I increasingly think the next stage of AI coding isn’t about humans managing more models: we’ll talk only to the best one. Smaller models won’t disappear. They’ll become the workforce behind the scenes — while we move from CEO to Chairman.

Opus 5.5 Coming This Tuesday - Opus 5.5 is in stealth testing under the codename claude-wafer-eap. It was previously to be Opus 5.2, but now they have changed their plan to Opus 5.5. - I think they changed it because Opus 5.5 has significant changes compared with Opus 5.1. - Its around the level of Astra and Fable 5.1, and in some areas can perform even better. - Its quite good at 3D and frontend work, with better attention to small details and more polished outputs. - Pricing: $4 input / $20 output per 1M tokens, $0.20 cache read / $5 cache write. Context window: 872K down from 936K. - This makes it around 20% cheaper than Opus 5.1. And this time, Opus 5.5 > GPT-6 Sol. Anthropic gonna be back.

How They Make Money — 0121/1000 — Sidekiq (@sidekiq) If you have shipped a web app, some of its background jobs have probably run on a free library you never once thought about paying for. About 2,000 companies did pay, and it made one person with no employees $13.5 million in ten years. Why they pay is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0120/1000 — OpenAlternative (@piotrkulpinski) The last time you searched "free alternative to" some app, you clicked the first list that came up and never wondered who made it. A single person made $57,361 from a list like that last year, then started selling the list itself. How is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0119/1000 — Tangle (@TangleNews) You read at least one newsletter for free most mornings, and you have never once considered paying for it. 71,000 readers of one politics newsletter did, even though 85% of it is free. What they are actually paying for is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0118/1000 — Pinboard (@Pinboard) The last time a free app you relied on shut down, you told yourself you would pay for the next one. Then you didn't. 13,000 people did, and it brought in $228,000 in 2024 with no investors at all. What happened to the other half of the users is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0117/1000 — Typebot (@baptisteArno) You starred an open-source repo this month because you might self-host it someday. You probably won't. Most people don't, and that gap paid one founder $38,441 a month by early 2025. Who pays, and the one door he closed, is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0116/1000 — Dwarf Fortress (@Bay12Games) There is something free you have used for years and never paid for. If they gave you something to buy tomorrow, you would probably buy it. Two brothers found out what that is worth: $164,666 in donations for all of 2022, then $7,230,123 for their first month of sales. The rest is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0115/1000 — Screen Studio (@pie6k) You bought a piece of software once, years ago, and quietly assumed that meant forever. This one launched at $89, paid once. By 2025 the one-time option was down to 7% of buyers, and then it was gone. What happened in between is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0114/1000 — itch.io (@itchio) The last thing you bought online, you had no say in how much the store kept. This marketplace lets every seller type that number in themselves, all the way down to zero. What they actually typed is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0113/1000 — Slopes (@parrots) There is an app on your phone you only open a few weeks a year, and you still know exactly what it costs. Twelve people now live off an app like that: $3.6 million in the first five months of 2025, by the founder's account. How the calendar works in their favour is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0112/1000 — Photopea (@photopeacom) The last time you needed Photoshop for ten minutes, you did not buy Photoshop. You opened something free in a browser tab and forgot about it. A million people a day do the same thing, and it added up to $3 million in 2024. Who actually paid for your ten minutes is in the image.

Damon Chen paid $9,899 for a domain in May 2023. By November, the product behind it made $60,000 in one month. I broke down 25 businesses this week. These are the five I'd copy if I started from zero this month.

How They Make Money — 0111/1000 — Daniel Vassallo (@dvassallo) You have an idea you keep not starting, because it feels too small to be worth doing properly. He built a career out of only doing those, published the profit and loss every year, and then sold the biggest one for $3,600,000. The numbers are in the image.

How They Make Money — 0110/1000 — Caleb Porzio (@calebporzio) Some of the code behind the last web app you used was written by one guy who has never charged anybody a cent for it. That code has been installed 104,811,804 times. What he does charge for sits directly on top of it, at $299. The breakdown is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0109/1000 — Listen Notes (@ListenNotes) Every podcast app you have ever opened got its list of shows from somewhere. Almost none of them built that list themselves. Two million people use one such list for free every month. The 15,200 who pay for it never open the website. The numbers are in the image.

How They Make Money — 0108/1000 — 404 Media (@404mediaco) You typed your email into a site last week to read one article, and you have not thought about it since. They have. Four reporters put in $1,000 each and were profitable in six months. What that email address was actually worth to them is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0107/1000 — Coolify (@heyandras) There is something running on your server right now that you installed yourself, and you are the only person who will ever notice when it breaks (you know the one). One company charges $5 a month to be that person instead, and 3,641 people took the deal. The books are in the image.

How They Make Money — 0106/1000 — Flipper Zero (@flipper_net) Two years ago a cabinet minister went on camera to tell you not to buy a $169 toy. Before that, you had never heard of it. About a million of them are out there now, by the company's own count, and the ban never happened. What their numbers actually say is in the image.

How They Make Money — 0105/1000 — Lichess (@lichess) You have used something free for years and quietly assumed somebody was selling your data to pay for it. Here is one that publishes the bill instead — $789,389 a year, machine by machine, on a page anyone can open. Who covers it is in the image.