Aaron Makelky on AI Scouts, Snow Globes, & Building vs. Consuming

Matt Karabinos sits down with Aaron Makelky—former history teacher turned Community & Developer Relations Manager at Descript—to explore the wild, humbling, and often hilarious journey of discovering AI. From a student showing Aaron ChatGPT after a Thanksgiving break to both men leaving the classroom within a month of each other, this episode is a real conversation between two educators who went all-in on AI before it was mainstream. They dig into the "tech lash" in schools, Aaron's powerful "snow globe" analogy for how schools operate, why every staff needs AI scouts, how they're raising AI-literate kids at home, and what vibe coding is really unlocking for everyday people. After this episode, you should be asking yourself, "are you consuming, or are you building?"

Timestamped Show Notes

• 0:00 — Intro: How Matt & Aaron Met — A LinkedIn DM friendship and parallel paths out of teaching
• 2:56 — Aaron's AI Origin Story — A student shows Aaron ChatGPT after Thanksgiving break; he's never the same
• 11:59 — From Classroom to Dev Relations — Aaron describes his new role teaching creators and developers instead of students
• 14:08 — The Snow Globe: Schools & AI — Aaron's analogy for how schools operate in isolation and why that's a problem
• 16:01 — AI, Cheating & Classroom Conversations — Why students are confused about AI cheating rules and what we should be teaching instead
• 16:22 — Raising AI-Literate Kids — Aaron's 8-year-old wants an AI agent; the Ozzy Osbourne AI fact-check lesson; his son as the classroom's AI scout
• 20:15 — Vibe Coding & Building Things — Aaron vibe codes a full summer routine tracking app from handwritten notes in one hour
• 23:58 — Consuming vs. Building: The Final Takeaway — AI puts everyone in one of two categories; which one do you want to be in?

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