{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Near Future Podcast","title":"Ep #15: Matt Webb (Inanimate): Building an Inventor's Practice, Poem/1's Retro Charm, and Agentic Fulfilment","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/c39062f5\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4338,"description":"Tom and Jonny sit down with inventor Matt Webb, the man behind Berg, Little Printer and the poetry clock Poem/1. They dig into how he built a practice around human-computer interaction, small groups and the physical world, unpack the retro charm of his ageing AI clock, and go behind the scenes of the Claude-powered agents running Poem/1's Kickstarter fulfilment.\nKey takeaways\nShape your role around your practice. Matt focuses on human-computer interaction, small groups and the physical world, rather than chasing a job title.\nAI is a rubber duck, not a co-writer. Its value is helping you think aloud without replacing your voice.\nUniversal Basic Agency. AI can help non-experts cross the single technical hurdle blocking an idea.\nAgents can turn exceptions into policy. Poem/1's fulfilment agent proposes reusable rules for a shared SOP, so problems are solved once.\nReports can reveal more than dashboards. Daily narratives surface patterns you did not know to track.\nMake deliberate time to learn new tools. Matt blocks at least a day a week because the gains compound.\nBuilding on a model means borrowed time. Poem/1 relies on a retiring model whose strange tone newer models cannot reproduce.\nPoem/1 is an invisible social network. All 700 clocks show the same poem at the same moment worldwide.\nChapters\n0:04 — Intro and Matt's career throughline\n5:56 — Leaving leadership to build\n7:28 — AI and unblocking imagination\n13:02 — Keeping AI out of your voice\n17:35 — ChatGPT and tldraw as a rubber duck\n24:12 — The imagination bottleneck\n29:04 — Universal Basic Agency\n34:38 — The story behind Poem/1\n44:44 — A retro AI product and invisible network\n52:08 — Agentic Kickstarter fulfilment\n1:02:54 — Reports versus dashboards\n1:06:40 — Quickfire questions\nMentioned in the episode\nMatt\nMatt Webb's blog, Interconnected — interconnected.org\nUnoffice Hours (his 30-minute call booking system) — interconnected.org/home/2020/09/24/unoffice_hours\nActs Not Facts, his consulting practice —...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/8vUveugi5ZjKDI2pGhMY6ZwBcP7SSSqiqKb9hZCqvHM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lOGE1/OTk1MmI3NWJjZTAw/Y2EyMWJjODZkODFj/MjI4MC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}