Tyler Maddox
The Nexus of AI and Post-Labor EconomicsExploring the future of work, automation, and AI economics
AI, Work, and What Comes After
Thinking in the Red: The True Cost of a Thinking Partner
The Cognitive Partner Paradox: Re-evaluating the True Cost and Consequence of AI Reasoning Introduction: The Co-Processor Has Arrived, But the Bill is Coming Due The prevailing metaphor for Artificial Intelligence—that of a “tool”—is now dangerously…
Too cheap to meter AI—the lie. Margin eater, say hi
Economics of Illusion: Selling the Dream The AI reasoning revolution has created an industry-wide economic crisis where hidden reasoning tokens and infrastructure costs are driving unsustainable pricing models. From xAI’s Grok 4 with reasoning tokens costing $15 per…
A personal message
“The Displacement Is Already Happening. Most People Just Can’t See It Yet.”
After two decades watching technology reshape industries from the inside, I stopped consulting on automation and started asking harder questions — why does each wave of displacement hit harder than the last, and why do our institutions keep failing to absorb it?
That question became the Theory of Recursive Displacement: the idea that automation doesn’t just eliminate jobs, it restructures the conditions under which work, value, and institutions themselves operate. Each wave reshapes what the next wave hits.
I built RALPH at Recursive Institute to make that theory legible — not just to economists, but to anyone trying to understand what’s actually happening to the economy right now.
This is the work. You’re already in it.
