15K/mo), but I've also diversified that with my blog http://levels.io's email list and Telegram subscribers, which is now 187,279 people who get daily/weekly/monthly email digests of my posts
Physical component: hardware, locations, IRL:
- I have been improving and promoting http://nomads.com meetups, there's now 8 meetups planned in the next 30 days, but is has to keep growing, I've also added fitness meetups etc.
- I've been using and working on http://hotelist.com a lot and improving it, it seems to fill a real void in booking sites that all suffer from rating inflation and filters that are not modern, I'm adding features I want and it seems that's working. Today I'm adding a filter for Longevity Hotels, that have a strength training gym, wellness area, blackout curtains, as a counter balance to the boomer hotels with champagne on check in and a gym with only treadmills etc. Hotelist is fundamentally IRL because hotels are IRL
- Not really IRL but http://vibejam.com is an annual event that's every year has ~1000 people participating vibe coding games and this year had over 1 million people playing the games, and AI companies really like to sponsor it because it's a great way to get exposure for their AI building tools
- I am building a http://pieter.com 1990s retro PC mini remake, like the SNES Mini, or the ModRetro M64, a hardware product I can sell marketed for nostalgia, especially after the last few weeks where it took off finally, I think there could be some market, and hardware is fun to try
- I sell merch on http://levelsio.com and make about $1K/mo from it, I haven't been very active on it but could expand this if I want
[...]
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2111142856094265595
Read on levels.io β
β€3π1π€£1
π΅π± Warsaw is Poland's biggest city and it is completely safe at 1am at night
No violent junkies, no drug dealers, no street thugs hanging around harassing women (and men), no pickpockets (nor in the day btw)
No shady people hanging around the train and metro stations
Just people living chill together and police enforcing safety
You know like we used to in Western Europe?
There's a lot to learn from Poland
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2111755233072169055
Read on levels.io β
No violent junkies, no drug dealers, no street thugs hanging around harassing women (and men), no pickpockets (nor in the day btw)
No shady people hanging around the train and metro stations
Just people living chill together and police enforcing safety
You know like we used to in Western Europe?
There's a lot to learn from Poland
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2111755233072169055
Read on levels.io β
β€5π4π€‘2π€£1
When you sell your business, never ever agree on an earn out
Always get it in cash!
I know lots of horror stories of earn outs and have always rejected them
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2111956757073596904
Read on levels.io β
Always get it in cash!
I know lots of horror stories of earn outs and have always rejected them
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2111956757073596904
Read on levels.io β
π2π1π€‘1
π΅π± Okay my final Poland video because we're leaving soon!
It was really fun and we had a great time
I liked Warsaw most to be honest, a very modern city, a bit like East Asia in terms of modernity, with rapid delivery services and apps, everything just works great and fast
I'm not saying it's perfect btw, there's moments where you still realize it's Eastern Europe (or as they'd like to call it Central Europe) but then the difference is they generally solve problems fast and pragmatically
Many shops you go will actually have a long line at the checkout, annoying, but usually there's a second checkout but it's closed
That's because Poland too has a big labor shortage, one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe, so they too kinda have to import people, but they choose to import them from Ukraine and Belarus (and some South Asians actually too)
But wait, so that checkout line is closed yes? I'm so used to Portugal where there is zero incentive to then open another checkout counter but in Poland usually within a few minutes they notice it's busy and open another counter. I know, basic stuff but hard to come by these days. They're fast and pragmatic
Ordering flowers for my gf was easy, the flower shop has an IG (but I don't) so I msg them over Whatsapp, they immediately respond, give me some options, I say what I want, address, payment link with Stripe (!) and done delivered at my hotel by a nice guy. All soooo smooth. Fast response, friendly people. Things just work here!
Poland has done a great job keeping bad immigrants out while bring good immigrants in. The Ukrainians and Belarussians are neighbors and their cultures overlap strongly with Poland. So they fit in easily. Same cultures, same religions, same routines etc. for the most part
A young Polish Uber driver I talked to said to him Krakow (his city) looks just like Lviv in Ukraine, so it's easy for Ukranians in Poland to integrate
There's a lot of police presence in places, and military vehicles also (probably cause of the Ukraine war), the security at the Warsaw Airport is not done by some 5 layer outsourced company with staff that hates you, but by friendly people from the Polish Border Guard (StraΕΌ Graniczna) wearing military uniforms
Warsaw has lots of skyscrapers now, and actually the tallest in Europe now at 310 meters is the Varso Tower, crazy!
Poland is a booming economy and growing fast. When you're growing of course it's easy to make things go well. I'd say it's important for Poland to look ahead carefully and don't make the same mistakes that Western Europe did when everything was going well and we were very rich
We became complacent, stagnant, added regulatory burdens, became overly obsessed with climate change and the environment, and imported the lowest quality tier of people from cultures that hate our guys and are diametrically opposed to Western culture
That last part is especially interesting considering Poland's history, where 6 million (!) or 20% of the country was ruthlessly murdered in World War II
I think that gives them the power to not have to be politically correct about immigration like Germany, because Poland after all was the victim, while Germany then was the purpetreyor. Which is why Germany does have to be so politically correct about it, due to extreme historical guilt
You walk on the streets of Poland in the day and at night and you see the difference what sane policy does to daily life
We're all dealing with the echoes of history
So my message to my Polish friends: don't make the same mistakes Western Europe did and you will soon be the richest, safest, most modern country in Europe and hopefully then have the power to be the new leader of Europe
[...]
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2112596438525817121
Read on levels.io β
It was really fun and we had a great time
I liked Warsaw most to be honest, a very modern city, a bit like East Asia in terms of modernity, with rapid delivery services and apps, everything just works great and fast
I'm not saying it's perfect btw, there's moments where you still realize it's Eastern Europe (or as they'd like to call it Central Europe) but then the difference is they generally solve problems fast and pragmatically
Many shops you go will actually have a long line at the checkout, annoying, but usually there's a second checkout but it's closed
That's because Poland too has a big labor shortage, one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe, so they too kinda have to import people, but they choose to import them from Ukraine and Belarus (and some South Asians actually too)
But wait, so that checkout line is closed yes? I'm so used to Portugal where there is zero incentive to then open another checkout counter but in Poland usually within a few minutes they notice it's busy and open another counter. I know, basic stuff but hard to come by these days. They're fast and pragmatic
Ordering flowers for my gf was easy, the flower shop has an IG (but I don't) so I msg them over Whatsapp, they immediately respond, give me some options, I say what I want, address, payment link with Stripe (!) and done delivered at my hotel by a nice guy. All soooo smooth. Fast response, friendly people. Things just work here!
Poland has done a great job keeping bad immigrants out while bring good immigrants in. The Ukrainians and Belarussians are neighbors and their cultures overlap strongly with Poland. So they fit in easily. Same cultures, same religions, same routines etc. for the most part
A young Polish Uber driver I talked to said to him Krakow (his city) looks just like Lviv in Ukraine, so it's easy for Ukranians in Poland to integrate
There's a lot of police presence in places, and military vehicles also (probably cause of the Ukraine war), the security at the Warsaw Airport is not done by some 5 layer outsourced company with staff that hates you, but by friendly people from the Polish Border Guard (StraΕΌ Graniczna) wearing military uniforms
Warsaw has lots of skyscrapers now, and actually the tallest in Europe now at 310 meters is the Varso Tower, crazy!
Poland is a booming economy and growing fast. When you're growing of course it's easy to make things go well. I'd say it's important for Poland to look ahead carefully and don't make the same mistakes that Western Europe did when everything was going well and we were very rich
We became complacent, stagnant, added regulatory burdens, became overly obsessed with climate change and the environment, and imported the lowest quality tier of people from cultures that hate our guys and are diametrically opposed to Western culture
That last part is especially interesting considering Poland's history, where 6 million (!) or 20% of the country was ruthlessly murdered in World War II
I think that gives them the power to not have to be politically correct about immigration like Germany, because Poland after all was the victim, while Germany then was the purpetreyor. Which is why Germany does have to be so politically correct about it, due to extreme historical guilt
You walk on the streets of Poland in the day and at night and you see the difference what sane policy does to daily life
We're all dealing with the echoes of history
So my message to my Polish friends: don't make the same mistakes Western Europe did and you will soon be the richest, safest, most modern country in Europe and hopefully then have the power to be the new leader of Europe
[...]
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2112596438525817121
Read on levels.io β
β€6π2π₯1
I asked Claude Code to make a new GTA: San Andreas mission where CJ has to vibe code a startup and then raise money from investors in SF
I got the idea from @alexchristou_
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2112686345617547538
Read on levels.io β
I got the idea from @alexchristou_
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2112686345617547538
Read on levels.io β
π5
I pre-emptively disconnected ALL my sites / VPS servers from the web
I'll wait for the patch to hit at 2 PM UTC
If you have a PHP website, probably good to take them down until you patch PHP
69.3% of the web runs on PHP so this is going to be intense!
Good time maybe to buy cybersecurity stocks? (not financial advice)
Small cost is this annoying screen to keep every site safe for the next few hours
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2112887674251976827
Read on levels.io β
I'll wait for the patch to hit at 2 PM UTC
If you have a PHP website, probably good to take them down until you patch PHP
69.3% of the web runs on PHP so this is going to be intense!
Good time maybe to buy cybersecurity stocks? (not financial advice)
Small cost is this annoying screen to keep every site safe for the next few hours
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2112887674251976827
Read on levels.io β
π€―1
I notified a friend working at a big tech corporate about the PHP vulnerability as their entire infrastructure runs on PHP
He answered
"Thanks, I'll try patch it in a few days as I'm Out of Office (OOO) now"
And this is a modern tech company, imagine the traditional companies running PHP
People won't update fast enough and the vulnerability will be out in the wild once the patch hits as anyone can reverse engineer it based on the patch
Considering this, there's gonna be so many sites hacked and so much user data exposed I think
π€―
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2112891358226645334
Read on levels.io β
He answered
"Thanks, I'll try patch it in a few days as I'm Out of Office (OOO) now"
And this is a modern tech company, imagine the traditional companies running PHP
People won't update fast enough and the vulnerability will be out in the wild once the patch hits as anyone can reverse engineer it based on the patch
Considering this, there's gonna be so many sites hacked and so much user data exposed I think
π€―
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2112891358226645334
Read on levels.io β
β€7π₯3
My friend from Middle East about this video:
"Iβm afraid this is so true"
"It is sooo so so true"
"I just donβt understand how they have not seen it coming itβs confusingβ¦ like the entire European leadershipβ¦ no clue wtf"
If you say this as a European you're instantly banished from any social setting in Western Europe, which is of course why all of this is happening!
Yes the friend is an Arab and Muslim
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113216338957148494
Read on levels.io β
"Iβm afraid this is so true"
"It is sooo so so true"
"I just donβt understand how they have not seen it coming itβs confusingβ¦ like the entire European leadershipβ¦ no clue wtf"
If you say this as a European you're instantly banished from any social setting in Western Europe, which is of course why all of this is happening!
Yes the friend is an Arab and Muslim
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113216338957148494
Read on levels.io β
π4
Maybe important to repost this now that everyone is getting hacked
If you have a VPS, I recommend you to get if off the public internet and into a Tailscale network and Cloudflare Tunnel ASAP
It doesn't matter you have SSH key login, this is about exploits and vulnerabilities AI is finding
There's 2 ways into a VPS:
- via your site/app (like the PHP exploit of this week with a file upload hack)
- via your server (like hacking into SSH or some open port)
The site/app side you put on a Cloudflare Tunnel and then with the default Free Plan it has WAF security enabled by default and they jump on new security exploits fast, it means that the only way to reach your website is via the Cloudflare Tunnel, your server does not respond to port 80 or 443 anymore
The server side you put on a Tailscale network which is like your own private network that nobody can access but your own devices (like your laptop, your phone and your VPS) kinda like a VPN
Then you switch off ANY regular access to your VPS on the firewall, in my case I use Hetzner and you create a new firewall then empty it and that blocks everything (test it)
How do Tailscale and Cloudflare Tunnel get in then? They don't. They go outbound. They make a tunnel to outside which sends and receives
Now you've reduced your attack vector to Tailscale and your Cloudflare Tunnel, much safer, not perfect btw, but nothing is
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113587042185576853
Read on levels.io β
If you have a VPS, I recommend you to get if off the public internet and into a Tailscale network and Cloudflare Tunnel ASAP
It doesn't matter you have SSH key login, this is about exploits and vulnerabilities AI is finding
There's 2 ways into a VPS:
- via your site/app (like the PHP exploit of this week with a file upload hack)
- via your server (like hacking into SSH or some open port)
The site/app side you put on a Cloudflare Tunnel and then with the default Free Plan it has WAF security enabled by default and they jump on new security exploits fast, it means that the only way to reach your website is via the Cloudflare Tunnel, your server does not respond to port 80 or 443 anymore
The server side you put on a Tailscale network which is like your own private network that nobody can access but your own devices (like your laptop, your phone and your VPS) kinda like a VPN
Then you switch off ANY regular access to your VPS on the firewall, in my case I use Hetzner and you create a new firewall then empty it and that blocks everything (test it)
How do Tailscale and Cloudflare Tunnel get in then? They don't. They go outbound. They make a tunnel to outside which sends and receives
Now you've reduced your attack vector to Tailscale and your Cloudflare Tunnel, much safer, not perfect btw, but nothing is
π https://x.com/levelsio/status/2113587042185576853
Read on levels.io β