How a Non-Technical Founder Is Building Software With AI

I know there’s been a lot of debate over whether AI is going to destroy humanity or, at the very least, render most jobs obsolete. I don’t know. I tend to take a more moderate stance: it’ll eliminate many jobs, the same way the personal computer did, but it’ll also open new opportunities because people who use it will be more leveraged.

And I think that because that’s been my experience.

At the beginning of summer, I dipped my toe into the AI “vibe-coding” world. Traditionally, coding requires manually typing text/code. Vibe coding is when you tell AI what to make, and it generates the text/code for you. You give it feedback, it makes updates, and you keep going.

As a non-technical founder of a software startup, vibe coding sounded familiar: I hired someone, described what I wanted with words and pictures, and then they made it. Once they built it, I gave feedback (verbally and by marking up screenshots), they made updates, and the loop continued.

After selling the company, I learned to code a little on my own, but only made simple websites (like furlo.com). So I’d put myself in the 80% non-technical camp.

Before this summer, I used ChatGPT to help me solve coding problems by asking it questions. It was like having an expert sitting next to me. I still typed in the code, but ChatGPT saved me hours of reading forums and API documents. It saved a lot of time, but it also eliminated any serendipitous learning. For example, oftentimes while reading API docs, I’d learn about something unrelated the API could do while looking for the piece of information I needed (“I didn’t know the API would do that!”). And every once in a while, that unrelated thing would inspire a new feature I’d want to make. But the time savings were so significant (and I’m not a professional developer) that it was worth the trade.

Vibe Coding a Simple Webpage

Then this summer, I downloaded Claude and had Claude Code make a simple HTML invoice-maker webpage. Previously, I had a Word document template that I’d update. It was fine, but cumbersome. It was a simple quality-of-life improvement that saved me ~3 minutes any time I needed to make an invoice (which is a couple of times a week as a property manager. It wasn’t life-changing, but I saw the possibilities.

Just like at my startup, I described what I wanted, even uploaded my Word document template as an example, and then hit enter. Claude Code made it, I gave one round of feedback, it updated it, and my new invoice-maker was ready to go. There were two differences: First, what would have taken my developer a day took less than 20 minutes. Second, the webpage was fragile: if I didn’t “use it right,” it would break. But that was fine because I was the only user, and there were only a couple of ways to break it—such as pushing “Generate” before adding at least one item.

As a former development team manager, it’s hard to describe how mind-blowing the speed of development was.

So, I asked Claude Code to build another webpage to help me quickly analyze rentals. People often ask me about a property’s potential rent. So, this time, I had it create a page that pulled data from a couple of APIs and then used AI to write a summary document. It was still a standalone HTML page, but now it cost me a couple of pennies every time I ran it.

I was ankle-deep.

A Failed Voice Experiment

While listening to the fantastic [Shell Game](https://www.shellgame.co) podcast, in season 1, Evan described how he set up a voice agent. I was intrigued because I wanted to hire someone to answer the phone at my company, but it wasn’t a full-time position (we only get 2-10 calls a day). Could I have a voice agent fill in the gaps for me, especially during off-hours? Evan mentioned using Vapi.ai to create his voice agent, so that’s what I did.

Basically, you choose a transcriber to turn spoken words into text, a model to interpret and write a response, and a voice to speak the answer back. Each choice has a different latency and cost.

And then you create a system prompt. These are the instructions you give the model to guide its response. For example, mine would greet the caller, determine what they need, gather key details (with different rules for maintenance requests vs. leasing vs. something else), and decide the next step. The next steps were mostly adding a message to our communication system, adding an item to our maintenance list, and potentially sending a Slack message to the team for urgent issues.

It’s a balance between speed and smarts. You can get the latency down to ~800ms, but it can’t handle complex conversations. Actually, the biggest issue I ran into was hitting the context window limits. Think of it as the agent’s short-term memory. The conversation would start out fine, but then after a few minutes, it would start forgetting things. It’s like it would “forget” the system prompt and just do its own thing. Importantly, you can connect the agent to other tools to do things like save a summary and action items from the call... but if the call was long enough, it wouldn’t do it! That’s not good.

And if you go for a smarter model, the latency is so long that callers become impatient. I ultimately couldn’t find the right balance for my needs and shelved the project. It’s technically still live, so if you want to try it, let me know, and I’ll share the number.

Before shelving it, I figured out how to connect my voice agent to my knowledge base. And by “figured it out,” I mean I asked ChatGPT how to do it. The “best” solution turned out to be to replicate my knowledge base (furlo.com/help) and vectorize it. I have no idea how it works, but it made response times significantly faster. It walked me through setting up a Cloudflare Worker and wrote all the code. It would also have been possible to connect it to my contact list and vectorize previous emails/texts/calls to give the agent more context, but I had already decided to shelve it.

In my previous projects, I knew how to do everything, but this was the first time AI built something for me that I couldn’t have done on my own.

Am I Eliminating Jobs?

This feels like the right time to answer this question.

Let’s pretend my voice agent worked.

There are two types of expenses: capital and operating.

The capital expense is the actual cost to create the thing. For my startup, I personally contributed over $50,000, plus my time. For this project, I spent ~$100 on testing, plus ~40 hours off and on trying to make it work. Could I have hired someone (via Upwork) to make it? Probably. But I would’ve spent more time vetting and managing the project. And it definitely would have been more than $100. If I had invested, say, $2,000 into the project, would they have made a usable voice agent? It’s hard to say. I tried a whole bunch of combinations.

Honestly, the hassle and expense of hiring a developer for an experimental “what if” project would have been high enough that I simply wouldn’t have done it. So, in this case, I don’t think I eliminated a job.

The operating expense is more interesting. We get 2-10 calls a day, or about 60 to 300 calls a month. According to our stats, our call talk time is just over 5 minutes. That’s 300 to 1,500 minutes a month. At $0.13 per minute for the agent, that’s $39 to $195 per month.

Contrast that with hiring someone at $25 per hour. My total cost would be about 25% higher after employment expenses—or roughly $31.25 per hour and $2,500 per month for part-time work. It’s a real human, which is a huge bonus, but I still have a general context problem. They probably won’t forget to take notes, but the summary may not be as good; searching the knowledge base during a call is harder, and they have limited context (especially part-time). The context piece is huge; otherwise, they’re just a fancier (and more expensive) message taker. Oh, and it still doesn’t solve my after-hours problem. Not to mention the amount of initial and ongoing training.

For my call volume, it’s not worth hiring someone. Instead, I rely heavily on my answering machine. So, right now it’s not eliminating a job. As my company grows, using an agent like this would probably eliminate a job. Most likely, the agent would do the initial triage, and if it couldn’t handle it, then it would transfer them to a human receptionist. And that person would wear a couple of hats to help justify the expense.

Property Management Supplemental Software

My property management software is great! I looked at a bunch of them and genuinely believe I’m using the best (I do not get the love affair other PMs have with AppFolio). However, like all of them, it’s not perfect. But, and this is critical, it has a decently robust API.

So I went all in on vibe coding.

I used ChatGPT to help me think through a maintenance tracking app. I told it about my current system (it was good, not great). It asked questions and shared ideas. We finished by creating a product design document. I probably spent an hour.

Voice-to-Text

When I say “I told it about my current system,” I mean I spoke to it using WisprFlow. I know there are other voice-to-text options, but theirs is really good. I find AI works best when you give a lot of details in the prompt. And I tend to talk and talk and talk, which makes it that much better. Here’s a raw example:

Okay, this is me using WisprFlow because I want to give an example in this blog post. What I do is I hit the little world button and the spacebar at the same time, and then it just kind of stays on at the bottom of my screen, which is pretty cool. When I'm done, I'll just hit the world button or function button (I guess that's what it's called). I'll hit that again, and then it'll stop, do some magic processing, and then it will paste this text that you are reading now.

Pretty cool, right? It’s not as tidy as typing, but it’s significantly faster. And the AI systems handle it just fine. If you haven’t tried talking to an AI chatbot yet, I recommend it.

Back to My Development Workflow

So, I start with ChatGPT for brainstorming because I find it’s more creative than Claude. The output is a product design document.

Then I opened Claude Design, shared the document, and mocked up how it would look. I probably spent 5 hours tweaking and refining it. I like starting by asking it for 3-4 wireframes and then combining ideas into a semi-working mockup. The output is a standalone HTML file and a handoff file explaining the thoughts behind it.

Then I open Claude Code Opus and share the files (stored in a docs folder in the project folder). It creates the engineering plan and asks any clarifying questions. The output is yet another document. You’ll notice that I don’t rely on the AI’s internal memory. Instead, I ask it to document everything separately.

Once that’s done, I switch to Claude Code Sonnet to do the actual coding (technically, Claude switches for me). I do that simply to save tokens and expense.

Once it’s built, I try it and provide feedback. I have my own notes file and sometimes hand it 12 updates, ranging from tiny tweaks to “let’s rethink how this part works.” Opus comes up with a plan, and Sonnet builds it. The first build can take an hour, and then I’ll spend a few hours using it and providing feedback.

Once I like it, I go back to ChatGPT to review the entire code (vs. the documentation). All it does is... You guessed it... document any bugs, concerns, or efficiency improvement ideas. I share the review doc with Opus, which decides what to implement (and if there’s a question, it’ll ask), creates the plan, and Sonnet implements.

And naturally, I have an AI_WORKFLOW doc that spells this out so each system knows how it fits in the development process.

It’s a lot.

I know.

But AI is weird. In some ways, it’s crazy advanced. But in other ways, it’s a dumb toddler. So these checks and balances help surface times when it’s acting like a dumb toddler.

I didn’t write any code, and I honestly don’t understand how the backend works. Yet I can take an idea to v1 in a day or two, which is crazy! In my startup days, the maintenance-tracking app would have taken one to two weeks of focused effort. That’s $4,000–$8,000! I did it with $20 subscriptions to ChatGPT and Claude! The capital-cost savings are huge.

And when I find an issue, I fire off a quick message, and it’s fixed within 5 minutes. I love my PM software, but when I submit a ticket, it takes much longer to resolve. A new feature idea? I don’t know when I’ll ever see that.

Oh yeah! On the operational costs side, the software I used to track maintenance issues internally cost me $70 per month — and it didn’t connect to my PM software. The new one I built costs $5 per month as a Cloudflare Worker and syncs to my PM software via API.

More Internal Apps

So naturally, I rebuilt my invoice-maker... errr... had my invoice-maker rebuilt into my new software. I can now create an invoice with one click from a maintenance item, transferring the details and pictures. Plus, one more click creates a bill in my PM software with the invoice attached.

I didn’t stop.

We used to track all of our lock combos in an Airtable spreadsheet. It worked, but was clunky. Now that has a spot in the app.

I now create monthly owner reports that pull in financial data from my PM software, maintenance items, and communications to create a narrative that goes with the financial software. The summaries are good, but the really valuable part is what I call my “analyst.” For anything mentioned in the summary, it explains the technical details and where it came from. It was so good that I created... umm... had created... a plugin for our communication software that looks at the thread, pulls all the data, and organizes it to help answer a question. That has been a massive time-saver.

The one I’m most excited about is a new inspection app. I used to pay $117 per month for inspection software. It was fine, but once again it was siloed. Plus, it was a general inspection app, which meant it did some things I didn’t care about and was missing some features I really wanted. No more compromises!

Since I was taking photos and it needed to work offline, I decided to make it an iPhone app. I had never done it, but with some guidance from Claude, it was easy to set up. Now I have an inspection app tailored to my business, with proper syncing. It’s fantastic. That said, setting up a developer account and getting it downloadable (even for an internal app) is a lot more complicated than publishing on the web. Without guidance from Claude and ChatGPT, I wouldn’t have made the time to figure it out.

I have more ideas and now need to prioritize what to build next. The constraint now is giving my team time to incorporate the new tools into our operations. It’s genuinely exciting. I did have to upgrade my Cloudflare account, but I’m still way ahead on both my capital and operational (subscription) expenses.

An interesting aside. I asked Claude and ChatGPT for icon ideas, but I never 100% liked what they made, so I made each of these by hand in Pixelmator.

What About Ongoing Support?

It’s fun to make new things, but all software requires ongoing support. Bugs get found, underlying technology needs upgrading, and components get deprecated. What happens if something happens to me? What I’m doing carries a lot of key-person risk.

My honest answer is that I don’t know.

Right now, my entire business depends on me (I’m the licensee, owner, and operator), so it’s hard to add on more key-person risk. I suppose I’m technically decreasing my enterprise value because I’m making it more dependent on me. But the cost savings and better service seem worth it at this stage. And there’s a question about the value of my time. Is building software the best use? Will ongoing support be the best use? So far, the answer is yes, but what happens if my little internal software grows to be three times the size? I have a hunch that AI tools are particularly good at maintaining and refactoring code, but I’m not sure.

Jessi asked me what I’d do if AI prices started to increase. I don’t foresee that happening, but if they did, I don’t know if it’ll be a huge problem because my AI costs are capital expenses. The tools I’m making aren’t AI-dependent (except perhaps the first draft of my owner reports). So I could just stop developing the software and use what I have. Given current trends, I don’t see a need to hedge.

Coding for Non-Technical Folks

As a non-technical person, all of this is amazing because I can finally build what I want! I used to dream about someday “making it” and funding cool software startup ideas. Now I can just do it. I’m not pushing the development world forward, but I never would have. Of course, even if I “make it,” I probably won’t fund a software startup now. Multiply that by thousands of business owners, and that will definitely impact an industry.

I wasn’t paying attention during the PC boom (because I was a child). Were presentations better before PowerPoint? I know good presentations are still given, but there are a lot of really bad ones because PowerPoint makes it too easy to give bad presentations. Will AI-coded software do the same thing? I can easily see the quantity of apps increasing, but the average quality decreasing because it’s easier to make bad apps. But maybe that’s OK because it will give people who had zero chance to finally have a chance.

For now, I’m having a blast creating apps that are useful quality-of-life improvements. They have the features I want, none of the features I don’t want, and they operate at a fraction of the capital and operational costs.

I Built An AI Agent. It was Both Amazing And Underwhelming

Good news, kind of. I think it’ll be a while before AI starts taking over swaths of jobs and displacing people, or at least I think it’s true at the small-business level.

I've been playing around with different AI tools recently, trying to figure out ways to incorporate them into my business, and it's been an interesting adventure. On the one hand, there are things AI can do that are helpful, and I think most of us have experience with: drafting messages, summarizing large documents, and creating cool images (like above). It's genuinely useful but not transformational.

So I've started experimenting with more agentic types of processes, specifically using lindy.ai, and the experience has been interesting. The basic idea is that you can create a workflow that's based on a trigger. It could be off a timer, an incoming message, a webhook, or whatever. If you’ve ever used Apple Shortcuts, it’s the same idea. Here’s a simple example:

Every morning, my team discusses ongoing maintenance and tenant issues, and then we create a plan for the day. We record those meetings, transcribe them, and save them in a Google Drive folder.

Now, every Monday morning at 9am, it grabs all the new transcripts from the past week (that’s the purple loop) and compares them against our existing knowledge base (KB) articles. In the final blue-circled-magical-AI step, it looks for gaps and missing information and sends me an email with suggested article topics.

At this step, it's not fully written-out articles; it's just internal and external topic ideas. Eventually, Lindy will write full articles on approved topics, let me edit them, and save them to our KB. The KB, by the way, is what we use to automate message replies (therefore, in the long-run, saving time while keeping a consistent communication style).

But here’s the deal: this “simple” flow took me an hour to build. And really, it started with a prompt to Lindy’s Agent Builder, which took a first (second, third, fourth,...) pass. I had to enter some manual data (like my KB’s API Token), but most of the time I copied/pasted errors from a test run and the Agent Builder to try to fix them.

At one point, the Agent Builder told me:

“I need to stop and be honest with you. We've been going in circles for a while, and the core issue is clear... [reasons why it’s not working] .... The real fix is a different architecture. Instead of a separate LLM node, the analysis should happen inside an AI State node — which DOES have context accrual and can see all upstream data naturally.”

You see, that magical blue box used to be four separate steps that didn’t work. Which, for the record, the Agent Builder created! This current version works, but it was a process to get there, and it’s still not what I fully want...

AI Agents Are Both Amazing And Underwhelming

On the one hand, creating this was amazing because I just typed in a prompt for what I wanted, and it made it (eventually). Without the Agent Builder, I would have struggled to even get started.

On the other hand, it's a strange combination of doing something fairly simple, but in an overly complex way. It reminds me of Adobe’s Dreamweaver in the early 2000’s. Sure, it was a drag-and-drop website builder (easier to make vs coding), but in an effort to match your design exactly, it fixed everything in place with a ridiculous number of nested elements. It easily doubled or tripled the file size of a “human-made” version while being less responsive (yikes!).

I get it — there’s a balance. Dreamweaver enabled more people to build websites, but those websites were fragile. Lindy feels the same way (and Make, and n8n). It enables normal people — like me — to automate workflows, but it’s not as robust or flexible as writing code in my own server environment.

And to be clear: this is just an automation; I wouldn’t call this an “AI agent” (I mean... I will, because it sounds cooler, but strictly speaking, I don’t think it is). There’s no feedback, learning, or figuring out its own path. It’s funny, the Agent Builder feels like AI, but this output doesn’t.

I’m fairly certain it’s worth my time to create these automations, but it’s not an obvious win. It’ll partly depend on the maintenance requirements, but it’ll mostly depend on how close it gets to my quality requirements. Is it worth the eventual productivity gains if it’s only 80% as good? What about 95%? It probably depends on the process.

That’s Why AI Isn’t Taking Your Job Anytime Soon

For these reasons — it’s hard to implement/upkeep and fragile — I don’t see AI taking thousands of jobs this year. Instead, I think it’ll continue to be a solid multiplier on existing efforts. And let’s be honest, no healthy company is going to say, “let’s just do the same with less.” Instead, they’ll use the efficiencies to tackle new opportunities (because if they don’t, their competitors will). That’s what happened with calculators, personal computers, and smartphones.

Over time, automation tools will get easier and more robust, just as Squarespace does today with drag-and-drop responsive websites. But it’ll take a while to get there, and chances are good that healthy companies will adapt along the way.

A Year with James Bond (and Other Books I Read)

I’m a highlighter/notetaker with books I’m learning from, so my audiobooks are just-for-fun entertainment. And, for the last couple of years, I’ve picked a theme for my audiobooks. Two years ago, I listened to classics. Last year, I listened to biographies.

This year, I listened to all 14 of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels (and short stories).

I listened to them in published order and enjoyed hearing his progression as a writer. For those of you who watched the movies, there are a few general differences:

1. There’s no Q! In fact, 99% of the time, it’s just Bond, his wits, and his gun. If there is a gadget, it’s something simple like a miniature Geiger counter for detecting radiation.
2. My favorite books are those in which Bond meets the main villain early on. I found the psychological battle of wits even more entertaining than the physical battles.
3. There are women in the novels, and romance happens, but it’s a lot more PG than the movies.
4. I’m pretty sure Fleming liked playing cards because all of the card-playing scenes are detailed and fantastic.
5. I’m also fairly certain Fleming liked the Caribbean because a large percentage of stories took place on those islands.

The Bond Books In Published Order (and My Reading Order)

Casino Royale

Bond is sent to Royale-les-Eaux to face Le Chiffre, a Soviet agent whose power comes from money. The mission is simple in theory: beat him at cards and collapse his influence. Much of the story happens at the card table.

Since it’s his first book, the writing is so straightforward that it feels sparse. I’d almost recommend skipping it and just watching the fantastic movie, but it’s fundamental, so it’s worth a listen.

Live and Let Die

Bond investigates Mr. Big, a Harlem crime boss suspected of funneling funds to hostile powers. The trail moves from New York to Florida and into the Caribbean (the first many trips there).

Felix Leiter joins Bond on a US adventure.  The beginning and middle were entertaining enough, but the finale was really fun. There were two action scenes that were particularly well written.

Moonraker

Britain’s Moonraker missile project is overseen by national hero Sir Hugo Drax. Bond is brought in quietly after noticing inconsistencies that don’t add up. The story is unusually domestic, focused on investigation, observation, and the danger of misplaced trust. Spoiler: Bond never goes to space!

The book is far superior to the movie. The opening card-playing scene is amazing. It’s just... so different than the movie. I think that’s because there isn’t a ton of action, but I think a modern remake of Moonraker could be fantastic. It’s my second-favorite book.

Diamonds Are Forever

Bond goes undercover to break a diamond-smuggling pipeline run by a ruthless American syndicate. His journey takes him from Africa to London to Las Vegas, revealing how crime scales when it’s treated like a business rather than a racket.

It’s OK. Parts of it were almost too far-fetched, but it’s a fun (though forgettable) standalone adventure.

From Russia, with Love

Soviet intelligence orchestrates an (overly complicated) plan, with Bond as the intended pawn. Much of the tension comes from watching the machinery of espionage turn, long before Bond realizes he’s caught inside it.

The second half of this adventure unfolds on a train, and now I want to take an overnight ride with my family. I wish there were more interaction with the main bad guy... or something. I felt the tension, but the end wasn’t quite as thrilling as I expected. But I 1,000% want to ride a train now.

Dr. No

Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate disruptions linked to the reclusive Dr. No. His search leads him to Crab Key, an isolated island ruled by intellect, surveillance, and control. Along the way, Bond meets Honeychile Rider, who becomes his first love interest and plays a significant role.

This feels like classic Bond. He’s sent to look into something semi-mundane, and it turns out to be a world-ending villain. To get to Dr. No, Bond survives some highly elaborate trials. I just wish there were more of Dr. No himself in the book.

Goldfinger

By far, this is my favorite book; it’s fantastic.  Bond encounters Auric Goldfinger, a wealthy industrialist with a massive gold obsession. What begins as financial surveillance escalates as Bond pieces together the scope of Goldfinger’s ambitions.

What I love about this novel is that Bond interacts with Goldfinger from the beginning and gets wrapped up in Goldfinger’s crazy steal-all-the-gold scheme. It’s got everything you’d want from a Bond novel. If you only read one Bond book, this is the one. The movie is also great, but the book is even better.

For Your Eyes Only

This one is a set of short stories.  These stories place Bond in tighter, more personal assignments. The focus is less on spectacle and more on judgment and restraint. They’re fun. Quantum of Solace, which is nothing like the movie, was my favorite because it ended with a sweet life lesson about judging people too quickly.

Thunderball

Enter SPECTRE with another classic Bond novel. Led by Emilio Largo, SPECTRE steals nuclear weapons to extort the World (yep, it’s about money). Bond is tasked with tracking the threat under intense time pressure, relying on endurance, intelligence work, and persistence rather than clever tricks.

I re-watched the movie, and the book is much better. I really enjoyed the investigative feel since Bond (and Felix) don’t really know for sure if the stolen warheads are in the place they’re looking. I felt the high-stakes in this one.

The Spy Who Loved Me

This one is written from the perspective of a woman Bond rescues. Bond appears as a catalyst rather than the protagonist. It’s a standalone novel in which Fleming experiments with a different writing style. It was fun.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

More SPECTRE! Bond resumes his pursuit of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leading Bond to an alpine research facility. Along the way, Bond meets Tracy di Vicenzo, introducing a more personal dimension to his otherwise professional mission.

Again, I enjoy the ones where Bond is in the thick of it with the main villains a majority of the time. The ending is super sad.

You Only Live Twice

This picks up right after the previous book. The sad ending leaves Bond adrift. So, M assigns Bond to Japan under diplomatic cover. There, Bond gets roped into another classic adventure and gets a chance for revenge.

There are some fun characters, and I enjoyed hearing Bond embrace Japanese culture. Yet, once again, it’s not the happiest of endings. You can tell Fleming is getting better at writing cliffhangers.

The Man with the Golden Gun

My third favorite book. Bond gets brainwashed (which seemed to get resolved too easily) and has to prove his loyalty with a seemingly impossible mission: to confront Francisco Scaramanga, a legendary hitman whose reputation alone creates tension. The story narrows its focus to identity, skill, and direct confrontation rather than elaborate plots.

I can’t help but say “Scaramanga” the way Oddjob says it in the movie (who is only in Goldfinger). This one felt like a finale with many classic characters making an appearance.

Octopussy and The Living Daylights

And his final book is actually a collection of short stories. They’re good, but not required reading.  If anything, I interpreted them as an epilogue teaser — “James Bond will return” — showing Bond continuing his spy work after the previous adventure.

Final James Bond Thoughts

As someone who enjoys Bond films, I was surprised by how different the novels are. The novels are procedural and often inward-looking. Bond succeeds because he prepares, observes, endures discomfort, and makes hard calls — not because he uses clever toys. That doesn’t exactly translate into cinematic entertainment. So, instead of Fleming’s Bond being competent under pressure, we got the film Bond who handles spectacle under control.

Both are good. They’re just different. I expected to be thrilled by the descriptions of the action scenes, but I was pleasantly surprised by Fleming’s focus on Bond’s inner dialogue.

Other Books

I read a few more books this year. Here’s the  list with short descriptions:

Faith & Theology

• Beyond Biblical Integration - Faith shouldn’t merely be added to the classroom; it should fundamentally reshape how everything is done.
• Prayer Begins with Relationship - Treat prayer as an ongoing relational posture with God rather than a technique for asking for things.
• The Measure of a Man - Biblical character traits, like integrity, humility, and responsibility, are the true benchmarks of maturity.
• Orthodoxy - A philosophical (and non-traditional) defense of Christian belief by G.K. Chesterton presented as a personal journey.
• Why We Ask - A practical, faith-rooted guide to building meaningful relationships by asking open-ended questions.
• Bible - A unified story that leads to Jesus, showing how God’s covenant love keeps moving forward despite human failure.

Business & Systems

• Main Street Millionaire - How to build wealth through buying stable, ordinary businesses.
• Buy Back Your Time - How to reclaim time and energy by systematically removing yourself from low-value work.
• $100M Money Models - The core financial structures and business models behind building scalable, cash-efficient businesses.
• $100M Lost Chapters - Additional frameworks and clarifications that expand on earlier books.
• The Reporting Revolution - How to make modern-day reports; we can do better than slides and PowerPoint.
• The Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge - Read parts of it for my remote drone pilot’s license class.
• NASCLA Contractors Guide - To get your contractor’s license, you must read this manual, which covers the laws, math, safety, and business principles.

Self-Improvement

• Validation - How to show people you’re there, you get it, and you care. My favorite book of the year.
• Money For Couples - Shared values, communication, and trust matter more than tactics when couples manage money together.
• 67 Day Year - How to leverage the latest in neuropsychology to wire your mind to achieve goals. The concepts are good, but I didn’t love the repetitive writing style.

Next Year’s Theme

For the US's 250th birthday, I thought it would be fun to listen to books that collectively span American history. I divided the last 250 years into quarter-centuries and picked one or two books per era that looked interesting. I think it’ll be a fun way to celebrate and learn more about this country.

A Year Of Reading That Sparked Growth And New Ideas

I didn't read as much as in previous years (2023, 2022, 2021), but that's OK. My goal wasn't necessarily to read a lot but to apply what I read. I did that this year, which is a win.

I grouped the books into categories with mini-reviews. I hope you're inspired to read one of them.

Business Books

Only one real-estate-specific book?! That says a lot about where my focus area was this year.

Wealth Without Cash: Supercharge Your Real Estate Investing with Subject-to, Seller Financing, and Other Creative Deals

By Pace Morby

This book is a game-changer. It's about buying real estate in unconventional ways. Armed with the strategies from this book, I flipped two homes using creative financing (read about the first one). So, it's safe to say this book had the most significant financial impact on my life this year. Pace is a terrific teacher and lays out his time-tested strategies well. It's a little bit of a pitch to join his mentorship group, but that's OK because he still provides a wealth of information in the book.

The Coaching Manual: Your Step-by-Step Guide To Becoming A Great Coach

By Julie Starr

I started coaching other investors and decided to learn how to actually do it. I found this extremely helpful and detailed. I think The Coaching Habit is a better resource for people who coach informally, but this gives a great foundation if you want to get paid to coach.

I read her other book, The Mentoring Manual, last year, which is fine, but this one is significantly better. You can tell this is where she focuses her time and energy.

Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours

By Noah Kagan

I talked with some younger folks about starting a business, but I struggled to give actionable advice. Then, I heard Kagan on a podcast and liked how he approached exploring business ideas. His book is a fast-paced guide with clear steps for testing ideas quickly. I loved it and apply his validation step (get three paid commitments) whenever I try something new.

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business

By Gino Wickman

If Million Dollar Weekend is about finding a good idea, Traction is about turning that good idea into an enduring organization to provide that idea. His Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) has six components:

• Vision: where are you going, and how will you get there?
• People: do you have the right people in the right seats?
• Data: what are your key metrics (besides financial ones)?
• Issues: are you solving the root cause of problems?
• Process: what are your core processes to ensure consistency?
• Traction: how are you holding everyone accountable?

I've started implementing this into my business and started using this as a framework when coaching others. It's a simple system, but that's a benefit because it's easy to remember and actually implement (unlike Scaling Up, which can be overwhelming). I highly recommend this one if you have an established business of any size.

This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans

By Seth Godin

Godin thinks differently than I do, so I enjoy reading his works. His writing style provides many loosely connected thoughts that together give a picture (a sense?) of his overall idea. For example, this book is 252 pages but has 298 chapters! So, it's not a how-to book. It's more like a here-are-some-thought-provoking-musings type of book. You'll probably enjoy this if you like his blog.

Harvard Business Review Magazine

I feel like I need to put my pinky out whenever I say I subscribe to HBR. Still, of all the magazine subscriptions I've tried, this is the only one where I consistently learn from an article or two. The articles aren't just business profiles, but they also include research and clear action steps. One of my favorite articles from last year is about building cultural values.

Christian Books

I knew I read fewer Christian books this year, but I didn't think it was this few. That'll probably change next year because each of these was amazing!

God and Money: How We Discovered True Riches at Harvard Business School

By John Cortines and Gregory Baumer

I love this book. Cortines and Baumer have a cool-headed and nuanced approach to Biblically thinking about our finances. I like that it's not just their thoughts on the topic - they start with what the Bible says and then share their findings from surveying other Christians about their financial decisions. Their key insight is that we shouldn't ask, "How much should we give to God?" But instead, ask, "How much should we keep?" It's subtle, but fundamentally changes how we think about ourselves as stewards of God's resources.

Living Fearless: Exchanging the Lies of the World for the Liberating Truth of God

By Jamie Winship

This book is about discovering your identity in God. Too often, we define ourselves by our job, and that's too limiting. This was a quick read (176 pages) with simple, practical steps to work through. God revealed that my identity is a "caretaker." Being a real estate investor falls into that, but it's so much more than property and tenant management - it's a call to care for people. It's a subtle but meaningful difference to me.

The Master Plan of Evangelism

By Robert Coleman

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This quick read (162 pages) suggests that we follow Christ's example of evangelism, which he breaks down into eight observations. My high-level summary is this: Focus on a few people and live life with them. Invite them as much as possible - studying, eating, playing, serving, etc! You want to intentionally teach them about Jesus and God during your time together.

This method is critical for new Christians. If all they get is Sunday morning and a weekly Bible study, it's not enough! And the sign that someone is ready to go out on their own is when they start leading (read: living life) others.

I think Coleman gears this book towards church leaders, but all Christians would benefit from reading it.

ESV Bible

This year's reading plan included a bunch of parallel sections. It's nice because each day, I get many parts of the Bible. For example, the last day of the year's reading will be this:

• Malachi 1-4
• Proverbs 31:25-31
• Psalms 150
• John 21:15-25
• Revelation 22

One thing God showed me this year was His approach to missions. God relentlessly makes himself known to his people. I want a similar mindset instead of compartmentalizing everything I do or simply waiting for opportunities.

Biography Audiobooks

This year, I dove into the world of biographies, and I'm glad I did. The lives of these remarkable individuals are not just fascinating but also offer valuable lessons. Their stories are a testament to the power of resilience, determination, and innovation, and we can learn much from their lives.

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

By Stacy Schiff

Narrated by Jason Culp

Samuel Adams is an interesting dude. He singularly focused on freeing himself from the British and justified any (written) means to reach his goal. As a prolific writer, he wanted to influence fellow colonists against Britain, not provide impartial reporting.

Strangely, it's comforting to know that the internet didn't ruin news; it's always been a struggle. If anything, the internet helped expose our biases. Though, I don't see anything changing anytime soon.

I also had a strange realization while listening to this book. If I lived around 1776, I probably would have been against Adams and advocated that we stay with Britain and obey their rules! It's a strange admittance because I like how things turned out. But I also prefer following the rules (because they're in my favor 90% of the time). I suppose it's good that decisions are often made by many people with varied backgrounds.

This is a good book to read for our 250-year celebration in 2026.

Breathe: A Life in Flow

By Rickson Gracie and Peter Maguire

Narrated by Fred Sanders

I practiced Gracie jiu-jitsu before having kids and thought learning about the family that started it would be fun. Rickson Gracie is an intense, proud person! I don't agree with many of his life choices (especially as a husband), but his jitsu focus is unreal! I would have relished getting dominated on the mat by him. I enjoyed the history, and anyone else who's practiced jiu-jitsu would appreciate it.

The Princess Diarist

By Carrie Fisher

Narrated by Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd

I feel like I'm late to the party on this, but I enjoyed hearing her stories from the set. Fisher is a fun writer who doesn't take herself too seriously. In this case, she kept a diary while filming. So, part of the book contains the original entries, and the other part is Fisher explaining what was happening (mostly in her thoughts, not just the events).

I like it when the author reads their own book because it feels like they're talking to you. If you're a Star Wars fan, you'll enjoy this.

The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts

By Loren Grush

Narrated by Inés del Castillo

I enjoyed this one because it also gives the history of NASA's shuttle program. And, not surprisingly, each of the six women is an absolute all-star who would have been incredible at anything they did. Reading about intelligent, capable people who fulfill their destiny is fun.

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

By Phil Knight

Narrated by Norbert Leo Butz

This was by far my favorite biography. I think it's because Knight is so open about his mistakes and insecurities. He didn't even like the name Nike at first! It's such a crazy story of constantly being on the edge of failure but never giving up and finding paths forward.

My guess is that Knight is a smart person, but if he is, he downplays it and instead focuses on his hustle. I think that's also part of the attraction to his story ("you don't have to be a genius, just work hard"). It's really good, and anyone with a business will enjoy it.

Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation

By Collin Hansen

Narrated by Collin Hansen

I mean this in the best way possible, but Keller's story was rather... boring. Keller was a great writer with a CS Lewis-esk way of explaining theological concepts that resonated with me. So, I was interested to learn more about his life.

One reason why it's boring (compared to, say, Phil Knight) is we don't get nearly as much of Keller's internal dialog and expectations. Pastors would probably find his story interesting because they can better intuit some of his internal thoughts. For example, deciding to lead a new church must be a complex, soul-searching, social-disrupting experience, but I can't relate.

Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living

Written & narrated by Nick Offerman

Before starting this book, I knew little about Offerman. I knew he was an actor in Parks & Recreation, a woodworker, and funny. Unfortunately,  I didn't enjoy his book.

The primary reason is that we philosophically disagree on many things in life. And things he thinks are funny, I don't think are at all. Plus, he presented his beliefs as obvious truths (and to think differently makes you dumb... or worse), which was a turnoff.

Still, there's value in learning from someone I don't 100% agree with. I felt motivated to spend my evenings more intentionally - to make and do things, not just default to watching shows.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

Written & narrated by J. D. Vance

I was interested in this one because

1. he's our new VP (and likely the Republican candidate in 2028),
2. we're almost the same age (he's a year younger), and
3. most importantly, he wrote it before getting into politics.

I didn't have any expectations going into it. I only heard him speak once or twice (I skipped the debate) and simply hoped for an interesting story.

If you didn't know, his childhood was rough! In some ways, it's inspiring to know that anyone - even someone from the hillbilly backcountry - can make it to the Whitehouse alongside a billionaire. But it's also sad that his story is so rare.

I appreciated his insights on how difficult it is to solve poverty (it's just as much about identity and culture as finances). It reminds me of the book Evicted, which comes to the same conclusion. Given his childhood, I wouldn't be surprised if Vance proposes legislation that seems counterintuitive, but might actually start improving some of the US's poverty issues. Maybe?

Self-Improvement Books (Mostly)

Surprise! I saved two of my favorites until the end.

Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling

By Matthew Dicks

What a great book! If you do any storytelling (and we all do), it's a must-read. Dicks is a fantastic storyteller, and the book is worth reading just to hear his off-beat stories. And it's super practical. Here are my reminders for any story I tell:

•  Focus my stories on moments of change & growth. Smaller moments are better because they're relatable.
• Begin stories with physical movement & a location. This isn't an essay.
• Add stakes: There has to be a problem or goal. And it's even better if the "real" goal changes due to that moment of growth!
• Share my (eventually to be proven wrong) predictions/thoughts before sharing what happened. Phil Knight regularly does this in Shoe Dog.
• For transitions, use "but" and "therefore" instead of "and" - it's more interesting.

I'm still working on this, but I'm getting better thanks to this book.

Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection

By Charles Duhigg

I also love this book! It's on a shortlist of books I'll make my kids read (along with Storyworthy). I tend to quickly jump into problem-solving mode in conversations. Instead, Duhigg shares tools to recognize the type of conversations I'm having: decision-making, emotional, or social. One way to do that is to ask questions to see if the person wants to be helped, hugged, or heard.

And even if it's a decision-making conversation (to be helped), is the person looking for practical solutions (data & reasoning) or empathy (stories & compassion)? This is probably obvious for those with a high EQ, but it was eye-opening for me.

I'm getting better (still not great) at having emotional conversations because I have a mental checklist of questions to ask about feelings, beliefs, values, judgments, and experiences. I know how bad that sounds, but Jessi says that even though she knows I'm working through a checklist of questions, they're good questions! So, our conversations are better (and she appreciates the effort).

How to Be Interesting: In 10 Simple Steps

By Jessica Hagy

This was a quick read with easily digestible thoughts. As I'm getting more into podcasting and videos, one rule is to do epic things and share them. So, I was looking for ways to be more interesting. It was basic, but had some inspiring ideas.

DON'T DIE

By Zero (Bryan Johnson)

This is a weird book. It's an imaginary scenario in which different personalities/emotions discuss health and the future (like in Inside Out). Johnson sold Venmo to PayPal for millions and now focuses on longevity science and technology. This isn't a book of protocols but a philosophical musing. If you're interested in health topics, I'd start somewhere else. However, this could be an interesting read if you want to be inspired to learn more about health.

Superman & Action Comics

Like in previous years, I continue to read two comics about Superman. He's my favorite, and I'm PUMPED for the new Superman movie coming out next year.

How I'm Using AI In My Real Estate Business

Like many people, I'm playing around with different generative AI tools - investing time and money - to see how they can help my business. At the moment, it's helping around the edges, saving pockets of time, but it hasn't structurally changed how I do things yet. Here are some of the tools I'm using:

Otter.ai

Otter.ai promises that you don't have to take meeting notes. It generates transcripts, meeting summaries, and action items. I wanted to try it for two reasons. First, I wanted it for myself so I wouldn't have to take as many notes. Second, I wanted to offer it as an added value to the people I coach - they would have a record of our conversations for later reference.

It's OK... I find that I don't have to keep as copious of notes - just the highlights - which is excellent. I like having it recorded, and searching for specific parts of the meeting is easy. The summaries are OK, but the action items are useless.

I also found it helpful for group meetings when someone can't make it. I can send them the meeting notes, which include the summary and transcript. One feature that seems cool, but I have yet to really try, is using the built-in chatbot to ask questions about the meeting. It's like a fancy search engine, which seems like it could be helpful.

Descript

The idea behind Descript is that you can edit a video or podcast (*cough* Furlo Capital Real Estate Podcast *cough*) as if it were a Word document. So, you add your raw video, it transcribes it, and then, as you edit the transcript, it edits the video.

The editing is cool, but I still prefer doing it in Final Cut Pro. I have a hunch that getting better at multi-track editing in Descript would be faster than FCP, but the learning curve is a little steep.

Where Descript has been SUPER helpful is on the text side. I'll edit a video and then import it to Descript. Once it's transcribed, I have it help me with a few items:

1. Output subtitles and a transcript. I used to use Rev for this.
2. For shorts, subtitles can be added to the video. I used to do this by hand, and it was miserable.
3. Write podcast and video descriptions. They're always written in 3rd person, and I haven't found a prompt that works to make it first-person (without ruining the overall description).
4. Identify chapter markers. This is borderline perfect, though it usually gives more than I want, but it's easy to remove them.
5. Suggest titles. I'll use these to make my own before analyzing it with a headline analyzer.

ChatGPT

There are some big chat-style generative AIs to play with: Anthrop\c's Claude, Google's Gemini, and Microsoft's Copilot, to name a few. But something about the Wild West feel of OpenAI's ChatGPT attracts me. Sure, I want my AI to be careful and respectful, but I don't want it to be too cautious (I'm a "safety third" type of person).

The free version is OK, but if you're going to integrate it into your life/business, the Plus version is noticeably better. I'm finding it useful for three general tasks:

1. Summaries: I can feed it a document, like a transcript, and ask for the key points. I haven't had to do this yet, but I could probably upload a rental agreement and ask questions about it (though, in general, I prefer to read the actual text).
2. Idea generation: I've done the classic "Give me 10 fears that [target market, like data scientists] have about [doing something, like investing in real estate]," and it's excellent for that. I also like to give it a podcast transcript and a prompt like "What questions might someone have after listening/reading this?
3. Transposing: I'm still new at this, but I've been playing around with creating podcast images from text prompts.

Arc Search

This iPhone app is a new tool for me. Instead of searching and getting links, I can get multi-media summaries and answers. If I don't like the result, I can easily do an old-school search (Just think, someday, Google may call it Google Classic Search). I'm unsure if it's "better" or faster yet - because it takes time to learn a new workflow - but it's cool.

Where's the line of too much AI?

Part of this play is helping me discover the best uses. Sure, I can ask it to write this article. It would be bland (plus, I like writing because it helps me think), so it's not a real option. But someday, it'll be able to write in my voice after I give it an unorganized blob of ideas. Then what? Do I get credit for writing it?

I use Grammarly for editing, and that seems to be OK. I take credit for doing data analysis, even though I use tools like Excel and R and not slide rulers. If I were a web developer, I'd use GitHub Copilot to help write code. Is that OK? It's just a smarter version of autocomplete, right? Does anyone care as long as the output is high quality?

To me, the line seems fuzzy. As a business owner, I'm not super concerned about how it's done, as long as it's done well. Would I care if I had a theoretical employee who used these tools to do their work in half the time but still charged the full time? I'd care about having a lazy (dishonest?) employee, but I'm paying for results, not time spent. The issue is the person's character, not the tool's use. I pay MORE for contractors to go faster, so it's not always about saving money.

Again, does anyone care if I use a WYSIWYG editor like Squarespace on a website instead of hand-coding it? No. Does anyone care if I use a pivot table in Excel to make a chart? Nope, it's considered an advanced skill. Does it matter if I wrote a helpful article using chatGPT for the first draft with some light editing? Well... No?

In each of these examples, I devised the idea and validated the final result. What if I hired someone to do all the work for me? Doesn't anyone really care as long as it's helpful? This is what businesses do, right? CEOs of mid-to-large companies can't do everything.

Perhaps the rub is that it's an implied expectation that humans do certain things (like write and edit videos), and somehow, we feel lied to when we find out a human didn't do it. Or, maybe it's because we're in the uncanny valley of AI quality. If that's the case, this will be less and less of an issue as society changes its expectations and the output improves. Does anyone else miss DVD special features? I do, but streaming is so convenient!

What's My Core Value?

A more helpful framework has been thinking about my core value. What do I bring to my business that's hard to replicate?

Let's use my podcast as an example. My core value is my experience, knowledge, and how I explain them. So, AI can help me think of topics, but I should be the one to choose the topic and talk about it. Then afterward, creating subtitles, descriptions, and chapter markers are all low-value tasks. So, I'm OK delegating those to AI (with my final approval).

I also think video editing is lower-value (for me), but AI isn't great at it yet, and my budget doesn't allow me to delegate it to someone every time. Basically, I'm OK with delegating everything (to humans or AI) around making the podcast, except for the on-screen part, because that's the highest value I bring.

Future Uses?

I do other lower-value tasks, and it's fun imagining a time when tools, AI or otherwise, can help with them.

1. Bookkeeping takes a while. I've started delegating that to a property manager. Hopefully, someday, she can use AI to help her go faster. For example, Quickbooks will suggest categories, and that'll get smarter over time.
2. I don't write a lot of commercial rental contracts, but I could see it helping with that. Or reading a contact and advising me on things to look out for.
3. So... email... I want an AI to analyze my previous emails to match my writing style for a one-click auto-responder. And not just a one-liner auto-responder, but a complete message. I've read about some pretty extreme solutions, but they're more hostile to senders than "solutions." (The best -and most expensive - option is hiring a virtual assistant to reply on your behalf.)
4. I have an odd plumbing problem. I can't find a suitable solution on Google or ChatGPT. I'd rather not pay a plumber, but it's increasingly looking like I don't have a choice.
5. Imagine this: I see a property listing. I call the seller to learn more and I take a tour. I want to feed the listing, the call transcript, and the tour photos into a system that analyzes the property. It'll output a P&L, repair estimates, and project KPIs into a spreadsheet. I can then take over from there. I think? We're flirting with my biggest value-add now.
6. Or, I give it a current property in my portfolio and its P&L over time. The tool looks at the market and can suggest sell/hold and rent rates. I haven't tried this yet, but I bet it can already help make rental listings (though, I have a template that's easy to use). Or, auto-general some good-looking reports?

All of these are still helping me to do what I'm already doing more efficiently. None of them fundamentally change how I'm already doing business. What would an AI-first real estate investor do?

I suppose I'd want a tool that analyzes every property in the US for me and generates offers I can submit. It would auto-generate rental contracts and do the follow-up on rent payments and notices. It would listen to every conversation and suggest the next steps.

Or, maybe I never directly interact with people! Instead of writing emails, I write/speak my thoughts, and it writes and sends them. I never directly analyze a property, but I write/speak/send the stats, and it analyzes it for me. If I'm working with a potential seller, I might tell the AI to keep following up until I get a yes or a no. The AI knows the analysis and my criteria and can automatically do a back-and-forth with the seller, searching for a mutually acceptable deal by tweaking the price and terms based on the seller's response.

Maybe? That seems far off, and at least for now, it's a part of my core value in my business. Perhaps a reasonable next step is to get better at telling the AI my raw, unstructured thoughts and letting it draft a response.