From lathe to prompt: the Depression-era basement inventor hustle lives on in AI
sull · x · 2026-10-12
Drawing a parallel to Depression-era laid-off workers hustling with scrap metal, Popular Mechanics and invention fairs, the author argues today's equivalent is tinkering with AI and chasing GitHub stars to build skills and survive — the basement-inventor ethos unchanged, just swapping the lathe for the prompt.
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