This told essay is based on a conversation with Alexander Huso, 31, of Salt Lake City. Edited for length and clarity.
I’m working at a hotel now. I work in software testing and am a good programmer, but without a degree it’s very difficult to prove it. I do it for the love of the craft.
AI really can be used for anything. When you’re looking for a job, you have a ChatGPT appointment. In 2026, applying for a job will be a nightmare. The best way to apply for a job is to apply as soon as the job is posted to be the first on the list. I schedule ChatGPT every 4 hours to search the web for obscure job sites and find one that was posted 15 minutes ago.
I recently had a project based on incidental learning. The idea is that if you are exposed to something repeatedly without thinking, you can learn it. To help you learn Spanish, I wrote an app that replaces random words on your phone with Spanish translations.
I was coding for years before AI came along. Once it finally clicked, ChatGPT took off. I’m still trying to figure out: Was it the best or worst time to learn to code?
ChatGPT sometimes feels limitless. The limit is rarely reached. I think Claude has much higher quality, but he is very fast at hitting tokens. I often use Claude for things that are really important. ChatGPT can really be used for anything.
I’m running out of Claude tokens. I’m on a $20/month plan. I was always looking for different ways to make things cheaper.
Talking to AI can sometimes make you feel like a caveman. I used to say, “You write the code.” My idea was, what if I skipped the articles and the various parts of speech?
My first idea was for a baby story, but the caveman story was better written and more interesting.
Alexander Huso asked Claude how many tokens he would save from caveman storytelling. alexander fuso
Originally, I was using it to break bug bounties. You can ethically hack something with permission, and if a vulnerability is found, you will be paid for it. It takes a lot of effort, so don’t expect to get it in a day. That was something I was dabbling in.
I dropped an APK file into Claude Code and was like, “Let’s see what I can do with it.” I primarily used caveman mode to hack Android apps.
I haven’t received my bug bounty yet. Caveman stories are a huge loss in quality. When something is important, I don’t want to use it. “I write the code” is not as good a chain of thought reasoning as you might think by default.
I don’t think you can write real code with this.
On a whim, I posted it on Reddit. One of my favorite YouTubers made a video about my idea and it confused me for a few days.
GitHub is the most important thing in the world to me. If I were to die tomorrow, my friends and family would know that they should be looking at my GitHub, not my Facebook or Reddit.
In total, I gained about 4 followers on GitHub. A kid from the Netherlands exploded and went completely viral. I wish him all the best. There is no such thing as stealing in open source. When it was over, I thought: I thought I should feel recognized and praised. That’s a healthy perspective.
I may be a little eccentric, and my family thinks I’m crazy. If anything, this vindicated me.
My mother no longer thinks I’m crazy.