What I learned using AI enough to write 4,000 novels
· 7 min read
I recently checked my OpenRouter stats and discovered something surprising: I've used more credits than 98% of people on the platform. Not because I run an AI company or manage a team of engineers. Just me, using AI to augment my daily life.
Over the year, I've accumulated hundreds of millions of tokens across different models as I upgraded, experimented, and built systems that work. That's roughly equivalent to writing 4,000 novels worth of text. All this testing and development has taught me deeply about how AI models work together, what they're each good at, and what it really takes to build reliable AI systems.