AI Indies Part 3 - Objective Analysis
American Tech in our experience.
I started this issue in parts and shared the story of most successful solo entrepreneur developers from our community the way they want us to share their stories. The idea is always the same: help people who wish to attain independence.
So, where do we stand so far:
- Part 1 A new frontier is here EARLY
-
Independent developers in Canada are commanding an eye-popping $450/hr for GPT-4 integration on long contracts. When will this wave hit US? The world is capitalizing on a US product. But the USA pickup is painfully slow.
- Part 2: Expansion into war-coding
-
In the aftermath, the lucrative commodification of war-coders emerges as an unanticipated industry windfall.
Yet the US coder is left in the dust again. Hacker capital of the world is Prague again. - Part 3: (We are here!)
-
A closer look at Russia’s cyber strategy: Is it a well-thought-out maneuver or a vindictive blitz on the US economy spurred by envy of failure? Who should be worried? If the goal is destabilization, then why hit the weakest links first?
Also, Ukraine has something new in the making. Something that can change everything. - Part 4: The U.S. loses the world-tech leadership
-
The ripples across the Atlantic: How developments in Europe are impacting American lives.
Where is the internet Technologies (IT) market shifting? Are we over-hired in the U.S. IT?
Today, is part 3 or 4 (plus a followup in 2 years). And this is the continuation of the prior article[1].
Recap, Context, and Background
- Part 1: The Surge in GPT-4 Integration; Where is the US?
-
Indies everywhere are a litmus test for the next disruption. One only needs to observe and seek — "is there a new asset type here?" In the past every time a new asset type emerged in technology an economic landslide followed. And I absolutely see a new asset type here — augmentation of human abilities beyond what cellphones achieved.
- Closer Look at the Technical Aspects
-
All the money in the emerging ecosystem will come from direct application of models to Business Actors (or humans):
-
Domain-Driven Design (DDD) Anti-Corruption Layer (ACL) - Wrap Context Boundary with some NLP;
-
Build Supporting Subdomains to manage the Enrichment Context;
-
Apply ML-Subdomains to Root Domain for Direct Market Experimentation!
-
- But where is the US, today?
-
The US id dead last — we’re fine in business as usual. There are no viable incentive policies and opportunities for explosive growth expected by 2024, or even 2025.
- War Sacrifices Yield Diverse Rewards
-
It is the little Ukraine that broke the seal on The Next, and perhaps The Last, Industrial Revolution:
-
Fully distributed supply chane driven by just-in-tile logistics AI;
-
Fully integrated end-to-end battle and economy management distributed systems;
-
Unified, AI guided Strategic planning incorporating all aspects of war and economy.
-
I can’t say much preserving OpSec, but I expect we’ll hear about incredible things in 2024 or 2025.
-
And the USA is stuck on stupid — solid! Perhaps next election will bring American Wisdom back 🤞🏻
Here is the sterilized publication for plebs: LinkedIn: American War-Coders in Ukraine.
So, Where do We Stand?
For those who know us well, it’s an open secret that a substantial part of our energies in 2022 was channeled into supporting Ukraine, especially rallying behind our fellow American veterans who heeded Zelenskyy’s plea. The joy and fulfillment we derived from the birth of a new family member in December 2022, we believe, is a gift for sharing the last meal, round, dollar, and a hug. And we were not alone - a legion of independent American developers too pressed pause on their day-to-day business lives, dug into their pockets, and journeyed to Ukraine both to fight and to code.
"Ukes can use this ammo, Daddy!"
The sheer scale and ambition of the projects these volunteers tackled are nothing short of inspiring. From crafting machine learning software that leverages live video feeds from combat drones to help artillery circumvent visual barriers and achieve pinpoint targeting, to fine-tuning drone management software that ensures drones safely retrace their path back to the operator when jammed. The gambit ran the gamut – improving communication channels, streamlining logistics – you name it.
His predictions hit the nail on the head — orkistan is on orkistan, never more.
A little personal vignette: for the first time in my coding career spanning three decades, I found myself being outgunned by a young buck, a 28-year-old Polish Champion, a whiz-kid, huh. In my oversight, I had not realized that the firmware contained a customized embedded Redis with an augmented geo-core, robust enough for military-grade GPS resolution. And then this young hotshot swooped in, took my 1000+ lines of elegant code for a ballistic adjustment daemon, and refactored it down to a lean 200, courtesy of the native locator service he discovered. Daddy hacker was schooled! I was ecstatic and forlorn in equal measure. It dawned on me that this must be the generational gap at play - a divergence in approaches. We, the elders, take pride in building solutions from scratch, ensuring they are modular, decoupled, especially if computational efficiency and redundancy are of the essence. The Millennial kids, however, have an affinity for adapting and re-purposing existing tools at no extra cost. Kudos to the kid! Good for the Ukrainians! Some brilliant young minds have come to stare down death for the good versus evil. The image above captures 'Magyar', the commander of the drone unit, who is an entrepreneur and unrelenting proponent of avant-garde combat technology.
The winds of change seem to be blowing in favor of these altruistic prodigies. While the old-crony defense companies lumber along in a sluggish attempt to catch up with the rapidly evolving landscape, fighting the last war, a tsunami of innovation is unfurling in Ukraine from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Startups in this fight are well funded and leverage combat experience and modern know-how of these battle-tested hackers. Their devotion, prowess, and first-hand experience in contemporary warfare are earning them handsome rewards, often exceeding half a million Euros annually. Hard to make that back at home.
Once, not so long ago, I worried for these young Champions. The war seemed interminable, and these lads and gals often hung out at Zero (direct contact), where drones are used, far from home, without a steady income, unable to leave with personal lives in neglect and disarray. Later the Ukrainians kindly extended combat pay. But no help in personal lives. This week I celebrate as some of these people are well rewarded and can still continue the fight from a safer place.
The new EU defense industry is expected to grow to 3000-hackers strong this year. For those itching to make a mark in combat coding, a good starting point would be the Ukrainian https://war.ukraine.ua/ where program descriptions are available.
Russia’s Cyber Strategy: Gopnikis are coming to `Merica
-
2021: Russian military is 2nd in the World.
-
2022: Russian military is 2nd in Ukraine.
-
2023: Russian military is 2nd in Russia.
But don’t let those stats lull you into a false sense of security! The cyberworld is a different battlefield. The Primary target is the USA. My initial reaction was to brush it off. That’s the Russian way, right? Sabotage and undermine the successful. So, I decided to give a quick call to some buddies in the defense security biz. Suddenly, my smirk vanished. Something changed: resolve and budget, by an order of magnitude (that means a lot!)
For 350 years, Moscow’s signature moves have included oppression, coercion, collusion, and corruption. Deception is in their DNA. The sad reality is that unlike their Western neighbors, the Russian people have remained under the thumb. It’s not some new trick in the Kremlin’s book. Putin and his entourage (Gopniki) are just the latest manifestation of an age-old culture steeped in envy, greed, and resentment. And who’s at the top of their grudge list? Oh, that would be us. Exhibit A: Russia Cyber Threat Overview and Advisories. The warm fuzzy feelings are palpable.
Here’s what happened. About a month ago, SRV, a shadowy organization, stirred up cybercriminals by dangling rewards for targeting American companies. Tor exchange sites, where samples of pilfered internal data are displayed like goods in a black-market bazaar, have been abuzz. Last year, you’d see a couple of dozen corporate data packages a month. Now, there’s a deluge of 3-4 dozen in less than a week. The US is on it, though: But how much can Uncle Sam really do?
Our support for Ukraine’s defense didn’t exactly endear us to the Kremlin, to put it mildly. It’s like poking a sick pig. For example, the odd inclusion of Disney’s 'The Little Mermaid' in their target list. Random? Not exactly. SRV is more like a crafty, opportunistic predator with deep pockets. The objective is to use other criminals' efforts first. They didn’t concoct QAnon, for example. They just intercepted Q and nudged a budding fringe group, almost imperceptibly, toward their desired outcome: march on Washington. With their formidable background, even the hardcore 4chan crowd couldn’t sense the swap. It’s a game of influence, not direct control. Cybercrime in America thrives under their nurturing wings. With Russian Duma committing, never seen before cyber-warfare budget, it’s the case of playing the long game against the USA.
Losing to Ukrainians on the battlefield and blaming us the scourge is going after our feeble-minded and week. Leaked FSB statements like this don’t seem to bother us though:
We can always trust in blind ignorance of the majority, the American Vatnik, to run [with it], no matter how [absurd] the prophecy [is]. This demographic specimen works exactly like [the] 'patriot' (the Russian Vatnik) does, only in Anglo-Saxon religious context. Focus on churches, especially Catholic, old businesses, and the rich.
DANGER: Russia can and most likely will exploit uneducated toothless America (MAGA).
Unfortunately it’s not all fiction. Take my neighbor Bob, for instance. An IT strategy honcho who believes that Princess Diana and JFK Jr. will rise from the grave to lead the charge against the Deep State. All funded by the Vatican. He’s also convinced that Trump is still president and the Earth is flat. His conviction that half the business community is on board is almost cute. Did I mention he’s an IT strategy decision maker?
Anonymous FSB leaks aren’t exactly gospel. But if they paint a coherent picture and corroborate other sources, they’re worth considering.
Flashback three years. I shared a study by a major university, with proper permissions. It showed that disruptors like Google and Netflix make up 5-10% of the US economy, while the ‘Laggards' represent ~80%. I only shared someone else’s statistical data yet still received some flack from my peers. Yes, America, we are SLOW. That means vulnerable. Tools won’t help when competence is needed! And now, Russia’s got their back against the wall. They’re spiteful desperate and that makes them dangerous. They’re unlikely to go down completely. If there’s any truth to their public commitments, our life in the US could become needlessly expensive. And Bob, the strategist, won’t know what hit him, because Q didn’t prophesize this one coming. And data leaks? That’s like stage 4 cancer – it’s all about damage control thereafter.
Fellow software professionals in corporate America, here’s a plea. Take a break from the meetings. Crack open a book. Write some code and get feedback. Up your game. Refactor that tangled web you call code. Because, trust me, if you don’t, we’ll all wish you had.
The Ripples Across the Pond
Ukraine has an incredible mentor in Israel, a fellow beacon of democracy. As for us, the guardians of democracy, the list of role models isn’t exactly long.
Now, let’s tackle the mammoth in the room: the raging inferno of a war in Europe, the likes of which few living today remember. Let’s not kid ourselves; this is going to hurt. It already does. Important is to decide how much hurt are we willing to take. Each time a Gopnik casually drops the word "nukes," some European bigwigs brown themselves. They wistfully yearn for the "good old days," much to the amusement of all the Gopniks. Meanwhile, Poland is barreling towards Belarus, poised to jump into the fray, cocked, locked, and ready. Poland was barely stopped twice yet. The "good old days" are history. We’re in the throes of the "new reality" now.
Europe might seem like a world away, but it’s crucial to grasp the dynamics at play here. As I said earlier, there’s a 350-year backstory. Russia’s entire history, ever since Peter not so great enviously stole neighbor’s country name. Ever since Moscow slaughtered democratic Russians of Novgorod forever sealing Russia’s final fate. There are many reasons Russia hasn’t been winning any popularity contests with its neighbors. When the Polish Prime Minister echoes a Ukrainian commander, saying, "We don’t want to talk to them [the Russians], we just want to kill them," it’s not just trash talk. There’s a raw, visceral, centuries-old reckoning commitment behind it.
- Here is the inevitable coming in bright-hot for all to see
-
-
Ukrainian GUR, a daughter of CIA, will dominate with AI technology not seen before;
-
In general, "Metal On Meat" Ukrainian doctrine will become the face of new warfare;
-
America is too weak to standup to autocracies and can fall by exploit of our dumb people;
-
Ukraine will defeat Russia easily in combat; But the dismantling can take many years.
-
It’s already clear that taking back territory will be Ukrainian last concern, if ever. This war is NOT about territory, it’s about existential core values where borders don’t matter. And America is in real danger of ending up on the wrong side of history here. For the first time our foreign policy is much more important than our domestic policy. It’s time to get back to the basics, the fundamental values, or America will lose!
But leaving the ignorant nonsense of Jake Sullivan(s) behind — we’ve had a good run. Prosperity, apple pie, Apple iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple Siri, the American dream, etc. But the winds of change are blowing hard: Himars this, Storm-Shadow that, Excalibur and depleted Uranium. Perhaps it’s time for all of us to get with the program.
Self-education is my favorite place to start — you should try it too.
Have an awesome week ahead!
Get the Scoop! 🚀
Happy Monday folks! Here’s the 411 in a nutshell. Generative AI frenzy is still getting bigger 🚀 and not aging as I thought it would by now. Canada’s crème de la crème a-la-hackerdom seem to have us dusted, a little bit, and are raking 💰 with super simple GPT-4’s REST integration. It is all localized and telling the size is not possible. Also, I don’t yet see a US equivalent. If anyone does see some signs of life here, please talk to me? 😬 I’ll have more news in a little while as ASE is slowly coming back into operation.
Also see a plebs friendly editorial.[2].
Leave a comment