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8d •
📌 Start Here — read this first (2 minutes)
Welcome in. I'm Michael Chaves — I run Subtract Architect Studios in Concord, NH, and I built this room to teach the one thing nobody explains about AI: what it actually costs, and how to control it. Here's your first 10 minutes: 1. Say hello below. One line is plenty: your name, what you do, and what you use AI for. (Property managers and local business owners — you're in the right room.) 2. Do Module 1 (Classroom tab). "What Is a Token (and Why It Shows Up on Your Bill)." Five minutes, plain language. By the end you'll know the rough-count trick: characters ÷ 4 ≈ your tokens. 3. Post your number. Take the last thing you asked an AI to do, rough-count it, and drop it in the Module 1 check-in thread in this feed. Surprised or not — I read and reply to every one. How this room runs: - Mondays — a new lesson or focus post. - Thursdays — practice: worksheets, rewrites, check-ins. This is where the learning actually happens. - Wednesdays — my AMA thread: bring me your worst AI bill or your longest prompt. - Post your own AI cost questions anytime. If it's a real question, it belongs here. House rules (short): be decent, no pitching your own services in threads, no posting client/customer personal data — strip names and numbers that aren't yours to share before you paste a prompt. Module 2 is already waiting in the Classroom for when Module 1 clicks — that's the one where a prompt goes from ~800 tokens to ~100. Glad you're here. Go post that number. — Michael
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3d •
Module 1 is live: what did YOUR last AI request actually cost?
Module 1 — "What Is a Token (and Why It Shows Up on Your Bill)" — is live in the Classroom. Five minutes, no jargon. The one idea to keep: a token is the chunk of text the model actually reads and writes. Rough rule: **1 token ≈ 4 characters**. You pay for tokens in AND out — your prompt, the history the model re-reads, and the answer it sends back. Now run your number. Take the last thing you asked an AI to do: 1. Count the characters (or estimate by eye). 2. Divide by 4. That's your ballpark input tokens. 3. Was it a fresh chat, or message #15 of a long one? Long chats re-read everything, every time — your real cost was bigger than the prompt alone. Drop it in the comments like this: **My prompt:** [roughly what you asked] **Characters ÷ 4:** [your ballpark] **Fresh chat or long thread?** **Surprised or not?** I'll read and reply to every one. No wrong answers — if your number surprised you, Module 2 was made for you. — Michael
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8d •
Why I started this room
Quick story. I spent about twenty years in property operations — rent rolls, maintenance calls, owner reports, the whole pile. When I started using AI heavily, the tools were impressive and the bills made no sense. Same questions, wildly different costs, and nobody — not the platforms, not the gurus — could explain the meter in plain words. So I learned the meter. It comes down to one unit: the token. Once you see it, you can't unsee it, and your bill stops being a surprise. That's all this room is: the meter, explained plainly, with real numbers — and a group of owners and operators comparing notes. Module 1 is live in the Classroom. Start there, post your rough count in the check-in thread, and you're up to speed. If you know one person who uses AI at work and has ever said "wait, why is this so expensive?" — they're who this is for. — Michael
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In 10 minutes: learn what a token is, rough-count your last AI prompt, and see what your AI really costs. Token Economics, plain language. Free.
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