--- title: The studio that hired a model before an intern — Domin url: https://www.thedomin.com/story.html --- [← All stories](https://www.thedomin.com/stories.html) Story 01 · 06 Oct 2026 · 14 min # The studio that hired a model before an intern Sam’s studio has six people and no interns. Over two hours they explained why their first junior hire was a model, and what it taught them about managing people. ![Sam Hart, standing](https://www.thedomin.com/assets/guest-2.webp) this is Sam with Sam HartWords Vojtěch Brandejs · Pictures Sebastian Mensa ## TL;DR - Six people, no interns, one model doing the junior work. - They trained it like a person: a written list of everything they were tired of explaining. - The list turned out to be more valuable than the model. Talked for 2h 04m 1. 00:03:12Why a model before an intern? 2. 00:41:50Where did it stop being useful? 3. 01:12:05What is on the list? 4. 01:57:30What would you tell someone starting today? --- We met in their studio on a Tuesday, in the one room without screens. They had cleared the table and put a single sheet of paper in the middle, face down. We didn’t ask about it for an hour. > the sheet. we got to it eventually. Sam started the studio four years ago with two friends from school. They grew slowly on purpose: one new person a year, never more. Last spring, when the work finally outgrew the six of them, they didn’t post a job. They opened a chat window instead. “I wanted to see how far it would go before I needed a person,” they said. “It went further than I expected, and stopped exactly where I should have expected.” _The studio, the room without screens_ What they mean is taste. The model could resize, rename, write first drafts of client emails and turn meeting notes into tasks. It could not tell a good idea from a merely correct one. “That part is still my job,” they said. “Maybe it always will be.” 00:52:10It went further than I expected, and stopped exactly where I should have expected. > they said this twice, the second time slower. The surprising part was the list. To get the model to do the junior work well, they had to write down everything they usually explain to a new person: how files are named, what a client email should never say, when to ask instead of guess. It ran to eleven pages. ## The list They turned the sheet over then. It was page one of the eleven. The first line said: if you are not sure, ask, and ask early. The model follows it most of the time. The people in the studio, they admitted, follow it less often. _The list, pinned above the printer_ ## Day one > eleven pages. we counted. Now every new person, human or not, gets the same eleven pages on day one. They think that is the real change AI brought to the studio: not fewer people, but a studio that finally knows how it works. _Hours of junior work per week, before and after_ We asked what they would tell someone starting a studio today. They thought for a long time. “Write it down before you need it,” they said. “You will need it.” claude · story 01 sum up this story Small studio hires a model, ends up writing a manual for the humans. Honestly, relatable. Thanks for reading,![Vojta](https://www.thedomin.com/assets/signature.webp) ← Older · Story 02Teaching eight hundred people to ask better questions Newer · next story out 20 Oct → Usage resets on 20 Oct 2026 Take-home · from this conversation2 sheets [**The questions we asked** 1. Why a model before an intern? 2. Where did it stop being useful? 3. What is on the list? 4. What would you tell someone starting today? Story 01 · Sam Hart The questions Sheet · ask them yourself Download PDF ](https://www.thedomin.com/assets/pdf/story-01-the-questions.pdf) [**The whole conversation, in notes** · six people, no interns · model does the junior work · taste is still a person’s job · the eleven-page list · write it down before you need it 2 h 04 min, in 1 page The summary Sheet · 1 page Download PDF ](https://www.thedomin.com/assets/pdf/story-01-the-summary.pdf)