Embracing AI Without Losing Your Mind

**cstreet** (0:00)
All right, welcome to another episode of The Human Layer, here with friends, collaborators, dreamers, excited to dive in to, I think, all things sort of emerging tech, AI specifically as it relates to personal relationships, actual work getting done, being grounded and feeling like we're not losing our damn minds in the middle of 2026 So, Crystal, anything else you want to say? And then we'll turn it over and let, we're here with Jon and Neil and let them kind of kick things off.

**Crystal** (0:36)
Yeah, I think that sounds good.
One thing I do want to make sure we dive into at some point, not right off the bat, obviously, is I want to get into weaponizing AI for good. So, buddy, just let that marinate in the back of your brains, and then we'll dive in. And just a little production note, we have three mics instead of four, so give us a little grace.

**cstreet** (0:56)
We're friendly, it's okay. We'll probably be a parent when our mouths are nearly touching.
Neil, Jon, awesome to have you guys. Thanks for making space. We're in the Regen Hub in Boulder, which you guys live and work here. But thanks for inviting us up and allowing us to do it on site. Always fun to do it in person. So, whatever you want to say from an intro perspective, and then we're just going to let things roll. Sure.

**Neil** (1:21)
Good to be here. I've taken a step back from the Regen Hub in the last two months. To just work on other processes and other case studies. But I've been plugging in in the last week or two, which is good, interesting timing.
I am a creative director now, but I started my career out as a sign painter, and I've worked my way up from that ground floor. And I'm self-taught, I'm very self-taught across many mediums. And I think that's important for the creative output because we need to be visionary and thinking through things and explorative and maybe not taking our ego so seriously.
And I think Q working with Jon, I met Jon probably a year and a half ago at the Regen Hub. And it just was like, you can feel when there's good vibes with people and there was good vibes with them. And I think that was mirrored then in our process of working together. So I won't go too far, but yeah, I'm like working on the brand design side of life for the last 15 years, brand systems. And I think as it relates to the intent behind product and tooling and how we kind of communicate that better in the world.

**Jon** (2:40)
I'm Jon. As Neil mentioned, sort of the showing up in the software side of things, the building side. Also, college, self-taught, college dropout, started going after the computer science thing and then realized, oh, you could just go work at a start-up. And they want that and they don't care about credentials. So that's led to an interesting 10 years of working with companies of various sizes and organization levels.
But yeah, when I'm not sort of deep in computer land, trying to get more comfortable with building things with my hands, a little more like well-rounded as far as trying to be an engineer and make things in the world, not just in software and the bits.
But yeah, it's been awesome working and shipping small things. I think with Neil, we have a way of just cutting down what, like to the problem that we're trying to solve, trying to like remove everything unnecessary. And then hopefully what's left is like the valuable thing. So that's been awesome. And it's been a great year and a half working together.

**cstreet** (3:45)
I'm addicted to the idea of like atoms meet bits, whether it's having been a sign painter, just knowing that like getting your hands dirty, whatever that looks like. Yeah, I don't know. That seems to be of huge value right now for those that are deep in AI, certainly, and finding themselves pulled into more of the bits than the atoms.
Yeah, it seems like some of us are just fortunate. That just is like how we grew up. I literally like played in the dirt most of my life growing up in Evergreen in Colorado. But yeah, it certainly feels like those that I align with, they have some healthy balance of both of those things.

**Crystal** (4:25)
Yeah, that definitely. I think one of the things that all of us share too, is the ecosystems that we come from as builders. And for the past decade or so, the decentralized world is all about just building and making a mess. And I feel like that cues us up for this phase of technology to really understand how to use it, because you have to use it and make a mess.