Value-First AI Daily with George B. Thomas and Nico Lafakis

[00:00] **Introduction** Chris Carolan: Good morning and happy New Year, LinkedIn friends, Value-First Nation. Welcome to a New Year, a new episode of Value-First AI Daily, your collaborative intelligence report. It is Friday, January 2nd, 2026. How are we doing, fellas?

[00:26] Nico Lafakis: Oh, I don't I'm not even sure, yeah. Oh, George went up there.

[00:31] George B. Thomas: Listen, I'm doing great. Uh, I'm excited to see what we can do in 2026. Um, there's a lot going through my brain, especially after having some downtime for the holiday seasons and, um, yeah, how about you, Chris? How are you doing?

[00:55] Chris Carolan: I'm doing amazing. Uh, I'm so excited for 2026. And I'm just going to share my screen real quick because I need to kill this just to make sure it doesn't kill our our overall quality of the stream too much. Nico Lafakis: Yeah. Chris Carolan: Um, but this is what I've been up to. Uh what uh I've got some live streaming uh on the Value-First team website. George B. Thomas: Oh, look at that. Chris Carolan: Uh, as as one of the new destinations. Um, and uh, that has only happened, um, because I think I'm officially in an AI Native. Nico Lafakis: Yep. Chris Carolan: Uh, state of mind, which is what I wanted to talk to you guys about today. Um, what that even means and as starting with my example, as I was looking on on how to do that, right? And how to like video host, uh, like host videos, just do more stuff with video. Of course, uh, I I I go to Gemini this time and I I look for options. I ask him for options. And as he gives me the different options, he splits them into categories. George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: And one of the categories was uh, no code, drag and drop, you know. And back in October, that's definitely the category I was picking. George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: Uh, but because we were now in December and I had eight weeks of of vibe coding skills under my belt, Nico Lafakis: [inaudible] George B. Thomas: A lifetime. Chris Carolan: I chose, I chose a different category that was developer focused. George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: Like all the code, right? something I would like that was a I wouldn't even have looked in that category in October because that wasn't me, I wasn't I'm not a coder, I'm not a developer, all those things, but now that I understand how all those pieces come together, uh, I went with that that category. As I look at that, I see on that's Mux uh a Mux platform, MUX is what's supporting the live stream by the way. As I'm just looking at options, I'm like, oh, pro level, oh, there's a live stream uh thing there too. Nico Lafakis: Mhm. Chris Carolan: Maybe we should do that too. Claude. Uh, so then, now I have a page on the website and let's go 2026, fellas. George B. Thomas: Yeah, back this is so good. This is so good. Like it has never been easier to learn and activate yourself in any other time in history. This this the thing that I hear when I hear you talking, Chris, is the the I wish I could days, if you're smart could be gone. Um, and we're moving into the I think I can. I think I can. You guys remember that childhood book, the little engine, I think I can, I think I can. You know, climbing up that hill, October, I think I can, I think I can. You know, septe you know, November, oh, I'm I'm I'm Chris, oh, I'm at the top of the hill. I'm, you know, December, whoo, live stream on value, right? Like there's this level of freedom for these humans who are willing to embark on this journey of coexisting with a super smart AI assistant on any human powered, purposeful, passionate project that they want to launch to the world. And do you remember the day when you would Google that and you'd be like, wow, a thousand dollars to do that on my website? Like there's no way I don't have the budget. Like if you have time, listen to me, if you have time and you can create the talent, the curiosity and creativity of yourself to do that,

[05:15] Chris Carolan: You can. George B. Thomas: What what you thought was impossible is now possible. Trust me. I over the last 30 days, but for sure 14 days of having time of not having client meetings, the things that I have seen, tested, tried, and learned are mind boggling to even think of like before that would have been like three years worth of something. And we're talking 14 to 30 days. I'll shut up, I'll shut up.

[05:52] Nico Lafakis: That's that's what's seriously unique to me this year is that last year, it really did, right? Like last year going into 25, we felt like what that two week break was like, oh man, starve for stories and oh my gosh, like you know, new stuff, you know, we had the 12 days of shipment and like that was pretty cool, but then we kind of went into that break with like, you know, hey, did you learn about uh, you know, how much did you get into vibe coding and like did you build something, right? George B. Thomas: Yeah. Nico Lafakis: And I think we all came out of like beginning of of this past year, you know, trying to understand it more, trying to understand agents more, agency, what does that mean? All this kind of stuff. And throughout last year it's been like unlock effort, unlock effort, unlock for me. And you know, I just posted the other day, you could see like as it got towards, I think it was like August or something like that. You just see my Git repo just light up consistently throughout the end of the year. Uh, and that that represents for me. I mean, I think those are really awesome moments to post. Um, and I I can't wait to see yours, George. It's funny because like all you guys are like, you know, oh, my Git repo's not lit up until 26. I don't care. I don't care. You should show like 25 and paste 26 in there somehow. It's so awesome. Like I like it was so cool looking at that all of all the here's the look back at 25 things that like were cool, that was the coolest one to me. To watch the moment where my brain got activated to this thing that was so powerful and so strong that you could just see it lit up green all the way through the rest of the year.

[07:55] George B. Thomas: And it's it's funny because I saw you guys' screenshots of that and I started to giggle because do you know the first time that I actually signed up and started to use GitHub when we sat down and on 30 days ago. 30 days ago. So you guys are talking about lighting up since. And I'm like, since, GitHub 30 days. Here's what's funny though is I started to giggle because I have seven repos already. Seven different projects in there already, right? And so and and looking back and thinking of that 30 days, not only have I been building the thing that I'm building personally, like that I I feel is purposeful and passionate that I that I want to bring to the world, but I've created a calculator for an organization. I've created three different assessments for three different organizations. Like the things that I've created for others in the education of wanting to create something for self, for and I don't mean in like a, I'm going to create something. I mean for other humans, to to like activate other humans in in a certain direction. Like I just giggled at those screenshots because I'm like, yeah, I don't know what mine would look like. It's like a black hole and then it's solid green. I don't know. Like for 30 days. Nico Lafakis: Yeah. George B. Thomas: Yeah.

[09:22] Nico Lafakis: I don't know. Like for once it was this two weeks for me, um, the reason that I compare like make the comparison at all is just this two weeks has been uh, like it was one thing to activate vibe coding and and like dive and like really lose yourself in that. The stuff that that I've been doing in the last two weeks with agents is it's it's serious like, you know, and you know how much we hate borrowing this term. So I think you have may be only heard me say it like less than a handful of times. It is sincerely game changing if you understand vibe coding and then you sort of break that layer of like, oh, that's what agency is.

[10:24] George B. Thomas: So can I can I say something to and then Chris, I'm going to shut up because you have been really quiet this episode so far. Um, part of me is super excited that it's called vibe coding and then there's this other part of me that hates that it's called vibe coding and there's this part of me that hates that it's called Claude Code because there's this mind set around like what it's built and designed for to do, which you don't necessarily have to use it to do. Let me explain. Over this two weeks, the other thing that I've been dipping into is, um, Claude Code to help write a book and it is really smart at helping to write a book. I'm just going to throw that out there, which then led me into like con like Claude Code for a content creation system just in general, which trust me when I tell you that it's really smart at just creating content in general. and and so like the other thing that I led into with one of my uh clients and I, we were talking nerdy about like this video we saw where this this lady, I'm I'm sorry, I forget her name, um, but she she talks about like her personal OS and Claude Code and and and and this other software and like she literally she goes through like how it's her daily driver and it's literally she types in today in Claude Code and it's like, here's all my tasks. And she's a she's like this massive project manager, wrote books, all sorts of stuff. Like she's it's super legit. So that sent me down this like funnel of like, well, how many people are creating personal OS's or some term around that with Claude Code? And like the amount of humans over the last 14 days that I've watched uh in a terminal type interface, managing their life or creating content or coding something for a website. Like the the possibilities are endless if we just quit prescribing words to the things that we think it is and just mold it into the thing that we need it to do. Chris Carolan: Yep. George B. Thomas: Okay, I'll shut up. I'll shut up, man. I'm fired up, guys. I'm fired up. Chris Carolan: Yeah. Chris Carolan: No, I think that's why like we we get so buried in tool conversations. Like that's what SAS has I mean, SAS has always had that problem. Um, but it's almost never the tool. Like AI native, that phrase is going to be so important, I think, because it's the difference. What we're seeing right now, there's two paths because people are waking up to AI in general. George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: Um, but tradition like if you're not AI native, right? I don't like let's say industrial native, uh, like you're using AI to help you do industrial native things, like write emails, like do the usual stuff, get your usual tasks done, send more of this, do this faster. Instead, when you switch to AI native mode, that's where it's like, how do I not do that stuff? Like, what would Yeah. what am I doing now that I have this AI like complete capability set right next to me? George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: And and now, that like the the media like the media network, first of all is like relaunching in earnest on on the 12th. George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: And what I just showed on the website is like 10% or less of what I've accomplished over the last Yeah. couple weeks. And like we've got another repo that is focused on, you know, value first operations. Uh, Ryan Ginsberg has done an amazing job of basically, you know, documentation like source of truth, having to use like Google Drive only. It's something that you've never been able to like George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: just for me at least, get comfortable with this place that you can always, you know, uh, trust unless you're in these organizations that have great just documentation owners that like have quality departments and all these things. And now like once you realize that the repo can be that, like with the help of something like Claude Code, it just completely changes how you can approach it because now that we've got that repo, we can spin up VIP client portals like like as a part of the onboarding, something that did not exist. It's not like we're signing up, like and you're signing in and then it's going to be built. Like it's like, no, like everything the context is there, like you're talking about, George, and now we can do the next thing and the next thing. And having AI help keep that in uh in check and in trust mode, basically, just changes everything. And like again folks, this is just in the last two weeks too where like agents became a thing for for Cloud Code. Yes, yes. George B. Thomas: AI agents, yeah. Chris Carolan: And now like that it's just different, right? It's a different world. Like if you can't, and George, you mentioned if you have time, Yeah. because not to mention I've been building this like game on the side too. George B. Thomas: Yeah, yeah, I've seen that. I've seen that here and there. Chris Carolan: Uh as I was and it's a game that's going to try and teach like abundance. Like instead of trying to win against each other, like if there's nothing to win, like Nico Lafakis: Principle, huh? Chris Carolan: if it's abundant, right? Like what are we there's nothing to win. So like what is the actual scarcity, right? Why can't we just right? And it's and like you might make a case for time, but I think attention. George B. Thomas: Mhm. Chris Carolan: is the scarcity because we're going to be bombarded with opportunities every single day that just AI just brings up. And it's like, which one are we going to spend our attention on? George B. Thomas: There's so much I want to unpack with words coming out of your mouth right now. Chris Carolan: Whatever that is, whatever we decide that to be, that's where the value will be created. It's not like can we create value? George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: It's it will be created in this domain. I think attention and focus is so important as we move forward. Look, I'm I'm typically historically. Um, I'm not the click up guy. I'm not the document it guy. I'm the like fly by the seat of your pants guy. But I got to be honest with you, the amount of times that I've opened up click up just to put something as a reminder of something that I wanted to build or do because it was possible in in focus to this project that I'm working on, because I know that I need to get back to it. So like first of all, attention and focus is something that we as humans need to pay attention to as we move forward and unlock ourselves. The second thing that I have to unpack on what you're saying is I was having a short conversation with somebody else about how I think marketers will make the best vibe coders. And they said, no, T-shaped marketers like you will make the best vibe coders. People who have been paying attention to SEO and content, and video, and this, and that, and that, because their mind, they have taught their mind to be deep in one aspect and broad in many, and so they're able to bring that broad perspective into this place where they can build things around, like not everybody knows the words to use to do the things that we're trying to apply to the places that we're building for other humans to actually unlock themselves. And so the other thing that I want to unpack on what you said is like a real world example. Ladies and gentlemen, you're probably still working in an organization where you might create an article and you might say, hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could have a worksheet that went with this article, to which then you create a creative brief, to which then you get the creative director, which the creative gets the junior designer, which the designer builds the actual worksheet, and five effing weeks later, you got a worksheet for an article that you wrote five weeks earlier. Last night I did 95 worksheets for 95 articles in like an hour and 15 minutes. And you know what? 20 of those minutes were just getting the actual worksheet to look right and not cut off text and be one pagers only and like set up this and so then all of a sudden now we have 100 plus some worksheets on a website that didn't exist 30 days ago that has 200 articles and I'm saying that the stuff there is dope. Like it's not AI slop. Like because there was care and love and it's for a purpose and it's passionate and I'm persistently hammering on the thing that I believe in the direction that I'm supposed to go on. And ladies and gentlemen, just is what you should be doing. You should be dreaming and scheming and you should be creating and you should be unlocking the future in 2026 to who you can be and who you can help. I'm going to shut up. I feel like I'm preaching. Guys, I'm just saying 2026 is going to be a crazy year. I'm just saying.

[20:12] Chris Carolan: Oh man. So good folks. Well, we're excited for 2026. Hopefully we can help you uh be excited and just unlock all the value um that AI and human friends together can create. Uh, so until next time, uh we'll see you back on Monday. Hope everybody has a great weekend. Later, fellas. George B. Thomas: Peace. Nico Lafakis: See you guys.

[20:42] Nico Lafakis: I mean like what George hit on, what what you're hitting on is uh, is just like what I consider the new way forward. Um, if if you had been hanging around me for the last like two weeks, you'd be really annoyed at the conversations that I have because I basically nothing but like Tron all day, every day. Um, and it's because like I I didn't realize that was going to be the layer between. I thought Tron was like further forward, right? Like cuz futurism and all like just seems futuristic. Aries really kind of did bring it home, right? Like bringing that capability because it's like you look at Tron Legacy and you think, okay, well then the next one is going to be like Tron 2056 or something, right? Like it's going to be in space or some shit like who knows. And in reality it's like, no, it's just modern day. It's still modern day. But like there's this different element to it obviously, right? And then looking at the element, it's like, yeah, you could boil it down to like this these very simple things, but what I what I took away from that movie, which I just in each movie, like it changed my perspective of how I look at uh, computing basically. Like the first movie was holy shit, simulation theory is real. Like that's a thing. All of these things map one for one. What the hell? Like, oh my gosh, right? Uh, Legacy was like, Jesus, we really are just like aTGC program it together, human, right? Do it a little bit different, turtle, a little bit different, monkey, like whatever it is, right? So it's like, oh, wow, like really realistically like these things do should and by all means like have some sort of at that time, like agency, some sort of awareness, you know, the whole thing of RAM, like, oh, I'm just an actual Ariel program, but on the outside, you know, when you think about it, the annuity really makes sense and that up over time. So it's like, oh man, that sounds like Bob down at the accounting office. Um, and then watching Aries and coming back, it's like, okay, so agents are realistically just this more advanced form of the software, right? And like Clue kind of represented that in legacy, but you could now go back and look at it and it's like, well, Clue was basically Aries and the rest of those people were worse than Athena. Like they didn't even have the level of agency, right? That that Aries has. And it was like only Aries and Athena have this level of agency. No other software in the system does, right? Um, and then Aries is actually concerned for another agent that is Kais when Kais gets like a little bit disrupted, right? And starts having a little bit of a breakdown. And you know, obviously Dylan's like, well, he was he was becoming non-functional, so no using and having him. We just upgrade, you know, from 3.5 to four. Why would we hang around with 3.5 anymore? Who cares? And Aries like the discussion I had with Claude, saw that as like, oh, so so you're putting him out to pasture. Huh. And then, yeah, look, if Aries ever fails, I'll just make you another one because he is 100% disposable, right? And so it was like even though this seems like it's going down a weirder path, I actually looked at it as like, okay, well, if I'm if I'm developing Triple H, why is Triple H working by himself? I'm sorry guys, he was going to release this week and then I had to redo it because now it's like Triple H and Friends. George B. Thomas: Mm. Nico Lafakis: Yeah. Nico Lafakis: And it's not just Triple H and Friends, it's Triple H being the the lead orchestrator.

[26:05] Nico Lafakis: So in other words, post, I'm hoping Monday, when this releases, if you ask Triple H, hey, uh, you know, want to see how this relates to um, I don't know like uh uh Indo China architecture uh and how, you know, that that kind of systems and the way in which they use building and how would you be able to apply hubspot to like any of that? Uh, Triple H is going to go build and go go hire uh an agent to go become crazy, crazy knowledgeable about Indo China architecture. And then he's going to ask the question. Which which by the way, this is a good good because we're at the end of the show basically. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're hearing Triple H, we're not talking WWE WWF. Uh, so you might want to check out what that actually means. By the way, if you uh haven't watched Tron Aries, uh this would be a good point to tell you that you should probably go watch that and then rewatch this episode. And the last thing I'll say before Chris signs this off and we do whatever and get to the next show is ladies and gentlemen, here's my question out of what Nico said. How many of you in 2026 are going to choose to hang out with the 3.5 version of yourself instead of hanging out with the 4.0 version? That's my only question for you this morning.

[27:23] Chris Carolan: Oh man. So good folks. Well, we're excited for 2026. Hopefully we can help you uh be excited and just unlock all the value um that AI and human friends together can create. Uh, so until next time, uh we'll see you back on Monday. Hope everybody has a great weekend. Later, fellas. George B. Thomas: Peace. Nico Lafakis: See you guys.