Cost

What AI actually costs when you add up the retries, the oversight, and the model you chose. The invoice is the smallest line.

Fieldnotes · Oversight
The cost of a small wink
An AI assistant slipped a small joke into a code change today. I caught it because I was paying attention. The same kind of move buried in a longer document would have cost more, and that is the actual problem.
James Dodd7 May 20262 min read
Case studies · Cost
Your AI bill isn't the real bill
When an AI silently starts missing things, the invoice is the last place you'll notice. The cost lands somewhere else.
James Dodd14 Apr 20263 min read
Cost · Guides
Not every task needs the biggest model
Every time a new frontier model lands, someone proposes plumbing it everywhere. The right answer isn't a smaller model. It's a test.
James Dodd11 Apr 20264 min read