s05e02 - Craig Sturgis - From CTO to AI Warlord

Описание: In this episode of the BigCheese Podcast, Brandon Corbin and Jacob Wise sit down with Craig Sturgis, fractional CTO and AI-first builder, for a wide-ranging conversation on how AI has permanently reshaped software development. Craig breaks down what it means to operate as a “one-person wrecking crew” using AI agents, how startups can now be built and scaled with dramatically smaller teams, and why the traditional paths for junior developers are rapidly disappearing. The group dives into recursive language models, vibe coding, AI fatigue, VC economics, and the emotional reality of building in a non-deterministic world—ending with a look at Craig’s personal AI executive assistant and why the future belongs to builders, not ticket-takers.

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Topics

00:00 – 06:30: Introductions, rotating hosts, and how Craig reconnected with the BigCheese crew
06:30 – 15:00: Daily life with AI as a developer: Claude Code, terminal workflows, and context switching
15:00 – 27:00: Building Rootnote as a solo developer and how AI replaced entire dev teams
27:00 – 40:00: How AI changes consulting, fractional CTO work, and startup economics
40:00 – 55:00: Recursive language models, orchestration, agents, and breaking big problems into small ones
55:00 – 1:10:00: Burnout, dopamine, flow state vs. agent management, and mental fatigue
1:10:00 – 1:25:00: Venture capital, bootstrapping, and why the old startup playbook is dead
1:25:00 – 1:40:00: The future of software teams: fewer engineers, more leverage, higher expectations
1:40:00 – 1:55:00: Junior developers, builders vs. ticket-takers, and how to start a career in 2026
1:55:00 – End: Craig’s AI executive assistant (ACE), side projects, and where to find him online

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Mentioned in This Podcast

Rootnote – Analytics and media kits for content creators
Cloudflare – Infrastructure, edge compute, and network effects
OpenAI – Large language models and AI primitives
xAI – Grok and conversational AI experimentation
Claude / Claude Code – AI-assisted development and agent workflows
Recursive Language Models (RLMs) – Breaking large problems into smaller LLM calls
VC vs Bootstrapping – Changing economics of building software companies
ACE (AI Executive Assistant) – Craig’s personal productivity and accountability system
Vibe Coding – High-velocity AI-driven software creation
Product Engineers vs Ticket-Takers – The future skill divide in software development

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Sponsors
• Crafted – https://craftedup.com
• Wickedform – https://wickedform.com

BigCheese Podcast – Season 5
🎧 Powered by curiosity, chaos, and way too many AI agents