I don't publish content on this website that was prepared by AI tools or LLMs and pass it off as my own.
Like many people these days, especially those of us in the tech sphere, I use AI tools daily for many mundane and repetitive tasks. LLMs are great for creating or digesting huge amounts of text, which is a blessing and a curse.
When it comes to my public outputs, my primary uses of AI tools are:
Outside of publishing, my humble web search has been somewhat replaced by AI tools. This is something I resisted for a long time because (humblebrag) I'm pretty good at searching. However the ability to quickly cut through the modern world of SEO tripe and refine or iterate on searches has just become much faster and less frustrating for me. And yes, I double check anything even remotely important.
When it comes to this blog, I don't have LLMs write for me. Just like Derek Sivers I often ask LLMs to help me with the things I'd otherwise ask somebody next to me: What are examples of xyz? Where did abc come from? Who first uttered the phrase “Well when events change, I change my mind. What do you do?”? (nope, still not sure on that one). Just like a web search, the output informs my thinking and my words flow out of my fingers just like the good old days.
I do use Claude and ChatGPT to quickly identify themes, help with proofreading, and sometimes help with sequencing of content.
The final written word that you see is always mine.
I’ve used AI tools (primarily but not only Claude Code) to help implement shell scripts and CSS styling to streamline my blog publishing. I've also built toy projects using these tools, but nothing that has been published.
I’ve “built” a few apps that are now available in the App Store for modest prices. These have been very hands-on projects, and they are built using AI tools.
My approach to these coding tools is to assume the role of a Product Manager, build my own backlog, and undertake my own testing. This leaves the work of actually coding the app as the gap I can’t fill myself, so this is the part I outsource to the LLM under my supervision. I don’t see this as ”YOLO just throw a prompt in and publish it”, it is a much slower process more akin to working with a competent developer.
My perspective is that these apps are built to scratch my own itch first, and help others second. They are apps that wouldn’t be built if they required other humans to be involved, and as I would rather have the app than not I am comfortable with this trade-off.
This might change in the future, and I'll update this page when that day comes. I might even get an AI tool to do that update.
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Last updated June 2026 to clarify the preamble and include commentary on released products.
This page was inspired by Derek Sivers.