Since 2023, I’ve been bothering anyone who would listen with the same idea: AI will only really deliver on its promises once it’s in the hands of builders, not fundraisers or course sellers
It’s still early, and things could shift, but Mario Zechner’s Pi feels like validation of that idea.
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On one hand, the "San Francisco school of AI" seems obsessed with token maxing and snake oil that mainly exists to justify valuations for companies that don’t actually have real products.
Your socials are full of non-technical people vibe coding sloppy web apps and bragging about LOC.
On the other hand, the "Austrian school" is basically a group of seasoned hackers and builders using simple primitives to create genuinely interesting systems.
Pi is the engine behind OpenClaw, a product that took everyone by surprise, and now every company is scrambling to copy it.
Its creator and community are humble, kind, and pragmatic. They aren’t contaminated by the zero-sum "ngmi" thinking that curses the current tech industry.
They feel more like 2010s tech than 2020s tech.
Phil Calcado