u/steveplusf

Leveraging AI into your workflow is great. Depending on it to do your job is another thing entirely.

There have been at least 6-8 major AI outages in 2026. Claude alone suffered more than 100 minor incidents since January.

It’s all fun and games to vibe code your entire product and then realise nobody on the team knows how the code works to fix something during an outage.

With that in mind, here are some common pitfalls to avoid:

Skill atrophy

There’s been a concerning trend of “why learn this when AI can do it in a minute” and it’s growing.

AI, IMHO, has not made entry easier. Rather, it’s done the opposite. Your practical skills are your most valuable asset, not how good you are at prompting ChatGPT.

Even in the work force, juniors / beginners might not be given enough time to upskill in order to get better at their craft because AI can do those beginner tasks.

But, humans are needed for more advanced tasks and humans don’t become capable of doing those advanced tasks without learning the basics first.

So for those planning their careers and those who are thinking of learning a new skillset - put in the hours and love your craft.

LLMs in their current form will not achieve AGI to replace us (or turn into Skynet). No matter how much Sam Altman, Elon Musk or Amodei would claim otherwise. Grok is fundamentally not capable of replacing the human workforce in 10 years.

What AI is doing is replacing the basic skill sets and that will be you if you think you can skip the grind and go from 0 to 100 with AI alone.

Cloud dependency

Don’t put all your eggs in a single mega-crop’s basket.

Imagine this - a cool new service comes out, you build an intricate workflow based on it and then the provider decides to change their pricing policy which kills your entire workflow. Looking at you, Anthropic.

Meanwhile, outages are also common. Ideally, set up your workflows with a local-first approach where possible. When cloud is required, look into API aggregators first.

Privacy

Big tech wants your data to target ads. As simple as that. To that end, you will get all kinds of services that will claim to make your life easy.

But, do you really want Perplexity’s “computer” for ex. to have control over your laptop? A company already facing federal lawsuits over data sharing controversies?

Dig into settings of all your AI tools and turn off data sharing wherever possible. Avoid “personalisation” where the model accesses all your chats.

Choose open-source projects over companies where you are the product.

A single image generated with Google’s nanobanana pro uses the same energy as your 9W bulb does in 30 minutes.

That is not sustainable, even if you are a 5 trillion dollar company.

With that in mind, are creators truly cooked or is the proverbial frying pan not what it seems?

1) Why AI growth is not sustainable

Most AI companies are not profitable. They are burning cash to one up the competition and keep their stock up.

Even Google quietly replaced their flagship image gen model with an inferior version to keep up things sustainable.

OpenAI’s Sora made $2 million in its lifetime while costing $15 million per day to run before Sam Altman axed it.

While AI is here to stay and it will keep getting better, it's not going to replace 99% of humans like what some might claim.

2) The act of creation

If you are just starting out to learn something then don’t let the doomsday talk discourage you.

The tool we use to create is an ever changing variable but the act of creating itself is a constant that makes us human.

Lock in, put in the hours, use AI to research, help and work for you but don’t let it keep you from creating something that makes you happy.

It is said that it takes 10,000 hours before you can truly master something. That is not getting replaced by a program running on a data center somewhere.

Experienced designers using AI will always be better vs. someone with 0 design experience prompting into an AI model and hoping for the best.

The intuition on what looks good comes from experience of creating, not from the latest claude update that Amodei might deem “sentient’.

3) Deceptive marketing galore

AI companies have one goal and that's to get more users. To that end we get marketing campaigns.

Some market with dignity while others are known as Higgsfield.

While AI is a very real threat that’s taking over jobs, it’s crucial not to fall for every “creators are cooked” posts out there and panic buy some AI subscription.

More often than not, the content showcased is a cherry picked example achieved after burning thousands of dollars worth of credits.

4) AI skills are important, human communication even more so.

This is not a “don’t use AI” post. AI is part of most creative workflows these days. You will be using these tools just like any other.

But, in a world where founders, managers and clients are exposed to deceptive marketing - the skill that will be more useful than ever is communication.

A founder is not going to buy that $1000 higgsfield subscription and spend all his day generating AI slop.

They will want a human to bring them results and your goal is to show why you’re the right person.

“I know how to use Claude design” will not cut that. You need to stand out with practical skill sets and how you present those matters.

Building relationships, being clear in your communication, listening to your client’s needs and navigating disagreements tactfully are all essential regardless of whether AI exists or not.

Don't let Grok write that pitch. Read a book like those from authors like Dale Carnegie and upskill your writing. Then put your heart and soul into it.

5) Local vs Cloud based AI

Large AI models require huge data centers to work. This takes a lot of compute power which is why everything from that laptop to a SD card has gone up in price.

Mega crops are hoarding consumer supply to grow their AI capacity because there simply isn't enough compute resources.

Meanwhile, as we have seen with Google, a mega-corp does not give two shits about the user and will change the model or its capabilities at any day.

Their goal is to farm data in the name of personalisation to train their AI model and sell the data to the highest bidder for targeted ads.

Imagine building a business model around the capability of an AI model only for it to fall apart because the company released an update which nerfed its outputs.

Now that’s not to say that AI is not useful. If you are going to add AI into your workflow then it’s preferable to use models which run locally on your system.

If it's something that runs locally then you don’t have to worry about outages or the company making changes to the model without informing the users.

On the other hand, if you are using cloud based tools then look into open-source models (Deepseek/Kimi vs. Claude).

Open source models are accessible by multiple providers which prevents the chances of having a single point of failure on something you depend on.

6) The death of critical thinking

AI can be very useful for research, ideations and letting it think for you in the name of automation.

But it's best to use it to aid the creative process, not to be the creative process.

Most LLMs are next word predictors, in that they often come to the same conclusion based on their training data.

You don't want to be reliant on such tech to come up with ideas for you. The brain is also an organ that benefits from mental exercise and turning that thinking side off because GPT will do it for you is a bad idea.

7) Final Thoughts

If you managed to get so far then congratulations. Your attention span is not shot to hell from reels and "AI can do it now" logic.

Go pickup that paintbrush, make that music, open that design file waiting on your laptop, do that photography you always wanted. Create, Create, Create.

Fight against the mega corps by choosing open-source and local over cloud dependency.

Keep the creative space and internet as we know it from turning into an AI hellscape.

Small steps towards building my own personal NAS / server type system.

Hooking up my desktop with the HDDs of my old laptops to make better use of them (currently for media and work data).

These are two 1TB drives from a Dell and Lenovo laptop. I am concerned about the age but they've been reliable.

I use my nvme SSD itself for gaming.

Got these for my R36S a while back and today I was looking for a card reader to transfer some more games to my device and I came across the cost of SD cards and... holy shit!

Considering the current pricing this is like close to the cost of my entire R36S now.

Need to keep these cards safe now xD

Been using my Tozo Openbuds for nearly 2 years now and they have been nothing but reliable. I had terrible comfort issues with in ears or headphones that clamped too hard. These solved all those problems and I love them.

Today randomly I noticed this crack while taking them off. The earphones are working fine so I want to fix this but I am concerned about what glue I can use.

If the glue seeps out and makes the plastic rough then it will make my ear itchy which in turn will make this unusable.

Any solutions?? Tips on how I can repair this thing?

Hello! I have a Samsung Galaxy A52S with a Razer Kishi.

The device specs are Snapdragon 778G and 6gb of RAM. Purchased the Razer Kishi a while back and hardly used it.

Would love to know what you guys use your Kishi for so that I can get some ideas.

I noticed this just now but why does MacOS show a generic mouse icon on the magic mouse battery indicator?

or is a bug and the laptop is detecting a it as a third party device?

Feels like something apple would have customised the way they do it for the airpods.

I've always wanted an e-reader and after being tempted to buy a Kindle for years I finally decided to get ... a Clara!

It was a better deal, smaller than the paperwhite which I preferred and I appreciate that I can simply plugin this into my laptop and transfer files.

Reading experience:

Quite enjoy it! I am not an avid reader (yet) and sadly I've only managed 60 hours or so but the screen has felt great. The device is lightweight so it's much easier to read at night compared to holding an iPad.

The only thing I quite dislike about this is font sizes are a bar rather than numbers. Why Kobo??

Device performance:

Decent plastic build and comfortable to hold. However, the back has gotten slightly creaky over the last few months, it's super subtle but noticeable.

Battery life is not the "weeks" that I had heard of before I got an e-reader but I am happy with it. The kobo branded cable is a nice cute touch.

Accessories:

Abysmally expensive cases where I live. Kindle has much better availability and while the official cases are sold they're like 30% of the device cost which makes no sense to me.

Store experience:

I feel like amazon offers a better experience in terms of purchasing books. They also tend to be cheaper. But overall it's a tradeoff that I am okay with considering the other benefits.

Conclusion:

Love my Clara. Wish it had better accessories available near me and the back did not have the creaking. Beyond that I have no complains besides the font size UI.

The only issue is me now because I haven't been able to build a strong reading habit yet.

I've always wanted an e-reader and after being tempted to buy a Kindle for years I finally decided to get ... a Clara!

It was a better deal, smaller than the paperwhite which I preferred and I appreciate that I can simply plugin this into my laptop and transfer files.

Reading experience:

Quite enjoy it! I am not an avid reader (yet) and sadly I've only managed 60 hours or so but the screen has felt great. The device is lightweight so it's much easier to read at night compared to holding an iPad.

The only thing I quite dislike about this is font sizes are a bar rather than numbers. Why Kobo??

Device performance:

Decent plastic build and comfortable to hold. However, the back has gotten slightly creaky over the last few months, it's super subtle but noticeable.

Battery life is not the "weeks" that I had heard of before I got an e-reader but I am happy with it. The kobo branded cable is a nice cute touch.

Accessories:

Abysmally expensive cases where I live. Kindle has much better availability and while the official cases are sold they're like 30% of the device cost which makes no sense to me.

Store experience:

I feel like amazon offers a better experience in terms of purchasing books. They also tend to be cheaper. But overall it's a tradeoff that I am okay with considering the other benefits.

Conclusion:

Love my Clara. Wish it had better accessories available near me and the back did not have the creaking. Beyond that I have no complains besides the font size UI.

The only issue is me now because I haven't been able to build a strong reading habit yet.

I've always wanted an e-reader and after being tempted to buy a Kindle for years I finally decided to get ... a Clara!

It was a better deal, smaller than the paperwhite which I preferred and I appreciate that I can simply plugin this into my laptop and transfer files.

Reading experience:

Quite enjoy it! I am not an avid reader (yet) and sadly I've only managed 60 hours or so but the screen has felt great. The device is lightweight so it's much easier to read at night compared to holding an iPad.

The only thing I quite dislike about this is font sizes are a bar rather than numbers. Why Kobo??

Device performance:

Decent plastic build and comfortable to hold. However, the back has gotten slightly creaky over the last few months, it's super subtle but noticeable.

Battery life is not the "weeks" that I had heard of before I got an e-reader but I am happy with it. The kobo branded cable is a nice cute touch.

Accessories:

Abysmally expensive cases where I live. Kindle has much better availability and while the official cases are sold they're like 30% of the device cost which makes no sense to me.

Store experience:

I feel like amazon offers a better experience in terms of purchasing books. They also tend to be cheaper. But overall it's a tradeoff that I am okay with considering the other benefits.

Conclusion:

Love my Clara. Wish it had better accessories available near me and the back did not have the creaking. Beyond that I have no complains besides the font size UI.

The only issue is me now because I haven't been able to build a strong reading habit yet.

Got my R36S months back to play some Pokemon but haven't touched it since. Need some recs.

Grew up on PC games like Stronghold, NFS, etc so while Gameboy doesn't exactly hit the same level of nostalgia for me, I do have a soft spot for handhelds.

What's are some suggestions for getting the most out of a R36S and some of your fav game recs too.

I feel like I'm letting it go to waste by not using it much.