I-Ching, Taste & Transparent Systems

CTO & Founder of Digital Rain Technologies. Builds at the intersection of AI and culture — 8-Bit Oracle (8bitoracle.ai) and Six Lines (sixlines.online). For enterprise — ARA Eval (ara-eval.org) and Ridgeline (ridgeline.works). Previously 12 years at Informatica across APAC, MENA, and Europe. BS in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego.

Chapters

1. 0:00Intro — recording at Auki Labs in Hong Kong
2. 1:07The HK AI scene — doers vs talkers
3. 2:44Aug's midlife crisis AI journey — dad, layoffs & the I-Ching
4. 4:20What is the I-Ching? Hexagrams for beginners
5. 6:00Following his father's footsteps with AI
6. 7:19Eliza, the Turing test & early AI history
7. 8:34AlphaGo — the milestone nobody expected
8. 10:17People falling in love with chatbots
9. 11:19Transparent systems — why black boxes are dangerous
10. 14:02AI Tinkerers Hong Kong — the community explained
11. 16:38Imposter syndrome & why raw demos matter
12. 18:48Building AI that shows its reasoning
13. 20:05Symbolic systems — I-Ching as compressed context for AI
14. 22:00Mr. Sam — the I-Ching master who double-checks the AI
15. 25:15Progressive disclosure & dynamic AI-driven UIs
16. 27:20Part 2 — back at Auki Labs
17. 28:10Claude, Anthropic & choosing your AI model
18. 30:08Claude Code for non-coding — scanning woodblock prints
19. 30:54What is a token? The electricity bill analogy
20. 32:44OpenCode.ai & free models — the cheapskate's guide
21. 35:46Sticking with one tool — the hammer philosophy
22. 37:28AI models leapfrog each other — just wait a few weeks
23. 39:27Taste & aesthetics — the new competitive edge
24. 41:33Why coding matters less but structured thinking doesn't
25. 43:53Vibe coding — what it is & where it breaks
26. 45:42Vibe code recovery — a future business opportunity
27. 48:00Claude as a smart intern — powerful but risky
28. 49:40Building Six Lines — solo iOS app in 6 weeks with AI
29. 52:31AI in culture & creative — beyond boring enterprise apps
30. 52:57Robot chefs & fried rice — AI in unexpected places
31. 56:18Camus, Sisyphus & finding meaning in AI uncertainty
32. 56:31The I-Ching as the Book of Changes — resilience in chaos
33. 57:49Ancient wisdom meets modern AI — Buddhism & beyond
34. 59:16Ray Dalio, market cycles & the 60-year Chinese cycle
35. 59:32Outro — people meet people, AI edition

About This Episode

Aug steps in front of the camera for this one. We talk about his journey with the I-Ching, the challenges in teaching AI 'taste', and why transparent systems matter more than clever ones.