At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Codex-first PM workflow for AI design, slides, and career survival
- Meng To argues Codex is a “ChatGPT on steroids” because it is project- and folder-based, can operate on local files, and can use tools (including “computer use”) to execute real work rather than just chat.
- A practical setup is emphasized: keep work local in structured project folders, use Obsidian as a knowledge layer to organize the flood of AI-generated docs, and add voice input (WhisperFlow) to increase throughput.
- The episode differentiates plugins vs skills vs computer use, framing plugins as deep integrations, skills as user-configurable reusable instructions/recipes, and computer use as a universal automation layer that can click through any UI.
- Live demos show Codex planning-first workflows (Plan mode), permission tiers, generating slides from real local data, iterating with screenshots as high-signal context, and using a “taste” skill to raise design quality.
- Career-wise, Meng claims layoffs disproportionately hit non-technical PMs, and “technical” now means understanding AI/tooling jargon and orchestrating an agent fleet to deliver above-baseline quality—potentially as a founder with AI handling the “janitor work.”
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasTreat “projects” as folders to make AI work persistent and reusable.
Meng’s core workflow is folder-based: each Codex project points at a local directory so artifacts (markdown, images, code, slides) remain accessible outside the chat and can be organized like real work products.
Use Obsidian as the organizational layer for AI-generated documentation.
Codex may generate many .md docs, but you won’t want to hunt them in chat history; Obsidian provides a navigable knowledge base (“brain tree”) over the same local folders.
Start with Plan mode to prevent premature building and reduce rework.
He repeatedly recommends asking the agent to plan first (MVP, architecture, steps, deliverables), then asking clarifying questions before authorizing execution—especially for app builds and presentations.
Choose automation depth: plugins for integrations, skills for reusable guidance, computer use for universal UI control.
Plugins are “team-built” integrations (Gmail, Calendar, Linear), skills are lighter-weight user-defined recipes (copywriting, SwiftUI, Tailwind, “taste”), and computer use can operate any app even without an integration.
Permissions and token settings are product decisions, not just preferences.
Meng frames default vs full access and low/medium/high compute as levers balancing trust, cost, and accuracy; he uses higher settings with more tokens to run many concurrent agents.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesTechnical is this. This is what I mean by technical. You're no longer the, the bureaucracy player, the politics player in the company. Nobody needs that anymore, because AI can kind of juggle around that.
— Meng To
You have an army of agents. So when I say an, an agent, like this is an agent, this is an agent, this is an agent, and they're all working simon- simultaneously.
— Meng To
So Codex, which for those who don't know, is basically the ChatGPT but 10X, like on stero- steroids basically.
— Meng To
HTML is gonna be the most controlled, the fastest, and it's all gonna happen in Codex.
— Meng To
Eventually, you will get fired because AI will replace everyone at some point, or we will find new ways to, to do our job.
— Meng To
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
