Notes from the studio

Things we're thinking about, written down.

Working notes, opinions, and the occasional long read. Posted when there's something to say, usually once a week.

The Subscription Stack Is Quietly Eating Your Margin № 010 · Featured Just published
OpinionJun 07, 2026

The Subscription Stack Is Quietly Eating Your Margin

For a person, AI subscriptions are an annoyance. For a business, they are a structural cost that grows with every hire and every tool. Per-seat pricing compounds quietly, and it comes straight…

4 min read · Hillary
9 posts · Newest first
Three Things We Check Before Adopting Any AI Tool№ 009 · Opinion
Opinion · Opinion

Three Things We Check Before Adopting Any AI Tool

New AI tools arrive every week, and most of them are not worth your attention. We run three quick checks…

Jun 07 · 4 min
Privacy Is a Feature You Can Actually Ship№ 008 · Opinion
Opinion · Opinion

Privacy Is a Feature You Can Actually Ship

Most privacy is a promise. 'We never send your data anywhere' is a sentence you have to trust. With local…

Jun 07 · 4 min
‘Open Weights’ Isn’t ‘Open’№ 007 · Opinion
Opinion · Opinion

Open Weights’ Isn’t ‘Open’

A model you can download is not the same thing as a model you are free to use. Open weights…

Jun 07 · 4 min
Why We Run Nemotron Locally Instead of Calling an API№ 006 · Opinion
Opinion · Opinion

Why We Run Nemotron Locally Instead of Calling an API

We picked a model and ran it on our own machine instead of behind an API. The reasons are not…

Jun 07 · 4 min
Own Your AI Stack, Don’t Rent It№ 005 · Opinion
Opinion · Opinion

Own Your AI Stack, Don’t Rent It

Forget the bill for a moment. When you rent your AI stack you also rent your uptime, your data access,…

Jun 07 · 4 min
You Don’t Need a GPU Server to Start With Local AI№ 004 · Opinion
Opinion · Opinion

You Don’t Need a GPU Server to Start With Local AI

The hardware wall most people picture is mostly imaginary. A normal laptop runs useful models today, and on Apple Silicon…

Jun 07 · 4 min
The Most Useful AI Is the Kind You Don’t Notice№ 003 · Opinion
Opinion · Opinion

The Most Useful AI Is the Kind You Don’t Notice

The AI worth having is rarely the one you open a tab to talk to. It is the quiet kind:…

Jun 07 · 4 min
Local AI Is Good Enough Now: Here Is What We Run Daily№ 002 · Opinion
Opinion · Opinion

Local AI Is Good Enough Now: Here Is What We Run Daily

The question stopped being can it run locally. It is now is it good enough, and for the work most…

Jun 07 · 4 min
Stop Paying Monthly for AI№ 001 · Opinion
Opinion · Opinion

Stop Paying Monthly for AI

Count your AI subscriptions. Then count what the same work costs on a machine you already own. The gap is…

Jun 07 · 4 min
The dispatch

One note from the studio, every other Friday.

What we shipped, what we killed, and the one thing we read this week. Unsubscribe anytime.

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