the unlimited token budget problem

every tool i touch this year sounds incredible in the demo.

claude. loop engineering. the whole agentic thing. all of it.

and it is. genuinely.

but here's the thing nobody says out loud. all of this is great because you have an unlimited api budget.

api billing only, and someone else owns the tab.

so when i read how everyone does their work, especially the people who built the tool themselves, i have to remember one thing. they never meter tokens. they just loop and loop until it works.

i don't get that. my tokens are real money.

so the same move that's an obvious win for them is a real decision for me. the trick isn't the tool. it's the budget.