u/bejusorixo

Started automating workflows for a small team last quarter. The AI part was surprisingly easy to set up.

Then the invoices hit. I was running a few document processing flows and some customer email triage stuff, nothing crazy, maybe a dozen active automations. Looked at the bill after about three weeks and just sat there for a minute. I had budgeted for the tooling costs, the integrations, the time spent building it all out. Never once thought about what the actual token usage would look like at scale. The per-call cost seems tiny until you realize how many calls even a simple workflow makes in a day.

So I started asking around. Talked to a couple people running similar setups, one guy at a meetup last tuesday who manages automations for a mid-size logistics company. Nobody has a real strategy for this. Everyone is just kind of winging it, swapping models, caching where they can, hoping the prices drop.

The wild part is how fast it went from "this is saving us so much time" to "wait, is this actually cheaper than just hiring someone."

Curious what others here are doing about it.

After mass managing AI infra for about 3 years now I finally get why people are excited again. For the longest time my job was basically saying no to every team that wanted to build something with LLMs. The costs were brutal. We were burning through budget on basic summarization tasks and every time someone pitched an autonomous agent workflow I had to kill it because the token math just didnt work.

Then sometime around late last year things started shifting. Not overnight, but gradually. The per-token costs on the models we use dropped significantly, like roughly 80 percent cheaper than what we were paying 18 months ago. At first I didnt think much of it. Cool, we save money on existing workloads.

But then it hit me. All those agent architectures we shelved because they required too many chained calls, too many reasoning steps, suddenly the math works. A workflow that would have cost us about 12 bucks per run is now closer to 2. And when you multiply that across thousands of daily runs the whole equation flips. Its not just cheaper, its actually a growth lever now. More usage doesnt kill your margins anymore, it improves them because the per-unit cost keeps falling faster than usage grows.

I went from being the guy who blocks AI projects to the guy greenlighting agent deployments every sprint. Honestly its a weird feeling after years of saying no to everything.

The part that gets me is how fast this happened. Like 18 months ago none of this was viable and now were spinning up multi-step agents that would have bankrupted our compute budget back then.

Anyone else in infra or platform eng seeing this same shift? Curious if other teams are also suddenly greenlighting stuff that was impossible a year ago or if were just late to the party.

After mass managing AI infra for about 3 years now I finally get why people are excited again. For the longest time my job was basically saying no to every team that wanted to build something with LLMs. The costs were brutal. We were burning through budget on basic summarization tasks and every time someone pitched an autonomous agent workflow I had to kill it because the token math just didnt work.

Then sometime around late last year things started shifting. Not overnight, but gradually. The per-token costs on the models we use dropped significantly, like roughly 80 percent cheaper than what we were paying 18 months ago. At first I didnt think much of it. Cool, we save money on existing workloads.

But then it hit me. All those agent architectures we shelved because they required too many chained calls, too many reasoning steps, suddenly the math works. A workflow that would have cost us about 12 bucks per run is now closer to 2. And when you multiply that across thousands of daily runs the whole equation flips. Its not just cheaper, its actually a growth lever now. More usage doesnt kill your margins anymore, it improves them because the per-unit cost keeps falling faster than usage grows.

I went from being the guy who blocks AI projects to the guy greenlighting agent deployments every sprint. Honestly its a weird feeling after years of saying no to everything.

The part that gets me is how fast this happened. Like 18 months ago none of this was viable and now were spinning up multi-step agents that would have bankrupted our compute budget back then.

Anyone else in infra or platform eng seeing this same shift? Curious if other teams are also suddenly greenlighting stuff that was impossible a year ago or if were just late to the party.

After mass managing AI infra for about 3 years now I finally get why people are excited again. For the longest time my job was basically saying no to every team that wanted to build something with LLMs. The costs were brutal. We were burning through budget on basic summarization tasks and every time someone pitched an autonomous agent workflow I had to kill it because the token math just didnt work.

Then sometime around late last year things started shifting. Not overnight, but gradually. The per-token costs on the models we use dropped significantly, like roughly 80 percent cheaper than what we were paying 18 months ago. At first I didnt think much of it. Cool, we save money on existing workloads.

But then it hit me. All those agent architectures we shelved because they required too many chained calls, too many reasoning steps, suddenly the math works. A workflow that would have cost us about 12 bucks per run is now closer to 2. And when you multiply that across thousands of daily runs the whole equation flips. Its not just cheaper, its actually a growth lever now. More usage doesnt kill your margins anymore, it improves them because the per-unit cost keeps falling faster than usage grows.

I went from being the guy who blocks AI projects to the guy greenlighting agent deployments every sprint. Honestly its a weird feeling after years of saying no to everything.

The part that gets me is how fast this happened. Like 18 months ago none of this was viable and now were spinning up multi-step agents that would have bankrupted our compute budget back then.

Anyone else in infra or platform eng seeing this same shift? Curious if other teams are also suddenly greenlighting stuff that was impossible a year ago or if were just late to the party.

After mass managing AI infra for about 3 years now I finally get why people are excited again. For the longest time my job was basically saying no to every team that wanted to build something with LLMs. The costs were brutal. We were burning through budget on basic summarization tasks and every time someone pitched an autonomous agent workflow I had to kill it because the token math just didnt work.

Then sometime around late last year things started shifting. Not overnight, but gradually. The per-token costs on the models we use dropped significantly, like roughly 80 percent cheaper than what we were paying 18 months ago. At first I didnt think much of it. Cool, we save money on existing workloads.

But then it hit me. All those agent architectures we shelved because they required too many chained calls, too many reasoning steps, suddenly the math works. A workflow that would have cost us about 12 bucks per run is now closer to 2. And when you multiply that across thousands of daily runs the whole equation flips. Its not just cheaper, its actually a growth lever now. More usage doesnt kill your margins anymore, it improves them because the per-unit cost keeps falling faster than usage grows.

I went from being the guy who blocks AI projects to the guy greenlighting agent deployments every sprint. Honestly its a weird feeling after years of saying no to everything.

The part that gets me is how fast this happened. Like 18 months ago none of this was viable and now were spinning up multi-step agents that would have bankrupted our compute budget back then.

Anyone else in infra or platform eng seeing this same shift? Curious if other teams are also suddenly greenlighting stuff that was impossible a year ago or if were just late to the party.

ok so every november my family does this big thanksgiving thing at my place. like around 30 people show up expecting this huge homemade spread because I used to actually cook everything from scratch back when I first started hosting.

the first couple years I was going all out. homemade cranberry sauce, fresh pie crust, brining the turkey for days, making my own gravy from drippings. the whole deal. spent like 2 full days in the kitchen and honestly nobody even noticed the difference between my handmade stuff and whatever else was on the table.

then one year I was super burnt out from work and just didnt have the energy. grabbed a couple frozen pies from costco, used store bought broth for the gravy, bought pre-made dinner rolls instead of baking them. I felt guilty about it but figured id get called out immediately.

nobody said a word. actually my aunt told me the gravy was the best id ever made. that was the turning point tbh.

now its been roughly 6 years and ive basically built this whole system. the mashed potatoes are from a box, I add butter and cream cheese so they taste rich. the stuffing is stovetop with some fresh celery and onion thrown in so it smells homemade. I buy the fancy looking pie from the bakery section and transfer it to my own dish. the cranberry sauce is literally from a can but I put it in a nice bowl and add some orange zest on top.

my sister in law asked me for my pie crust recipe last year and I panicked and told her it was a family secret. I felt terrible but also like what am I supposed to do at this point. everyone keeps saying how they look forward to my cooking all year and how nobody else in the family can do what I do.

the money thing gets me too. they probably think im spending around 400 bucks on food when realistically its closer to 150 now. I just let them believe it.

ngl I go back and forth between feeling smart about it and feeling like a complete fraud. has anyone else gotten stuck in something like this where the lie just kept growing and now its too late to come clean?

so i started a new job back in january and my schedule went from pretty chill to absolutely insane. like getting home at 7pm barely able to think straight. i was ordering takeout almost every night and my bank account was screaming at me.

one sunday i just got fed up and threw together this big batch of food. nothing fancy. just turkey thighs, brown rice, a can of chickpeas, and whatever frozen broccoli and spinach i had in the freezer. seasoned it with garlic powder, cumin, and a little hot sauce. dumped it all in a big pot basically.

that was like four months ago and i swear i have eaten some version of this exact meal almost every single day since. lunch and dinner. my coworkers think im losing it tbh. one of them asked me if everything was okay at home lol.

but heres the thing that surprised me. i actually feel way better than when i was eating different stuff every day. my energy is more stable, im not crashing at 2pm anymore, and i stopped spending like 30 minutes every evening staring at my phone trying to decide what to order. that mental energy adds up more than i realized.

the cost is kinda ridiculous too. i spend maybe 25 to 30 bucks a week on groceries now. used to be easily double that plus all the delivery fees.

i know it sounds boring and yeah sometimes i do get a little tired of it. i switch up the sauce or throw in different frozen veggies to keep it from getting too repetitive. some weeks i do sweet potato instead of rice. but the base stays the same.

honestly the biggest change is just not having to think about food anymore. its one less decision every day and my brain apparently needed that.

anyone else doing something like this or am i the only weirdo eating the same bowl every day. curious what your go to meal is if you do

most of your altcoin bags are going to zero and nobody wants to hear it. ive been in crypto since 2019 and every cycle people convince themselves that this time their random L1 or L2 pick is going to moon just because some VC backed it. nah. that game is dying.

what ive been watching closely is the AI infrastructure side of crypto and honestly its the only thing that makes sense to me going into 2026. tokens tied to actual revenue and real usage are separating from everything else. like its not even close anymore. the ones building deAI and agentic AI infrastructure are pulling away while most L1s and L2s just sit there with no real use case pretending they still matter.

i think a bunch of the biggest coins by market cap are gonna be AI related within the next year or so. some of these AI infra plays could see massive gains if they keep shipping. meanwhile half the tokens people are holding were basically created so VCs could exit their positions. sounds harsh but look at the price action and tell me im wrong.

the whole idea of an alt season where everything pumps together feels like copium at this point. that era broke. its gonna be way more competitive now and most alts just wont make it. but the ones that do have real traction and actual demand behind them could straight up skyrocket.

imo the play is pretty clear. revenue generating tokens and AI infra. everything else is noise until proven otherwise.

anyone else shifting their portfolio this direction or am i just early to the funeral for L1s and L2s

most of your altcoin bags are going to zero and nobody wants to hear it. ive been in crypto since 2019 and every cycle people convince themselves that this time their random L1 or L2 pick is going to moon just because some VC backed it. nah. that game is dying.

what ive been watching closely is the AI infrastructure side of crypto and honestly its the only thing that makes sense to me going into 2026. tokens tied to actual revenue and real usage are separating from everything else. like its not even close anymore. the ones building deAI and agentic AI infrastructure are pulling away while most L1s and L2s just sit there with no real use case pretending they still matter.

i think a bunch of the biggest coins by market cap are gonna be AI related within the next year or so. some of these AI infra plays could see massive gains if they keep shipping. meanwhile half the tokens people are holding were basically created so VCs could exit their positions. sounds harsh but look at the price action and tell me im wrong.

the whole idea of an alt season where everything pumps together feels like copium at this point. that era broke. its gonna be way more competitive now and most alts just wont make it. but the ones that do have real traction and actual demand behind them could straight up skyrocket.

imo the play is pretty clear. revenue generating tokens and AI infra. everything else is noise until proven otherwise.

anyone else shifting their portfolio this direction or am i just early to the funeral for L1s and L2s

ok so this is kind of embarrassing but i need to vent and maybe get some help. i love fried rice. like, its probably my most ordered takeout dish. so naturally i thought hey, how hard can it be, its literally rice and some stuff in a pan.

turns out, very hard apparently.

i've been trying for months and i cannot figure out what i'm doing wrong. here's what i've tried so far:

• used day old rice from the fridge like every single guide says to. still comes out mushy and clumpy, not those nice separate grains you get from a restaurant
• bought a wok thinking that was the missing piece. cranked my stove to max. the rice just kind of... steams? instead of getting that smoky charred flavor. i think my stove literally cannot get hot enough
• tried adding soy sauce at different stages. too early and everything turns into a brown soggy mess. too late and it tastes like plain rice with soy sauce on top, if that makes sense
• eggs are another disaster. sometimes they're rubbery chunks mixed in, sometimes they coat the rice but then the whole thing tastes eggy. i cannot find the middle ground
• watched probably 15 youtube videos at this point. uncle roger, kenji, wok of life, random tiktoks. everyone makes it look so easy and then i try it and end up with sad wet rice

the thing that kills me is my local chinese place charges like 8 bucks for a container of fried rice and it is absolutely perfect every single time. perfect wok hei, every grain separate, eggs are somehow both there and invisible at the same time. meanwhile i've spent way more than that on sesame oil and oyster sauce and specialty ingredients trying to replicate it.

my girlfriend has started just quietly ordering takeout when she sees me pull out the wok which honestly fair enough.

is this just a heat issue and i'm fighting a losing battle with a home stove? or is there some technique thing i'm completely missing? i feel like i'm so close but also so far away. anyone else go through this before they figured it out?