Framework
The Time and Materials Trap
Why paying by the hour stretches the work to fill the meter.
How it works
- 1Paid by time and materials, work expands to fill the meter. Ryan's roofers work Sunday afternoons when they're paid on completion instead.
- 2Applies to how you prompt: constrain output, work from your agenda, cap the back-and-forth.
- 3Applies to how you buy services: pay for outcomes, not hours.
Hear it on the podcast
Tokenomics Will Wreck Your Margins: The AI Model Routing Workflow That Cuts SpendListen to the episodeMore from this episode
The Intelligence BoundaryTarun's term for the undefined line between the data you hand a model and the understanding it derives from it.The Hybrid Routing ModelTarun's prescription for where each workload should actually run.The Tokenomics TestWhy cost per token is the wrong number to watch.The Investor-Subsidized BillWhy today's AI pricing isn't the real number.The Acquisition-Led Cold StartHow Gruve solved the enterprise cold-start problem.Twice Is EnoughTarun's personal rule for risk and mistakes.Energy Abundance Over AI AbundanceTarun's reframe of what AI's promised abundance actually depends on.
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