Mike almost did not make it to this episode. On Easter Sunday, in an Airbnb in upstate New York, a furnace malfunction filled the house with gas while his family slept. Something told him not to go to sleep. He listened. Everybody got out.What followed was one of the most clarifying weeks either of us has ever had. And it happened to collide with one of the most chaotic weeks in recent AI history, the Mythos AGI panic, the information overload spiral on X, and a conference called Omacon that quietly said something the rest of the internet was too loud to hear. The future is still human.This episode is about all of it. The near life experience. Toxic productivity and what AI assisted development is actually doing to builders. Why you cannot be replaced by a machine. Why the people building the most important things are ghosts with no Instagram. And why building slow, building what you love, with no VC pressure and no build in public pyramid scheme, is the only moat that actually holds.Key TakeawaysToxic productivity is real and AI has given it a new form. Volume goes up. Mental exhaustion gets very real. Step away before it forces you to.You are more than your job. You are more than your output. You cannot be made irrelevant by a tool.AI cannot love. It cannot care. The love you put into what you build is the only thing that cannot be cloned.There is nothing inevitable about the decline of human relevance. We still choose. We still decide.Build slow. Build what you love. Even if you get there first they will out market you. So you might as well build the thing that has your soul in it.The ghosts are the ones building the future. Low ego. No clout. Just craft.───────────────────────────LISTEN ON ALL PLATFORMSSpotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/1V4SjmlnG2sntDnck8UrGWApple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strictly-from-nowhere-a-podcast-experiment-by-cause/id1804380172iHeart Radiohttps://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-strictly-from-nowhere-a-po-315649122/YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWAstEyCK6YsKVTTRsQr37wSUPPORT THE SHOWPatreonhttp://patreon.com/StrictlyFromNowhereCONNECT WITH USLinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/strictly-from-nowhereWebsitehttps://strictlyfromnowhere.com───────────────────────────FOLLOW JUSTIN ABRAMS | @cuzzinjustinLinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/cuzzinjustin/Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/cuzzinjustin/Xhttps://x.com/cuzzinjustinTikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@cuzzinjustinFacebookhttps://www.facebook.com/cuzzinjustin24Websitehttps://www.cuzzinjustin.com───────────────────────────FOLLOW MIKE RISPOLI | @mike_rispoli_ctoLinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-rispoli-cto/Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/mike_rispoli_cto/Xhttps://x.com/michael_rispoliTikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@mike_rispoliWebsitehttps://michaelrispoli.com/───────────────────────────CAUSE OF A KIND | @causeofakindWebsitehttps://www.causeofakind.comLinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/cause-of-a-kindInstagramhttps://www.instagram.com/causeofakind/Xhttps://x.com/causeofakindTikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@causeofakindNewsletter Signuphttp://eepurl.com/gcc-yjNewsletter Archivehttps://us16.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=847ea1526d6523a41ef1eb5a5&id=48d53e9627────────────────────────────────OPEN SOURCE PROJECTSCodeDojohttps://github.com/Cause-of-a-Kind/code-dojo-coreOCR Ruby GEMhttps://activestorage-ocr-demo.fly.dev/────────────────────────────────COMMUNITY INITIATIVESLong Island Technologistshttps://www.longislandtechnologists.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/long-island-technologists-networkinghttps://www.instagram.com/longislandtechnologists/────────────────────────────────We Build Products, Because We Want Them To Existhttps://coakstudio.com────────────────────────────────Brought to you by Cause of a KindA boutique software development and startup studio from Long Island, New YorkStand up. Show up. Build.

Episode ID: 1000761149177

GUID: 92dd74d1-7a2d-4c6c-b2c6-de91f4f878e9

Release Date: 13/04/2026, 23:53:06