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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026

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$2000 - a small piece of biocompatible plastic/rubber/metal.

$25,000 - for the cardiologist who puts it in, possibly split multiple ways. He's gotta pay off the med school debt, and feed the wife and kids, and manage a down-payment on the Ferrari.

Zorba, if he has any common sense, pays for a Max plan. He has common sense. I can just about guarantee it. That means that regardless of how much the raw tokens cost, as long as he stays within his usage limits, those marginal dollars do not come out of pocket.

I also imagine that he charges enough for his time and energy that a spend of a few dollars to save 10 minutes of his time is a very favorable trade, even accounting for the negatives. I dare say he is a good enough programmer that he is able to audit and vet the AI-expanded code base to his satisfaction, if he hasn't already gotten Claude to automate away the tests. The "better understanding" can probably be priced too, and I'd be surprised if it made a jot of difference with how good modern LLMs have gotten.

In other words, if you disagree with his approach, you do you. It's not your money. It's not your pet project you've run for what feels like a decade. If you've ever paid for a taxi for your burrito, or intend to, that's probably worth addressing first.

If Zorba wants to make the project sustainable, and scalable, and wrest back control of more of his time in exchange for a service he probably already uses professionally? I'm cheering.

If you've ever paid for a taxi for your burrito, or intend to, that's probably worth addressing first.

Maybe I'm just a very particular type of person. I've literally never used a meal delivery app in my entire life, even when the promo code makes it arguably worth it. I have piggypacked on a friend's order once or twice, when they insisted, but that's it.