Joe's Shipyard · Back to the yard

Three tides

The 1820s had the sail. The 1920s had the port. The 2020s have the AI answer. Same voyage, three times, and the same question each time: who gets found?

LAT 32.92 N · Scripps Ranch, San Diego · Launched 2026-10-15
Why the flag

Every age has a sea to cross and a lighthouse that decides who gets found.

Safe water

On a beach or a boat, green means conditions are favorable. We tell B2B teams when the water is good for them, and when it is not.

Read the water

We measure how AI engines answer your buyers before anyone spends. A sounding before the voyage.

Earn the light

AI cites the press. About 84% of AI citations come from earned media, so we earn the coverage that gets you cited.

Muck Rack, May 2026
Three tides

1820s, 1920s, 2020s: the same voyage, three times.

The sail · woodcut
1820s
  • Mexico opens California's ports in 1821. Boston traders sail in for hides, tallow and furs.
  • Dana's crew throws hides off the bluffs that now carry his name. Dana Point.
  • New England whaling invents the venture book: a third of voyages lose, a few pay for all.
  • Lowell opens 1823. The Erie Canal opens 1825.
NPS · Wikipedia · Byte-Sized History · ushistory.org
The port · deco + data
1920S
  • Los Angeles passes San Francisco in 1920 and doubles to about 1.24M by 1930.
  • Oil, film and the West Coast's busiest port. Hollywood makes 90% of major American films.
  • US Destroyer Base San Diego, February 23, 1922.
  • In Vienna, a woodcut artist starts drawing data. Isotype is born.
LAPL · Naval History and Heritage Command · Wikipedia
The answer · clean
2020s
  • Buyers ask an AI first. The answer is the new harbor. Inference
  • San Diego is home port for nearly a third of the Navy's afloat Pacific assets.
  • AI capital runs the whaling book again: power-law voyages. Inference
  • Whoever gets cited gets found.
NHHC · Muck Rack, May 2026
The 1920s chart room

Woodcut became data.

In 1926 Otto Neurath found Gerd Arntz through his woodcuts and hired him to draw statistics. Their rule: show more with more copies of the same symbol, never a bigger one. We chart the same way.

Los Angeles doubles

1 ship = 100,000 residents
1920~0.6M
1930~1.24M
LAPL, L.A. in the 1920s · 1920 value derived from "doubled by 1930"

The world in 1820

1 ship = 2% of world output
China33%
India16%
USA1.8%
Maddison estimates via Wikipedia, 1990 int'l $ · America started as the small coastal upstart
Parallel1920s2020s
New channelRadio and filmAI answers and short video Inference
Boom fuelOil: about a quarter of world petroleum from LA CountyCompute and AI capital Inference
The harborSan Pedro, busiest port on the West CoastA few AI engines every buyer passes through Inference
Selling a placeThe All-Year Club markets Southern California; tourism hits about 10% of LA's economy by 1930AEO: marketing a company into the AI answer
Legible dataIsotype pictograms for the publicThe Almanac: GFD's AI Answer Index
The riskThe decade ends in 1929A correction in AI capital is plausible Speculative
Ship's words

How we name things now.

SoundingAn AI search audit. Measure depth before you sail.
The AlmanacThe AI Answer Index. Who gets cited, by category, weekly.
LighthouseBeing the source an AI cites.
ChartsEarned media the models trust.
CrewAgents. They draft; a human approves.
LogbookDated wins nobody can argue with.
WeatherAccounts at risk, seen early.
Hide tradeSyndication: raw material to the ship that carries it.
In the yard

More hulls on the stocks.

This page is one pier in Joe's Shipyard. The rest of the yard has the supply lines, the launch ledger and everything still being built.

Take me back to the yard

The print shop

Prompts for the woodcut and deco plates.

Each prompt already carries its style tail. Paste into Midjourney, then recolor the keepers to two inks.