Oak Codex

Steve Oak

AI, Tech, Design

Episodes

  1. I Built My Own AI Memory System. Here's What I Learned

    Jan 30

    I Built My Own AI Memory System. Here's What I Learned

    AI forgets everything past its context window. And when it forgets, it starts making stuff up. I built SOKK, a career assistant that dropped hallucination from 24% to under 3% using dual-gate verification. Then I built UOCE, a context engine that reduced token usage by 67-95%. This episode breaks down the architecture, the research backing it, and what I'd do differently. If you work with LLMs, this might change how you think about memory.

    11 min
  2. How We Built an AI Waste Classifier to Solve a $640B Problem

    Jan 30

    How We Built an AI Waste Classifier to Solve a $640B Problem

    Four devs. Four months. One $640 billion problem. We built an AI waste classification app for California's SB 1383 compliance. In this episode: why context engineering beats prompt engineering, the CapacitorJS tradeoffs nobody warns you about, building an AI assistant that isn't ChatGPT slop, and how gamification actually got people to care about recycling. Honest takes on what broke, what worked, and why we're not making this a startup.

    12 min
  3. Vibe Coding Won't Make Your Product Stand Out. Here's What Will.

    Jan 17

    Vibe Coding Won't Make Your Product Stand Out. Here's What Will.

    You're paying for AI. Of course you want it to be magic. That psychology is the trap.In this episode:• Why 82% of AI sites look identical (the slop epidemic)• The hierarchy that actually works: specialized solutions first, AI as leverage• Real proof: how we transformed a generic Next.js site into a trust-building asset

    6 min
  4. Your MCP Setup Is Eating Half Your Context. Here's the Fix.

    Jan 15

    Your MCP Setup Is Eating Half Your Context. Here's the Fix.

    MCP integrations were eating 30-50% of context window before you could even type. Sessions dying every 10-15 minutes. We tried everything. Skills, code execution wrappers, universal configs. Nothing worked.Claude Code just shipped Tool Search. It loads MCP tools on-demand now. Zero context cost until you actually need them.In this episode:• Why MCP was a context tax• What we tried (and why it failed)• How Tool Search works• The fix if it's not enabled yetConnect everything. No penalty anymore.

    4 min
  5. Google Doesn't Want You to Shop Anymore: UCP Explained

    Jan 12

    Google Doesn't Want You to Shop Anymore: UCP Explained

    Google just announced the Universal Commerce Protocol at NRF 2026. Most headlines are calling it an "AI shopping assistant." But here's what I see: Google is building the toll booth of the entire internet economy. In this episode, I break down what UCP actually is, why Amazon and Apple aren't on board, the 24% trust problem Google is betting billions to solve, and what this means for consumers and businesses. Would you let AI buy things for you?

    3 min
  6. AI Made Tailwind 5x Popular. Then Killed Their Business.

    Jan 9

    AI Made Tailwind 5x Popular. Then Killed Their Business.

    Tailwind CSS just fired 75% of their engineering team. Downloads up 5x. Revenue down 80%. AI is to blame.Here's the brutal truth about open source in 2026: The more successful your project, the faster you die.In this episode:• Why Tailwind's npm downloads exploded while revenue collapsed• Adam Wathan's raw 33-minute confession about the "boiling frog" moment• The documentation funnel that AI completely broke• Which open source projects are next (Prettier, core-js, and more)• What you can actually do to helpThis isn't just about Tailwind. It's the first domino. AI companies are making billions. The open source projects they trained on? They're dying.

    5 min
  7. How Manus AI Went From 'Unusable' to Meta's $2 Billion Acquisition

    Jan 6

    How Manus AI Went From 'Unusable' to Meta's $2 Billion Acquisition

    From "shell product" to $2 billion in 9 months. The untold story of how Manus AI turned brutal criticism into the fastest acquisition in AI history. In this episode: Why invite codes sold for $14,000How Manus hit $100M ARR after being called "unusable"Why Meta paid $2 billion in just 10 daysThe shift from chatbots to AI agentsSubscribe to Oak Codex at forbiddentrust.com for the deeper version.

    4 min
  8. Why Chatbots Are Dead in 2026

    Jan 4

    Why Chatbots Are Dead in 2026

    Why AI chatbots are officially dead in 2026. I break down "AI slop," introduce the Talk vs Do test for evaluating any AI app, and explain why even Apple and Perplexity are struggling. Plus: generative UI and what's actually replacing text-based AI.

    7 min
  • 8 Episodes

About

AI, Tech, Design

Information

  • Creator
    Steve Oak
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Steve Oak
  • Show Website
    Oak Codex