Token efficiency will replace token maxing as the next dev consultant class
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zw-Uk9KJiA
- Original title: Everyone is Wrong about Tokens
Prime reacts to "Papa Pete" spending $1.3M / 603B OpenAI tokens in 30 days on a single project (OpenClaw). He predicts the AI-influencer narrative that you need infinite token spend to "make it" will reverse hard. Companies that 18 months ago required VP sign-off for a $400 RAM upgrade are not going to keep blank-checking $1.3M/mo agent runs once the novelty wears off — a new consultant class of "token efficiency coaches" (his nightmare: agile-coach-style prompt trainers) will emerge to audit waste.
Core argument
- $1.3M = ~30 engineer-equivalents at $50k/mo; no company tolerates that per project once finance regains control.
- 10x-cheaper-per-year promise is 2 years old and tokens feel more expensive, not less. Infrastructure (power, GPUs) can't support universal Pete-level spend.
- OpenAI/cursor genuinely believe the Wall-E infinite-token future; this isn't pure marketing, it's their worldview — they benefit either way.
- New tradeoff: buy vs build vs vibe. Vibe costs both time and money.
Prediction
- Within ~year, the discourse flips from token maxing to token efficiency.
- Performance metrics shift from "how much you spent" to "features delivered per token".
- "Prompt trainer" / token-efficiency consultant class will become the new agile coaches — worse than the crypto-to-AI fluencer pivot.
Sponsor segment
Cursor Cloud Agents — laptops don't need to stay open, mobile-controllable, phone-viewable game playthroughs as MP4.