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Last week was a tale of two cities. In one, Toby and a group of ON_Discourse members were walking the cacophonous floor at CES, attending events, and talking all things AI. In the other, a group of ON_Discourse members were exploring the transformation occurring in their own minds.
Both places exhibited an ambitious energy. One of them had exhibits and volume. The other had show-&-tell sessions and terminal instances. One of them was selling a vision of the future and the other was building a personal project.
The word from Vegas was... fine. Not bad, but not the breakthrough moment people were hoping for. More robots, more screens, more demos that felt like last year’s demos with better lighting. The vibe was slightly deflating - a lot of spectacle, not a lot of substance.
The word outside of Vegas was different. It was quiet and excited. More and more non-technical, generalist people were plugging into the transformative power of Claude Code. They were sharing their work and inspiring others.
Which of these two spaces represents the next chapter of the AI revolution? If you think I’m here to answer that question, you don’t understand our discourse.
Let me phrase it in a different way:
Provocation of the week
Is the next wave a product or a practice?
Here's what I'm seeing: While CES was showcasing humanoid robot laundry loaders and LLM-powered gadgets, something quieter was happening in our Group Chats. Members were sharing workflows, debugging each other's prompts, and building personal AI infrastructure that doesn't have a booth or a press release. The energy wasn't about what's coming as much as it was about what they're already doing. And the contrast between those two spaces felt like the answer hiding in plain sight.
In our Follow My Flow series, one of our members pulled back the curtain on how he actually thinks with AI (and what it can do for him). He showed us how he organizes inputs, connects ideas, and uses AI to surface what matters when he needs it. If this feels too theoretical, let me be more blunt: he shows the back-end systems and configuration he set up to serve his needs.
The rest of the group walked away with a clear sense that this kind of personal system-building is where the real advantage is forming. This is the kind of shift that doesn’t show up on a CES stage.
The people building second brains, personal thinking systems, and AI-augmented workflows are compounding an advantage that won’t be visible until it’s too late. They’re not waiting for the next product announcement. They’re building the muscle now. And the gap between those who are doing this work and those who are still waiting for the magic box is widening faster than most people realize.
I don’t know exactly what this means yet. But I have a feeling we’re going to look back on this moment as the fork in the road - the point where the transformation stopped being about what AI can do and started being about what we can do with it.
The next wave isn’t a product you can buy. It’s a practice you have to commit to.
What’s Next?
If you have thoughts, feedback, or a perspective worth sharing, reach out: chmiel@ondiscourse.com. You might see your reaction in next week’s edition.
ON_Member Events
ON_IRL Events (NYC)
ON_Breakfast Club: One World Trade Center, New York
Wednesday, January 14, 9am-11am ET
Join us for a private breakfast, and breathtaking views from the 69th floor of One World Trade.
ON_Speakeasy
Wednesday, January 28, 6pm-8pm ET
No agenda, no provocations, just informal holiday drinks and great conversation with members and friends of ON_Discourse.
ON_Group Chats
Follow My Flow (Pulling back the curtain on someone’s AI stack)
Tuesday, January 20th, 11am-12pm ET
This is your backstage pass into someone’s real AI workflow, a candid, step-by-step reveal of how their stack actually works in practice. This week’s Host: Craig Hepburn, Founder Rain Ventures.
ON_Podcast
Our first podcast in 2026 is a joint episode. Toby and Dan join Matt Britton, host of the Speed of Culture podcast and CEO of Suzy, at CES to debate who wins when everyone can make. They clash on how fast AI is actually reshaping the labor market, whether big tech layoffs are really AI-driven, and what happens to creative careers when craft gets democratized. Dan pushes back. Matt doubles down. Nobody fully agrees.