I use many of these tools, but I didn’t need them. I can’t afford to maintain any of them

That’s it. He doesn’t need them. But in order to maintain them, he’ll use up even more of his time, and probably spend a lot more on AI to do the maintenance for him. In the end, what is the cost, and what is he getting out of it?

I think for a lot of people, AI is like so many addictive video games. They take our attention and make us feel like we’re getting something out of the interaction. Each prompt is like doing a run in Sling Kong or Jetpack Joyride. Didn’t go well? Try again. And in the end we’ve wasted a lot of time on something that has little to no value, that nobody else is going to use, and the net result is a lot of wasted time with very little to show for it. We have a high score, we have some collectibles, and we’re no better off than we were when we started.

I think one answer to this is more focus on the problem, and less velocity. Velocity is not helpful if you’re not pointed in the right direction, and even if you are pointed in the right direction it’s not useful if you overshoot your destination.