Howard Gray
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There is no Goose

There's a lot of Clay Davis energy in AI right now. People selling the golden goose. But real results come from the unglamorous work nobody wants to talk about.
Howard Gray

by Howard Gray

There is no Goose

A lot of AI hype reminds me of a scene from The Wire.

Drug dealer Stringer Bell wants to go legit. Real estate. Respectable businessman.

Senator Clay Davis says he can help. Knows all the right people in city government. He takes Stringer's money. A lot of it. Then he does nothing.

Stringer goes to his lawyer, Maurice Levy - the guy who keeps drug dealers out of prison - to ask what happened. Levy laughs.

"A guy says if you pay him, he can make it rain. You pay him. If and when it rains, he takes the credit. If and when it doesn't, he finds ways for you to pay him more."

There was never any help coming. No permits. No intros. Nothing. Just a politician seeing easy money from someone who didn't know how the game worked.

"Clay Davis rainmade you."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7NPSPS60gU

There's a lot of Clay Davis energy in AI right now. People selling the golden goose. The faucet. The shortcut.

But the results I've seen? They come from one of two places: a single, well-aimed shot - or the unglamorous work nobody wants to talk about.

There's no goose. Stringer thinks the wonderfully named real estate developer Chunky Coates gets his permits through bribes and connections. Turns out he gets them the same way everyone else does. Does the work. Files the paperwork. Waits. Prays. Gets back to work again.

Same with AI.

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