Uber burned through its annual AI budget in four months. The lesson isn't that AI is expensive - it's that ungoverned adoption at scale is. A bootstrap-trained CTO's view on measuring return, not usage.

The product decision I didn't make in 2014 because I couldn't afford to be right — and what it taught me about conviction, financial autonomy, and the invisible cost of having no choice.

The best open source contributor isn't the most technical — it's the one who actually uses the software. Use it first, then contribute what matters.

AI generates 42% of committed code. The developer signs 100% of the commits. That asymmetry is the conversation the industry keeps avoiding.