u/InevitableFox9080

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I’m genuinely not sure what I think yet.

It’s hard to watch people struggle to find work right now, especially developers, designers, writers, marketers, etc. And I don’t want to turn this into some “AI will create new jobs” argument. If you spent years getting good at something and suddenly there are fewer opportunities, that really sucks. There’s no clever economic argument that makes that easier.

But given that this is happening, I keep wondering if there is another side to it that might be worth thinking about.
AI has made it incredibly cheap to build things.

An accountant who has spent 15 years dealing with some terrible process at work can now potentially build software to fix it. A developer can build something without needing a whole team around them. Etc

Obviously building is only part of it. You still need customers. You need distribution, sales, marketing. That’s probably becoming the harder part. But those are things you can learn.

I think what interests me is what happens if this leads to a lot more small companies.
Not everyone becoming an entrepreneur. Most people probably don’t want that. But maybe one person starts something, then hires two people, then five.

I’ve worked in corporate and I hated the politics and the pretending that came with it. Now I work from home, use AI a lot, make a good living, and have more time with my daughter. I’m happier this way.

So maybe I’m biased. But I can’t help wondering what work would look like if more of us worked in small companies built around an actual problem, instead of a few huge companies owning more and more of everything.

Maybe none of this decentralization happens. Maybe AI just gives the biggest companies even more power.

I don’t know.
I just feel like if we’re going through this painful transition anyway, I want to understand whether there’s a version of what comes after that isn’t necessarily worse.
Maybe even parts of it could be better.
Would love to know if other people are thinking about this too.

Genuine question, not criticism.
I see a lot of startup ideas solving problems that feel more nice to have than genuinely painful.

If the goal is to build a sustainable business, why aren’t more founders building vertical operating systems for small businesses?

There are thousands of industries still running on spreadsheets, WhatsApp, email, paper, and disconnected tools. Pick one niche and build the software that actually runs the business: scheduling, invoicing, CRM, payments, inventory, compliance, etc.

The value proposition seems strong: you’re solving a painful operational problem for businesses that already have cash flow and are willing to pay if you genuinely save them time, money, or headaches. And once your software becomes part of their daily operations, retention can be very strong.

The economics can also work without massive scale. At $199/month, 100 customers is $19.9k MRR, or $239k ARR. You can build a solid, profitable business with a relatively small customer base and either keep growing it or potentially sell it down the road.

So why do I see so many more consumer apps, AI tools, productivity apps, and nice-to-have SaaS products?
Is it lack of exposure to these industries? Customer acquisition? Are these businesses harder to sell to than they seem? Or is it simply less exciting to founders?
Maybe I’m missing something. Genuinely curious to hear from people who’ve actually built in these markets.

As a business owner, I can’t stand the way we’re expected to market things now.

Yesterday I saw a post on LinkedIn from a guy saying he’d messaged someone 20 times, and they finally replied on the 21st. He was celebrating it as a lesson in not giving up.

And I thought… you messaged someone 20 times and they didn’t answer. Maybe they just don’t want to talk to you?

And the strange thing is, most of us wouldn’t act like this in real life. If someone ignored you 20 times, you probably wouldn’t walk up to them a 21st time and call yourself persistent.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but the whole thing feels very disconnected from how people actually behave.

I use one Codex chat as a master/orchestrator for several specialized chats. I only talk to the master: it delegates tasks, tracks what each chat has completed, and tells me what to do next.

It works well at first, but over time the master starts executing tasks itself instead of delegating them, even when explicitly instructed not to.

Has anyone found a reliable way to prevent this role drift and keep the master strictly focused on coordination, delegation, and tracking throughout a long project?

Bonjour à tous,
J’ai un client qui souhaite répondre à des appels d’offres dans le secteur du BTP.

Ce n’est pas tout à fait mon domaine d’expertise, donc je cherche quelqu’un qui maîtrise le sujet.

J’ai essayé de contacter des prestataires sans succès
Est-ce que certains ici ont de l’expérience dans la réponse aux appels d’offres BTP, ou pourraient m’orienter vers une personne compétente et avenante?
Merci pour votre aide,