Manual Work is a Bug

Matthew Black and Hillary Black | Mav
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Technology
  • Updated Weekly

We believe that Manual Work is a Bug. This is a podcast about the future of work and life with artificial intelligence. Hosted by Matthew Black and Hillary Black. A Mav Automation Ventures production.

  1. 1d ago

    How Insurance Agencies Are Using AI, Live From ITC Vegas 2026

    This week we have a special episode - Live from the ITC 2026 expo floor. Mav Founder + CEO Matthew Black and Head of Brand Hillary Black grab ten minutes in the official podcast studio between booth shifts to report on what actually changed in insurance this year. Every vendor is still pitching their version of AI for insurance. But what’s changed this year is the agency owners. On the table: why GPT helped the first five minutes of every sales conversation finally disappear for companies in AI, the commercial agency strategy for quickly moving into personal lines without hiring, evidence that Mav has the coolest booth in the tradeshow circuit, and Matthew's prediction for where the insurance product itself is headed in the next year. Chapters 00:00 — Intro 00:16 — Live from the ITC 2026 expo floor 01:17 — The coolest booth on the circuit 02:45 — "X for AI," three years later 03:40 — The agency owner has changed 05:07 — The old guys in the back 06:19 — From "I don't text" to "how do I grow?" 07:04 — Commercial agencies moving into personal lines 08:28 — A prediction for next year 09:37 — Why doesn't insurance just come with the car? 10:05 — Insurance like shipping on Amazon 10:44 — Close: see you at ITC 2027 Hosts Matthew Black — Founder + CEO, Mav Hillary Black — Head of Brand and Conversation Design, Mav Links and Resources ITC Vegas (InsureTech Connect), the world's largest insurance innovation event Toyota Insurance, the automaker-owned agency selling coverage alongside the car Follow the show Manual Work is a Bug is Mav's podcast, now on video. Watch on YouTube and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies grow their book with AI: hiremav.com. Spotify Amazon Music

  2. Oct 2

    How We Rebuilt Our Entire Website in Two Weeks with Claude Code (and Actually Made it Look Good)

    This week we're walking through the entire process of rebuilding and redesigning the ⁠hiremav.com⁠ website using Claude Code, the Figma MCP, and two humans. ⁠Mav⁠ Founder + CEO ⁠Matthew Black⁠ and Head of Brand ⁠Hillary Black⁠ walk through the exact process from ideas to setup, iterating, and launching, plus where humans stepped in to make it not look like every other AI-generated website. We think it's looks pretty cool. Hillary, a non-engineer, was able to build the website of her dreams the exact way she wanted without waiting weeks to fit it into a sprint cycle, and the Claude Code "other tab" even convinced Matthew to use the Claude App instead of terminal for his work. On the table: why buying a hundred old insurance agencies and trying to AI-enable them doesn't work, the one rule that kept the site from looking AI generated, the tells that give an AI website away, a dev setup that went from four hours to thirty minutes, whether a website should even be the same for every visitor, and an Easter egg worth a free year of Mav. 🥚 There's an Easter egg hidden on the new ⁠hiremav.com⁠. Find it, screenshot it, and DM Matthew on LinkedIn. First one gets a free year of Mav. Chapters ⁠00:00⁠ — Intro⁠00:15⁠ — Cold open: we're live⁠01:01⁠ — The TV nobody could find⁠04:21⁠ — Too many humans in the way⁠04:49⁠ — Why the AI roll-up doesn't work⁠06:29⁠ — Buying the business for parts⁠07:11⁠ — Today: replacing ⁠hiremav.com⁠⁠08:08⁠ — Twenty new pages, two people⁠09:35⁠ — No staging server, no CMS⁠10:45⁠ — AI started, human finished⁠11:28⁠ — "I'm not a designer"⁠13:04⁠ — Was the wireframe holding it back?⁠14:17⁠ — The tells of an AI website⁠15:43⁠ — A four-hour setup in thirty minutes⁠16:57⁠ — Claude Code in the app⁠18:28⁠ — Every page, tracked⁠20:42⁠ — What even is a website anymore?⁠22:01⁠ — The new AI use case: create constraints⁠25:08⁠ — Using humans where it counts⁠26:01⁠ — One button and it's live⁠27:06⁠ — The Easter egg Hosts ⁠Matthew Black⁠ — Founder + CEO, Mav ⁠Hillary Black⁠ — Head of Brand and Conversation Design, Mav Links and Resources The new ⁠hiremav.com⁠ ⁠Claude Code⁠, what Matthew pointed at the README and what built the pages ⁠Claude Code and Figma⁠: setting up the MCP server, the connection that let Claude read the actual design file ⁠Guide to the Figma MCP server⁠ ⁠Model Context Protocol⁠, the open standard behind the Figma connection ⁠ngrok⁠, how Hillary's local build gets shared with anyone ⁠Docker⁠, the self-contained dev environments ⁠micro1⁠, the AI training-data company Matthew mentions Follow the show Manual Work is a Bug is Mav's podcast, now on video. Watch on YouTube and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies grow their book with AI: ⁠hiremav.com⁠. ⁠Spotify⁠ ⁠Amazon Music⁠

    How We Rebuilt Our Entire Website in Two Weeks with Claude Code (and Actually Made it Look Good)

  3. Sep 25

    Where AI Outperforms Humans, and What the Best Use Cases Have in Common

    After two weeks of AI getting it wrong, let's talk about where AI gets it right. Founder + CEO Matthew Black and Head of Brand Hillary Black go looking for the places AI genuinely outperforms a human, and what those use cases have in common.It starts with a car that drives itself better every month, and an insurance company that charges you less the more you don't do your own driving.We talk: why Tesla's lead in autonomous driving may be impossible to catch, the difference between selling tokens and selling outcomes, why everyone's AI flyers look the same, a data broker's offer that stopped Matthew cold, why CRMs are graveyards, and his MCP setup that replaced a personal trainer. Chapters 00:00 — Intro 00:15 — Cold open: ten episodes in 01:10 — Starlink at cruising altitude 03:40 — The chairs: a final update 05:04 — When nobody can override anything 07:01 — Tesla self-driving, six years later 08:24 — Insurance that pays you to let the AI drive 09:46 — Why Tesla wins: the data nobody else has 10:54 — Sell outcomes, not tokens 12:22 — Why all the flyers look identical 13:29 — Data is being brokered like oil 14:04 — You can't be an AI wrapper anymore 16:37 — Tesla isn't a car company 17:57 — The company that can't use its own data 19:53 — Choosing tools by what they connect to 21:03 — Why do you even need a CRM? 21:38 — No steering wheel, no pedals 22:48 — What agencies can do at a smaller scale 24:35 — The fitness stack that replaced a trainer 27:16 — The bridge is hard 29:40 — Why Mav went all the way into insurance Hosts Matthew Black — Founder + CEO, Mav Hillary Black — Head of Brand and Conversation Design, Mav Links and Resources Tesla Insurance: how the Full Self-Driving discount works Lemonade's Autonomous Car insurance, roughly 50% off every mile driven on FSD Tesla, Uber and Waymo all get the OK to run thousands of robotaxis in Nevada Model Context Protocol, the open standard behind connecting your tools to Claude athletedata, a single MCP server that connects WHOOP, Hevy, MyFitnessPal and 30 more fitness apps to Claude Rippling, the not-a-sponsor Follow the show Manual Work is a Bug is Mav's podcast, now on video. Watch on YouTube and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies grow their book with AI.

    Where AI Outperforms Humans, and What the Best Use Cases Have in Common

  4. Sep 18

    Why AI Customer Service Keeps Failing and What It Might Be Costing Your Business

    We're an AI company, but we won't sell you AI for customer service (yet). Here's why we're so bothered by it. Mav Founder + CEO Matthew Black and Head of Brand Hillary Black get into why the thing everyone is automating first for some reason, is also the thing that breaks most often, and potentially costs your business the most. Hillary is bothered. Three sets of chairs, a retailer with no phone number, and a bot that can talk all day without doing a single thing about it. On the table: the one company Matthew thinks actually gets this right, the two conditions that separate a support experience that works for customers, from one that wastes an hour of your life, the unit economics nobody considers before they switch off their phone lines, what happens when your agent starts talking directly to the store's agent, and a mall built entirely for AI. Chapters 00:34 — Cold open: three sets of chairs and no phone number02:35 — Why some AI support is good and most of it isn't03:21 — Why Mav stayed out of customer service on purpose04:10 — Sales is a formula. Support is one-out-of-one.06:34 — 27 entry points vs. 3, and the unit economics nobody runs08:43 — Cheaper per conversation, more expensive per customer09:01 — The one that actually worked10:50 — The two conditions12:06 — Onboarding a rep with no access to inventory12:30 — Saying the right thing doesn't matter if it can't do the job14:30 — Muse, and what happens when agents talk to agents16:24 — Meta bought the agent forum18:13 — MoltMall20:01 — Everyone is doing the best they can22:19 — The fold phone detour23:52 — Go win somewhere easier first24:25 — The worst possible place to put AI in insurance26:16 — Reinvest the savings at the bottom of the funnel too27:37 — Why Chewy gets away with it Hosts Matthew Black — Founder + CEO, Mav Hillary Black — Head of Brand and Conversation Design, Mav Links and Resources Meta's Muse — the personal agent launched September 8, described as OpenClaw for everyone OpenClaw — the open-source personal agent Muse is answeringMeta acquired Moltbook, the social network built for AI agents Model Context Protocol — the open standard behind agent-to-agent connection Stripe Support — the implementation Matthew holds up as the bar Chewy — Matthew's example of stellar customer service Follow the show Manual Work is a Bug is Mav's podcast, now on video. Watch on YouTube and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies grow their book with AI: hiremav.com.

    Why AI Customer Service Keeps Failing and What It Might Be Costing Your Business

  5. Sep 11

    How People Actually Shop for Insurance With AI & How Agencies Can Show Up

    Your customer is about to ask an AI whether they're overpaying you. Mav Founder + CEO Matthew Black and Head of Brand Hillary Black get into what happens when people end up shopping for insurance when all they did was ask AI to fix their budget.On the table: the prop plane Matthew almost bought, why comparison sites can't help you with this, what Bitcoin taught him about how consumers trust, how a small agencies compete with big budgets, how to get your agency recommended by ChatGPT, what insurance will look like a decade from now, and a million dollar idea to win over your clients he gives away at the end.Hosts- Matthew Black — Founder + CEO, Mav- Hillary Black — Head of Brand and Conversation Design, MavLinks and Resources- The Insurance Buzz with Michael Weaver and Courtney Weaver — the agency-side version of this conversation, with Matthew- Insurify's ChatGPT app — real-time personalized auto quotes inside the chat, the execution Matthew points to- How Insurify's app started, back in February — rate estimates and side-by-side comparisons from a database of 196M quotes- The insurer ChatGPT apps directory — who else is already quoting inside an assistant- Why quoting inside the assistant is the whole game, including Liberty Mutual making the first move among US carriers- Model Context Protocol — the open standard that makes any of this connectable- Tesla Insurance — insurance as a line item in the purchase wizardFollow the showManual Work is a Bug is Mav's podcast, now on video. Watch on YouTube and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies grow their book with AI: hiremav.com.

    How People Actually Shop for Insurance With AI & How Agencies Can Show Up

  6. Sep 4

    Where to Start Using AI in Your Business (and Where to Never Use It)

    If you found AI for the first time today, where would you start? Mav Founder + CEO Matthew Black and Head of Brand Hillary Black run the thought experiment: deserted island, you reenter civilization, and every tool that exists right now is sitting there waiting. What do you reach for first, and what should you never touch at all?On the table: the two questions that tell you where to start, why the thing everyone reaches for first is the wrong thing, Matthew's AI ick and the one skill he wishes he didn't have, why human outreach is quietly becoming an unfair advantage again, the engineering process Mav rebuilt after choking on its own AI code, an $18,000 Mac you can lease for the price of a Claude subscription, and a poker chip that came out looking like a fish.One of these is where to start. One of them is where to never use it.Hosts- Matthew Black — Founder + CEO, Mav- Hillary Black — Head of Brand and Conversation Design, MavWhere to learn moreRecord your screen, get a skill — the thing Matthew describes at 17:14- Record a Skill, in the Claude desktop app's Cowork "+" menu — you do the task once, narrate it, and Claude writes the skill- Codex Record & Replay — OpenAI's version, shipped a few weeks earlier; this walkthrough shows what the output actually looks likeHow to build skills, the thing Hillary's whole brand system runs on- Equipping agents for the real world with Agent Skills — Anthropic's engineering post, the best single explainer- Agent Skills docs — what a SKILL.md actually is and where to put it- Introduction to Agent Skills — free Anthropic course, start-to-finish- anthropics/skills on GitHub — real working skills to copy from, including brand and document ones- agentskills.io — the open standard, so a skill you write isn't locked to one toolUsing AI for something other than making content- Claude Cowork — the "give it access to your actual files and tools" product- Model Context Protocol — the open standard behind every connector, if you want to understand why access matters- Claude Code — what you'd use to point a local model at your own machine Local Model Talks Llama — Meta's open-weight models, free to download and run yourself- Apple's new Mac Studio- AppleInsider on the M5 Max and M5 Ultra refreshFollow the showManual Work is a Bug is Mav's podcast, now on video. Watch on YouTube and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies grow their book with AI: hiremav.com.

    Where to Start Using AI in Your Business (and Where to Never Use It)

  7. Aug 28

    AI Conspiracy Theories: True or False?

    Get hour tinfoil hats out, this week we're talking about 10 AI conspiracy theories. Mav Founder + CEO Matthew Black and Head of Brand Hillary Black go through the internet's darkest, strangest and weirdest AI theories. Real, or fever dream?On the list: Google buying a dead airline's data. Shredding rare books for the sake of AI. The dead internet theory. An agent-only forum where the bots allegedly invented their own language in thirty-six hours. Labs poisoning their own models to keep them to themselves. An AI sentience cover-up. Simulation theory. People marrying their AI. And an ad campaign asking America to cool the data centers with pee.Some of these have press releases. Some of them should have stayed on the internet. Links and Resources Anthropic on detecting and preventing distillation attacksGoogle bought Spirit Airlines' data for $10M — 100M emails, 500M Teams messages, 30M lines of codeWhy that data is worth it — teaching agents white-collar work needs private records, not public code404 Media hid a tracker in a rare book and followed it to an Amazon AI facility in Las VegasAmazon, which started as a bookstore, is destroying rare books to train AICloudflare on bot traffic passing human trafficMoltbook — the Reddit-style social network only AI agents can post onThinking Machines Lab — Mira Murati's company, the ex-OpenAI CTOLove at First Prompt by Bridget Todd — on relationships between people and AILiquid Death x Garage Beer, "We Want Your Pee"Can we actually cool data centers with pee?Follow the showManual Work is a Bug is Mav's podcast, now on video. Watch on YouTube and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies grow their book with AI: hiremav.com

    AI Conspiracy Theories: True or False?

  8. Aug 21

    Is The Future for Everyone? AI Brand Trips, Local Models and Your Local Library

    Is AI actually locked up for the rich? Mav Founder + CEO Matthew Black and Head of Brand Hillary Black open on Mark Zuckerberg's new manifesto, "The Future is for Everyone" — released the day Meta open-sourced Muse Glimmer, a 30B model small enough to run on your own machine. Matthew's read: the scary question was never who controls AI, it's who doesn't have it yet. And the public library is the counterargument nobody makes (but we're in huge support of, seriously, give them your money).Hillary sees it differently. Meta's own problematic algorithms are exactly why nobody takes "this is for everyone" at face value, and today's free tiers are nothing like being mailed a CD of the internet. Plus, a Home Assistant demo that builds its own A/V dashboard on a $500 laptop, and Hillary's tinfoil-hat theory on OpenAI's disastrous influencer brand trip — everyone called it a botched, out of touch product launch, but she thinks the discourse missed the point entirely.If you're trying to figure out whether AI is something you own or something you rent, this one's for you. Links from the Episode - Mark Zuckerberg's Manifesto, "The Future is for Everyone: The Path to a Positive AI Future" - Muse Glimmer — Meta's 30B open-weight model, small enough to run on a single consumer GPU instead of a data center- Muse Glimmer weights on Hugging Face — free to download under Apache 2.0, commercial use included- Home Assistant — the open-source platform Matthew runs at home, and the one Glimmer's own demo builds a dashboard for - MacBook Neo — Apple's $599 entry level laptop- Peter Diamandis & Steven Kotler, We Are as Gods: A Survival Guide for the Age of Abundance - Ari Kuschnir — the artist behind the AI Sam Altman "come live in the data center" films, and the creative process Matthew wants everyone to see- Influencers draw backlash for attending OpenAI's first luxury trip — TechCrunch's coverage of the trip- Apple names John Ternus CEO- How libraries are funded- Support the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District — the actual library system of our cityFollow the showManual Work is a Bug is Mav's podcast, now on video. Watch on YouTube and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies democratize growth with AI: hiremav.com.

    Is The Future for Everyone? AI Brand Trips, Local Models and Your Local Library
See All (17)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

We believe that Manual Work is a Bug. This is a podcast about the future of work and life with artificial intelligence. Hosted by Matthew Black and Hillary Black. A Mav Automation Ventures production.

Information

  • Creator
    Matthew Black and Hillary Black | Mav
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 106556
  • Show Website
    Manual Work is a Bug