Letters by Burk #157: More of My Stack Runs Itself
AI agents, automation scripts, and one Chinese model that almost catches Claude
Hi friends,
This week I noticed how much of my routine runs without me now. Gumroad shipped a chat agent that handles support tickets on its own. My own Substack workflow runs on a script I built. Even picking an AI tool comes down to three good options depending on where I'm sitting.
And then there's Kimi K3, a new model out of China claiming to match Claude for a third of the price. Turns out that claim needs some math.
Here's my week.
A Chinese AI Model Beat the Mighty Fable 5
Kimi K3 beats Claude Fable 5 on a few real coding benchmarks, and Moonshot is selling it as a third of the price. Run the token math first. K3 needs more than double the tokens to finish the same job, and that number eats the discount fast.
Read it on Medium or on Substack.
The Best Personal Blog Sites in 2026 (In my Opinion)
Substack, Medium, WordPress, or building your own with AI now. I ranked the platforms I'd recommend, plus the new options.
Read it on Medium or on Substack.
Gumroad Shipped a CLI and an AI Agent
Gumroad's new Agent closed 478 of 479 support tickets in one 24 hour stretch. I ran the CLI myself on my own shop, here's what worked and what I'd still double check.
Read it on Medium or on Substack.
How I Automate My Substack Workflow
The writing stays mine. Everything after it, the formatting, the header image, the Note I used to forget about, now runs on a script I pieced together myself.
Read it on Medium or on Substack.
Three Ways I Use AI to Work
Web app, desktop app, or terminal? I use all three for different jobs. Only one of them actually won my daily driver spot.
Read it on Medium or on Substack.
🤔 FAQ
Is Kimi K3 actually a third of the price of Claude Fable 5? Per token, yes. Per finished task, not really. It needs more than double the tokens to get there, so the real gap shrinks fast.
Do I need to know how to code to automate a Substack workflow? I pieced mine together from three different open source projects, since Substack has no public API. Not a weekend project, but doable if you're patient.
Which AI tool should I actually start with? Depends where you already work. Web app for quick one-off tasks, desktop app if you want file and screen context, terminal if you're already comfortable there.
That's #157. Back soon. ✌️
