1. Last week when the OpenAI drama resurfaced, my first move was checking my own account
Last week when the OpenAI mess got dug up again, my first reaction wasn't to grab popcorn — it was to dig through my own ChatGPT conversation history.
2. What actually happened that Altman night — and why it matters to us
That November 2023 weekend, OpenAI's board suddenly pushed Sam Altman out of the company, with co-founder Greg Brockman resigning in solidarity. My friend A Qiang runs a Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) side hustle — every viral post title he writes lives inside a custom GPT he'd spent two months tuning. The next morning he couldn't log in. Not banned — OpenAI's API just went haywire for 6 straight hours. When a client messaged "can tomorrow's post go live?", he had to swallow hard and reply "give me a bit more time".
3. What it costs to build this "no-fear" setup
Money: $0
Time: 2 hours this afternoon
Technical bar: knowing how to open a notes app
First step: Open your notes app. List every AI tool you touch daily. Next to each, write one line: "If it dies tomorrow, how many days can I last?"
I only started doing this after that 2023 mess — before then I kept thinking "OpenAI's so massive, what could go wrong?" Now I get it: even the biggest companies are still companies, not your backyard.
4. Pick one line based on where you are right now
Just starting: Do one thing — copy your 3 most important prompts into your notes app or Feishu doc. 10 minutes. It's fine to skip today.
Got 1-2 clients: Spend 1 hour a month running the same task on two AI tools (e.g., send the same prompt to both ChatGPT and Claude). Don't let client work hinge on a single vendor.
Growing seriously: Honestly ask yourself: "If ChatGPT shut down tomorrow, how many days to migrate my business?" Over 3 days is a red flag.