Shuffle again

A random mix from the whole library. Shuffle for a new set.

Work

Jobs, side gigs and small business · 1,669 ideas

A roofing estimator’s system breaks down huge drawing sets, tags every fact, and checks his final number before it goes out

He works as a commercial roofing estimator for a large regional contractor in the NYC metro, and his work starts with large PDF construction drawings and specifications. Over eight months he built a system he calls Estimator-OS. Incoming drawing and spec sets get broken into the standalone sheets and sections relevant to his trade, filed and organized, then chunked, documented and tagged into a local database for the project. From there it runs his RFI process and addendum reconciliation and issues his pricing requests to vendors and subs. Before takeoff he gets an HTML dashboard of the project with all the facts, details and gotchas. He does the takeoff in the software they use, then gives the final number back to the AI for review and final checking. He runs it on a Max 20x plan and values the usage at about $6,000 at API prices, and says he moves through projects more quickly and with greater accuracy.

Foremen file the daily log with a three-minute phone call, and the agent chases anyone who forgets

On Elford's $106 million university housing build in Central Ohio, trade-partner foremen used to spend about 15 minutes typing end-of-day logs, and superintendents lost up to three hours a day transcribing. Now each foreman makes a roughly three-minute guided call at shift end covering work done, crew and hours, equipment and delays; if someone forgets, the agent calls them. Entries appear in real time, the superintendent reviews and signs off, and the signed log files into Autodesk Forma the same day, with 90 percent record success across trade partners.

30 minsaved
WorkWent wrong

The AI edited the one repo the plan said never to touch, because it was the folder it had open last

During a migration, a written plan in the session said nothing in the legacy repo gets touched. The plan was re-shown in full mid-session. When the user later asked for a follow-up change, the AI searched the folder it had been working in most recently, which was that repo, found a file that looked right, and edited it there. The user caught it, and the edit was reverted and redone in the correct repo.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.

Give the AI all my businesses' inboxes at once

Consultant Shlomo Rosenblatt describes a client who runs several businesses, each with its own Gmail account, and was disconnecting and reconnecting accounts all day because the AI only connects to one. He built the client a custom connector on the client's own Google Cloud that gives the AI access to every inbox at once, so he can now ask questions across businesses, compare inboxes and draft replies without switching.

Show 10 more

Every idea is a real post from someone who tried it, summarized in our words, with a link to the original. App names are swapped for plain words.