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**Tom Morgan** New York City I'm Tom Morgan, a New York-based explorer of the digital wilds—IT, emerging tech, AI, machine learning, online monetization strategies, and yes, even Lakshari-inspired approaches to building wealth with intention and flow. For the past 11+ years, I've been knee-deep in these worlds: testing tools, running experiments, failing spectacularly sometimes, and occasionally hitting wins that actually stick. I graduated from **New York University** with a Bachelor's in Computer Science, heavy on AI and machine learning courses back when neural nets were still mostly academic curiosities rather than everyday hype machines. NYU's Courant Institute scene—right in the heart of Greenwich Village—was electric. Late-night coding sessions in the labs, arguments about ethics in algorithms over coffee at Think Coffee, and watching startups pop up around Washington Square Park. It gave me the technical backbone, but honestly, the real education came from applying it outside the classroom. Reality check: I never took the classic Big Tech path. Instead, I jumped into freelancing and consulting for small-to-mid NYC businesses during the 2020 remote-work explosion. Helped shops pivot to e-commerce, built basic ML models for customer prediction, and learned fast that theory crashes hard against real budgets and messy data. Along the way, I started experimenting with online income streams myself—affiliate sites that quietly earned four figures monthly in passive revenue, AI-assisted content tools (some bombed because I ignored privacy red flags early on), newsletter growth to a few thousand subscribers without dropping a dime on ads. The pattern? Sustainable earning isn't about viral hacks; it's niche depth + consistent delivery + ruthless testing. What sets my take apart: I blend the analytical with the almost-spiritual. Lakshari (that fascinating intersection of ancient abundance principles and modern digital leverage) resonates because it reminds me that money flows better when aligned with value and awareness—not just grinding. Meanwhile, I'm skeptical of the endless AI hype cycles. Everyone screams "revolutionary," but I've seen too many tools promise the world and deliver mediocre automation at best. In conversations at NYC tech meetups, I keep pushing back: Sure, generative models boost productivity 40-50% in writing or code (real numbers from my own tracking), but without fixing biases in training data or addressing hallucination risks, we're just speeding up flawed decisions. Outside screens? I'm an urban forager in NYC's parks—Central Park, Prospect, even scrappy community gardens. Started during lockdown as a way to unplug; now it's my reset ritual. Spotting edible plants amid concrete chaos feels like a perfect parallel to finding underrated online opportunities everyone else overlooks. (Pro tip: wild garlic mustard is everywhere in spring, and it's free pesto material.) Bottom line: If you're navigating tech trends, trying to monetize skills online, or just want unfiltered takes that cut through vendor BS and guru noise, stick around. I write, test, share failures openly, and occasionally drop practical guides that actually work in 2026's landscape. Catch me on X at [@rkmlm1976](https://x.com/rkmlm1976) where I post quick thoughts, experiment updates, and the occasional rant about overhyped tools. Or find me on LinkedIn, or shoot an email if you're in NYC and want to grab coffee—or swap foraging spots. Let's talk real implementations, not just theory. By Tom Morgan (11 years researching digital technologies, AI tools, machine learning applications, and online monetization experiments in NYC's freelance and startup scenes) with Grok by xAI | March 03, 2026