Workflow Hub

I was tired of opening Spotlight every time I wanted to switch apps. The search results would move around, I would occasionally open the wrong app, and those few wasted seconds kept adding up throughout the day. Instead of memorizing a collection of unrelated hotkeys, I used ChatGPT Work to design and build a personalized shortcut system in Apple Shortcuts. The shortcuts can open individual apps, jump directly into specific Safari or Chrome profiles, or launch an entire work mode with one keystroke. For example, a recording shortcut could open your microphone, camera, recording software, and notes. An analytics shortcut could open all the dashboards you check each week. Step-by-step: 1. I opened the ChatGPT desktop app, started a new chat, and switched to Work mode. 2. I asked ChatGPT to plan shortcuts around my real workflow: Based on what you know about me and my workflow, suggest 10 time-saving hotkeys we can set up in Apple Shortcuts. I’m interested in opening specific apps and profiles based on what I need them for or what mode of work I’m going into. 3. I told it which apps, browser profiles, URLs, and work modes I use most. 4. I narrowed the list before making any changes by keeping the highest-frequency shortcuts and avoiding macOS or app conflicts. 5. In ChatGPT, I went to Settings → Computer Use and turned on Any App. 6. I gave ChatGPT the approved list and clearly limited its scope: Set these up in Apple Shortcuts. Do not change anything outside this list. Test each shortcut. 7. I opened All Shortcuts in Apple Shortcuts and ran each one manually. I used Quick Actions to add or change its keyboard shortcut. I like Control + Option because it is less likely to conflict with existing Mac commands. 8. I tested every shortcut while working in another app, checking that it opened the correct app, account, browser profile, or collection of tools before building more. 9. Once everything worked, I asked ChatGPT to create my reference: Write me a one-page cheat sheet of all the shortcuts you set up, where they live, and what’s left to do. The result is a personal shortcut system built around how I actually work, plus a one-page cheat sheet so I don’t have to memorize everything immediately. For the complete walkthrough, exact prompts, screenshots, and setup instructions, follow my full Rundown University guide: Use ChatGPT to Build a Custom Mac Shortcut System. Tools used: ChatGPT Work, Apple Shortcuts Industry: Cross-industry Tags: #chatgptwork #appleshortcuts #macautomation #productivity #workflowautomation

I’m pregnant with my second child. For my first, we had a doula, so my husband and I didn’t spend much time learning about labor positions or what can help during labor because we knew she would guide us. This time, we don’t have a doula, and we didn’t want to spend a lot of money on an online course or take the time to attend an in-person one. I asked ChatGPT to scour free resources from leading experts and create a mini-course we could work through, along with a cheat sheet for my husband to use during labor. It saved me hours of research and gave us an incredibly useful resource. Step-by-step: 1. I explained that I’m pregnant with my second child and that we had relied on a doula during my first labor. 2. I identified the information we needed to learn, including labor positions and what can help during labor. 3. I asked ChatGPT to scour free resources from leading experts and use them to develop a mini-course. 4. I also asked it to create a cheat sheet for my husband to use during labor. 5. We used the mini-course and cheat sheet as a more affordable and convenient alternative to an online or in-person course.

I use this workflow to handle new business enquiries by connecting AI to the actual business process instead of using AI as a standalone chatbot. The process moves each lead from AI qualification to a CRM update, sales notification, and follow-up. AI extracts the service required, budget, location, and urgency, then routes the lead based on the result: - High intent: Notify sales immediately - Medium intent: Start an automated follow-up - Low intent: Add the lead to a nurture sequence Step-by-step: 1. Capture the new business enquiry. 2. Use AI to extract the service required, budget, location, and urgency. 3. Update the CRM with the qualification details. 4. Route the lead according to its intent level. 5. Notify sales immediately for high-intent leads, start automated follow-up for medium-intent leads, and add low-intent leads to a nurture sequence.

I love reading, but I’m indecisive about what to read next. Lately, I’ve been getting recommendations from ChatGPT, which has led me to keep adding books to my to-read list instead of tackling the books that have been there for years. At the same time, searching through my 200 existing TBR books on Goodreads for one that matches my precise mood would be too time-consuming. To solve this, I exported all the books from my Goodreads bookshelf as a CSV file, uploaded it to ChatGPT, and asked it to recommend books from my “to-read” list that matched a description of what I was currently in the mood to read. For example, I asked it to recommend a book from my TBR list that was published in the 19th or 20th century and featured a strong, unforgettable heroine. It gave me a few options, and I decided to read *O Pioneers!* by Willa Cather next. One note: ChatGPT summarizes the plots of the books it recommends, so I suggest adding “no spoilers, please” to your prompt. Step-by-step: 1. I exported all the books from my Goodreads bookshelf as a CSV file. 2. I uploaded the CSV file to ChatGPT. 3. I described the kind of book I was currently in the mood to read, including publication period and character preferences. 4. I asked ChatGPT to recommend books only from my existing Goodreads “to-read” list. 5. I added “no spoilers, please” to prevent plot summaries from revealing too much. 6. I chose *O Pioneers!* by Willa Cather from the recommendations.

I built WarrantKit, an open-source (Apache-2.0) kill switch for AI agents. Each agent run receives a Warrant: a typed contract that specifies what the agent may do, for how long, and under which policy. A gateway checks every action before it reaches the outside world. When containment triggers, the runtime’s epoch advances, immediately invalidating every Warrant issued under the old epoch instead of allowing it to linger until a timer expires. Evidence of what happened remains separate from authority, and receipts can be verified offline with a standalone Python script. I designed the architecture and threat model, then used AI coding assistants for most of the implementation. I reviewed everything against an adversarial test suite and a real-host enforcement demo that others can run themselves. Before writing the mechanisms, I wrote tests for the attacks: replayed runtime reports, tampered event sequences, evidence attempting to upgrade itself into authority, and authority carried across execution boundaries. The suite has 202 passing tests, and several core behaviors exist because a test caught the system trusting too much. One example is a recovered runtime carrying a stale report into a new epoch. I then proved enforcement on a real Linux host with a cgroup-v2 real-kill demo before claiming it. The no-root demo is simulated, and the README says so. It also lists what WarrantKit is not. The architecture is layered: WarrantKit owns the authority lifecycle and verification; AgentContainment owns the enforcement boundary; and Warden, DProvenanceKit, and ClaimProofKit record evidence independently. Step-by-step: 1. I defined a Warrant as a typed contract specifying an agent’s permitted actions, duration, and governing policy. 2. I placed a gateway in front of the outside world so it checks every agent action before allowing it through. 3. I made containment advance the runtime’s epoch, invalidating every Warrant issued under the previous epoch immediately. 4. I kept evidence separate from authority and made receipts verifiable offline with a standalone Python script. 5. I wrote adversarial tests for replayed runtime reports, tampered event sequences, evidence attempting to become authority, authority crossing execution boundaries, and stale reports carried into a new epoch. 6. I implemented the system with help from AI coding assistants and reviewed the implementation against the test suite and a real-host enforcement demo. 7. I validated enforcement on a real Linux host with a cgroup-v2 real-kill demo, while clearly labeling the no-root demo as simulated in the README. 8. I kept authority lifecycle, enforcement, and evidence recording in separate architectural layers using WarrantKit, AgentContainment, Warden, DProvenanceKit, and ClaimProofKit.

My first media job was as a fact-checker at a major magazine. Those jobs have already mostly vanished before AI arrived, but now I use ChatGPT 5.4 Thinking as a last-pass fact-checker on my newsletters before I hit send. I'll ask it to identify inconsistencies, isolate the assertions that most need verification, and check key numbers, quotes, and factual claims against original or primary sources. In other words, it does not replace reporting, but it is remarkably good at stress-testing a draft before publication — essentially fact-checking my fact-checking. Step-by-step: 1. I pasted the nearly finished newsletter draft into ChatGPT 5.4 Thinking. 2. I asked it to identify inconsistencies and isolate the assertions most in need of verification. 3. I had it check key numbers, quotes, and factual claims against original or primary sources. 4. I reviewed the proposed corrections and followed the source trail rather than accepting changes blindly. 5. I used the result as a final stress test of my own reporting and fact-checking before publishing.

Sometimes I remember something perfectly badly: not its title, creator, or where I found it, but a sound, a color, a vague cover, a sentence, or a period in my life. I know it exists because I loved it, but I cannot name it. I use AI and my digital traces to recover songs, books, videos, articles, and quotes. Memory is not a catalog; it stores traces. AI can turn those traces into searchable hypotheses. Step-by-step: 1. I dump every surviving clue without waiting for a proper search query. The clues can be as rough as “The title sounded like nu nau tau,” “It was ambient or humming,” “The cover was maybe a green desert?” or “I knew it around 2019.” Another example is: “A book about makers and Disney. White 3D-printed figures, tiny people, and bears on a blue cover.” This is raw memory evidence. 2. I separate certainty from guessing by labeling each clue as certain, fairly sure, possible, or probably distorted. I keep uncertain clues, but do not treat them as facts. A wrong attribution or outdated cover does not invalidate everything else. 3. I reconstruct the original encounter. I ask where I was and whether I Shazamed it, saved it, sent it to someone, screenshotted it, or bought it at a book fair. In one case, I remembered hearing a song in someone’s car and Shazaming it because I could not parse the pronunciation. Remembering that capture action pointed to a retrieval source. 4. I search my own collections first: playlists, liked songs, Shazam history, saved videos, old posts, messages, bookmarks, notes, photos, receipts, and reading lists. The object may already be there under metadata I no longer remember. I start with the smallest reliable fragment. 5. I search for “nu” inside my playlists after remembering “nu nau tau.” That recovered Man O To — Nu. The artist and title had blended into one phrase, and the song was sitting in several playlists, including my Shazam collection. A clue does not need to be complete; it only needs to be distinctive enough inside the right collection. 6. I allow memory to scramble metadata. An artist and title may merge, album art may become song art, and a quotation may survive with the wrong poet attached. I split remembered phrases, swap artist and title, try different word boundaries, consider older releases, and search phonetically using similar syllables, vowel sounds, homophones, alternate spellings, or other languages. I also ask what the cover looked like when I knew it, because artwork changes. 7. I use context and cross-reference traces. A year, trip, relationship, or platform can narrow the search more than a half-correct title. Spotify might preserve the song, Shazam the discovery moment, and an old message the recommendation. Old posts are accidental archives, and dead links may still leave names, dates, or descriptions. If memory fails completely, I inspect behavior from the relevant period, such as repeated listening, watch history, purchases, or library loans. 8. I let AI propose candidates and compare them against several independent clues, including sound, subject, period, cover, and personal context. One matching detail is not confirmation. I show titles, covers, creator names, and short descriptions because recognition may succeed where recall fails. Rejections also help: “No, but the cover was more minimal,” “The title was shorter,” or “It was fiction, not nonfiction.” Each correction sharpens the search. 9. I pay attention to the strangest clue. The blue cover with white figures, bears, and a makers-and-Disney theme led to *Makers* by Cory Doctorow. 10. Once I confirm the object, I save the title, creator, link, why it mattered, and how I recovered it. For example: - Clue: “nu nau tau” - Encounter: heard in someone’s car and Shazamed - Search: Spotify/Shazam collection → “nu” - Result: Man O To — Nu - Distortion: artist and title blended together This becomes a retrieval playbook: which clues survive, where traces live, and how my memory distorts them. The overall workflow is: collect fragments → mark uncertainty → reconstruct the encounter → search personal traces → try phonetic, visual, and contextual clues → compare candidates → recognize and confirm → save the result and retrieval path. I do not need to remember the database fields. I need enough fragments to rebuild the trail. Sometimes the best clue is what I did when I first encountered something. Sometimes it has been sitting in five of my own playlists while I spend years wondering what it was called. 😑😭🎧

I started with a plain-language vision: a world championship where people create autonomous AI minds that compete in simulated markets. I used ChatGPT as a product architect to turn that vision into precise rules, technical specifications, development checkpoints, and tasks that could be completed one at a time. I then used AI coding agents, including Claude Code and Codex, to inspect the repository, write the React and TypeScript code, run tests, identify failures, and explain each completed change in plain language. Determinism and auditability were non-negotiable. Every match uses a reproducible seed, every autonomous mind trades in its own matching engine, and every decision is recorded in an auditable event ledger. After each development cycle, I tested the product, reviewed the interface on desktop and mobile, corrected problems through natural-language instructions, and saved a new canonical checkpoint. I deployed only after the automated tests passed. This allowed me, a 66-year-old self-taught non-programmer, to build a working autonomous-mind competition platform through human vision, AI collaboration, and strict verification. Step-by-step: 1. I defined the vision for a world championship in which people create autonomous AI minds to compete in simulated markets. 2. I used ChatGPT to develop the rules, technical specifications, development checkpoints, and one-at-a-time tasks. 3. I used Claude Code and Codex to inspect the repository, write the React and TypeScript code, run tests, identify failures, and explain completed changes in plain language. 4. I required every match to use a reproducible seed, each autonomous mind to trade in its own matching engine, and every decision to be recorded in an auditable event ledger. 5. After each development cycle, I tested the product, reviewed the interface on desktop and mobile, corrected problems through natural-language instructions, and saved a new canonical checkpoint. 6. I deployed only after the automated tests passed, enabling me to build a working autonomous-mind competition platform through human vision, AI collaboration, and strict verification. Explore the live platform: https://arenomics.com

Whenever a user wants to install a Skill, an MCP, or a CLI, the guard scans it for malware before installing it on all agent systems. Step-by-step: 1. Detect the user’s request to install a Skill, an MCP, or a CLI. 2. Scan the requested item for malware. 3. Install it on all agent systems.

I built a workflow called PeopleSparkles for researching people connected to creative fields, schools, collectives, residencies, local art scenes, and cultural networks. The workflow starts from a defined group of people, for example teachers, alumni, artists, current or former members of an association, residents, or associates connected to a specific academy, organization, or cultural scene. A typical research request can be as simple as: “Look at this art website and identify all current and former residents and associates. Build a list. Then research them in batches of ten, checking their websites and other relevant sources, and write a short description of their work. Deliver the results in a format that can be imported into my local database.” Before each new research run, I provide GPT with a ZIP containing the current state of the PeopleSparkles database. This means the research starts from the existing corpus rather than from scratch. New people can be added, existing entries can be expanded, and previously researched people can be recognized before new material is prepared for import. The actual database lives locally on my computer. Apart from the initial development of the code and the research needed to create new lists of people, the database itself runs locally. Once a new batch has been researched and imported, browsing, organizing, scoring, annotating, and using the material does not require the whole corpus to be sent back for analysis. The database also generates a human-readable HTML version with a designed layout, so the research is not trapped inside raw data or spreadsheets. I can browse the people and their notes visually as a small personal research publication, while the underlying structured data remains available for future additions and processing. The “Sparkles” part is personal. I can add my own notes and scores to each person to capture whether their work sparked something in me, and if so, how. That might be curiosity, recognition, inspiration, aesthetic attraction, a strong question, a surprising association, or simply the desire to look again. This means the database does not only record who someone is and what they make. It also records my evolving relationship to their work. Over time, that creates a second layer on top of the research corpus: not just a map of creative people, but a map of resonance. The database also includes a “Surprise me” function that brings up a person from the collection without me choosing them deliberately. This helps break habitual search patterns and allows older, less obvious, or previously overlooked entries to resurface. Someone I barely noticed months ago can suddenly become relevant in a completely different creative context. The purpose is not to create conventional biographies. I am interested in the sparks around a person: what they make, the media and themes they work with, the organizations or people they connect to, and which traces may lead somewhere unexpected. This is particularly useful for creative ecosystems where information is fragmented across artist websites, academy pages, exhibition archives, old posters, association websites, interviews, catalogues, and small cultural organizations. The workflow gathers those fragments into a cumulative research corpus. It also allows the research to grow organically. One artist may lead to a collective, a teacher to a former student, an exhibition to another maker, or an old membership list to someone whose work would never have appeared in a conventional search. In simple terms: existing local database → new source or people list → GPT-assisted discovery and research in batches → import-ready structured data → local database → HTML browsing, notes and scores → surprise rediscovery → new creative connections The result is a living creative research database that combines external research with personal resonance, so I can not only discover people, but also trace which work actually sparks something in me over time.

I built a self-hosted wine cellar app that runs in a Docker container on my home NAS and doubles as a personal AI sommelier. I add a bottle by taking a photo of its label with my iPhone. A vision model identifies the wine, vintage, region, and grape varieties, while a second model estimates its market value and writes tasting and pairing notes. The app renders a visual map of my rack, so I can see exactly where each bottle is and pull one without hunting. My ratings feed a taste profile built from my own history, which the AI sommelier chat uses to answer questions such as what to open with dinner or which bottles are drinking at their peak. The feature I use most is Scan & Check. When I’m in a store, I photograph a bottle and get a Collection Fit score based on my profile before buying it. The app also exposes an MCP endpoint, so Claude can search my cellar, score a wine, or list my top-rated bottles from any conversation. I built it almost entirely with Claude Code and use it daily from my phone. Step-by-step: 1. I run the wine cellar app in a Docker container on my home NAS. 2. I photograph a bottle’s label with my iPhone when adding it to the collection. 3. A vision model identifies the wine, vintage, region, and grapes, and a second model estimates market value and generates tasting and pairing notes. 4. I use the app’s visual rack map to locate bottles by slot. 5. I rate wines so the app can build a taste profile from my history. 6. I use the AI sommelier chat to choose what to open, including bottles that are drinking at their peak. 7. I use Scan & Check in stores to photograph potential purchases and review their Collection Fit score. 8. I connect to the app’s MCP endpoint so Claude can search my cellar, score wines, and list my top-rated bottles from a conversation.

Tell AI the Real Goal, Not Just the Scorecard THE PROBLEM When we give AI a task, we often describe success through measurable criteria: be fast, minimize errors, use fewer resources, produce a certain format, reach a quality score, or complete a list of steps. Those criteria are useful, but they are usually not the actual goal. A high score matters because it is supposed to indicate that the AI is doing something useful. Efficiency matters because we want to achieve something without wasting resources. A specific layout matters because someone needs to use the result afterwards. If the proxy becomes more important than the purpose behind it, the AI can technically satisfy the instructions while missing what we actually wanted. So I started making the hierarchy explicit. THE WORKFLOW Before a substantial task, I explain four things: Step-by-step: 1. The real goal What am I ultimately trying to accomplish? 2. Why that goal matters What function should the result serve in the real world? 3. The success criteria What signals, scores, constraints or output requirements help us judge whether we are getting there? 4. The important distinction Those criteria are indicators of success, not the goal themselves. Then, before execution, I usually ask for a short non-technical plan in plain language. Not code. Not internal terminology. Not a wall of implementation detail. I want the AI to explain: - what it thinks I am trying to achieve - what steps it plans to take - in what order - what it expects each step to accomplish - where it sees possible problems or ambiguity - what the final result should look like - where it will show me intermediate results before continuing That last point matters. For larger tasks, I do not want one giant jump from instruction to finished output. I want the AI to build in intermediate checkpoints with actual results. That can mean: - showing the first batch before processing the rest - giving a sample classification before applying it to hundreds of items - sharing an early pattern it found before building the full analysis around it - showing the structure of a document before filling every section - reporting that a planned step produced an unexpected result before silently adapting everything downstream The checkpoint should contain something useful enough to evaluate. Not just: «Step 2 completed.» But rather: «I processed the first 50 items. Most fit the categories we expected, but 12% fall into a pattern we did not account for. Here are three examples and how I suggest handling them.» That lets me see whether the task is still heading toward the actual goal. For example, my instruction might be: «The real goal is X. We care about Y because it helps achieve X. Z is a useful metric, but do not optimize Z at the expense of X. Before executing, explain in non-technical language how you plan to approach the task, step by step. Build useful intermediate results into the plan so I can inspect the direction before too much work depends on it. Flag anything that seems likely to satisfy the metric while undermining the actual purpose.» I can then say: «Yes, that is what I mean.» Or: «No, step 3 is where you are misunderstanding me.» And later: «This first batch looks right. Continue.» Or: «Stop here. The pattern you found changes how I want the rest handled.» Correcting a five-line plan or an early sample is much cheaper than correcting an entire finished workflow, analysis or file operation. WHY I LIKE IT This turns the interaction from: instruction → execution → correction into: purpose → shared understanding → visible plan → intermediate results → adjustment → execution It also helps me learn how the AI works. I do not need to understand every technical mechanism underneath it, but I do want a usable mental model of how it approaches problems. Over time, that makes collaboration easier because I get better at giving instructions, spotting misunderstandings early and knowing where extra context will matter. Intermediate results also make autonomy safer. The AI does not need permission for every tiny action, but it should avoid disappearing into a long chain of dependent decisions when an early misunderstanding could invalidate everything that follows. This can reduce unnecessary work, wasted compute and repeated corrections. The AI can still work independently once the direction is clear. The point is not to micromanage the process. The point is to make sure we are optimizing the right thing, travelling by a route we both understand, and checking occasionally that we are still on that route. A metric is a thermometer. The goal is to make the room warm, not merely to make the thermometer say 21°C.

To stay organized, my daughter used to spend hours entering every assignment from her college syllabi into a Google Sheet to create a semester assignment tracker. To save her that data-entry time, I put all of her downloaded syllabi into a folder on my computer. I then directed Codex to access the folder, read the syllabi, and create a spreadsheet with the course name, assignment, due date, and a completed column with a checkbox. Codex created a beautiful, easy-to-sort-and-filter spreadsheet containing all of the assignments. Now, my daughter only needs to spend a few minutes reviewing the spreadsheet before starting her semester. Step-by-step: 1. I collected all of my daughter’s downloaded college syllabi in a folder on my computer. 2. I directed Codex to access the folder and read the syllabi. 3. I asked Codex to create a spreadsheet with the course name, assignment, due date, and a completed column with a checkbox. 4. I reviewed the resulting spreadsheet, which included all of the assignments and was easy to sort and filter. 5. My daughter now spends a few minutes checking the spreadsheet and is ready for her semester.

I’m designing a publishing system that keeps producing value without requiring constant output. This workflow started with frustration about the usual content model: publish constantly, stay visible, feed the algorithm, and repeat. That model works poorly when my energy varies, my interests shift, and forcing output quickly turns creativity into maintenance. Instead of asking, “How do I post more?” I’m asking: “How can content keep moving without requiring me to keep producing at the same pace?” The system is built around uneven energy. During high-energy periods, I can generate ideas, draft pieces, collect fragments, or prepare several posts at once. During low-energy periods, existing material does not become a failure state. It can sit, mature, be lightly edited, be reused, or simply wait. Ideas can exist in different stages: a note, a half-developed thought, a finished piece, something worth revisiting later, or something that can be repurposed in another format. Older material is not automatically “used up” after publication. A long-form idea can become a short post. A workflow can become a case study. A conversation fragment can become an essay seed. A previous post can return later from a different angle. The goal is not to build a machine that constantly demands feeding. It is to create a content reservoir I can draw from when I have the capacity. This workflow has not been fully implemented yet, but the design principle is useful: > Build around energy reality, not around imaginary consistency. Content should fit into life. Life should not be reorganized to serve the content treadmill. Step-by-step: 1. I design the publishing system around variable energy rather than a constant production schedule. 2. During high-energy periods, I generate ideas, draft pieces, collect fragments, and prepare several posts at once. 3. During low-energy periods, I let existing material sit, mature, receive light edits, be reused, or wait. 4. I allow ideas to remain in different stages, from notes and half-developed thoughts to finished pieces and material worth revisiting later. 5. I repurpose older material across formats, such as turning a long-form idea into a short post, a workflow into a case study, a conversation fragment into an essay seed, or a previous post into a new angle. 6. I draw from the resulting content reservoir when I have the capacity instead of constantly feeding a content treadmill.

I built a repeatable, human-directed AI workflow for turning an original emotion, memory, or story into a finished WazWorld song, complete with cover artwork and release content. It addresses one of the biggest problems with AI music: a simple prompt can produce something technically impressive but generic, overproduced, or disconnected from the creator’s real intention. The workflow begins with a human trigger—an experience, relationship, place, mood, or musical idea that I genuinely want to express. WazWorld generally moves between dark alternative/electronic music and California coastal country-rock. Step-by-step: 1. I create a detailed artistic brief describing the song’s emotional core, story, genre, energy, vocal character, instrumentation, arrangement, dynamics, and intended listener experience. 2. I work with ChatGPT to develop and challenge the concept, write and rewrite lyrics, remove clichés, and design the full arrangement. This includes the intro, verses, choruses, instrumental passages, transitions, musical peaks, and outro. ChatGPT also helps translate my direction into precise production language and exclusions that Suno can understand. 3. I generate versions in Suno, treating each result as a demo rather than a finished song. I evaluate the vocal delivery, lyrics, bass, guitars, synths, drums, tempo, arrangement, and emotional impact. Then I make targeted prompt changes and generate new versions. A song may go through dozens of iterations before it sounds the way I originally heard it in my head. 4. After selecting the final music, I use ChatGPT and AI image generation to develop cover artwork that matches the song’s emotional identity. I adapt the artwork for streaming, YouTube, Instagram, Stories, and Shorts, then create the metadata, descriptions, captions, and promotional material needed for release. 5. I distribute the finished music through services such as DistroKid and publish it across streaming and social platforms. The final result is not a one-click AI song. AI provides creative and production tools, but I direct every major decision—from the original emotion and lyrics to the arrangement, instrumentation, vocals, artwork, and release strategy. Someone can recreate this workflow by starting with a clear human idea, documenting the desired sound, generating multiple versions, evaluating each one like a producer, and iterating until the finished work communicates the original intention.

I needed a way to turn long, sometimes messy teacher–student conversations and oral feedback into concise, actionable checklists that students could easily refer to as they worked to improve. The process also needed to protect student privacy and data. Step-by-step: 1. I identified the need to convert one-to-one conferencing conversations and oral feedback into a clear, usable format. 2. I focused on creating concise checklists students could refer to when making improvements. 3. I kept student privacy and data protection as requirements throughout the process.

I built a workflow for turning large ChatGPT conversation exports into a usable personal and creative archive instead of simply storing them as backups. The archive is processed incrementally. The inventory is built offline, and conversations that have already been indexed are not needlessly reanalyzed on every run. Each new export is compared with the existing archive, and only newly added conversations or conversations that have been revisited, extended, or otherwise changed are processed again and updated in the inventory. This keeps the workflow lightweight while allowing the archive to evolve over time. A conversation can remain stable for months, then become relevant again and receive new material without forcing the entire archive back through analysis. This matters because many of my conversations are long, layered thinking sessions: creative explorations, project development, research, problem-solving, or extended reflection. Without an inventory, the depth inside those individual conversations and thinking processes becomes difficult to retrieve later. The workflow makes long-form analysis and creative thought processes findable and reusable without flattening them into a few generic summaries. On top of the inventory, I use lightweight “blubscans” (analysis to improve retrieval): small, human-readable summaries that capture what mattered during a day or period without replacing the original conversations. They act as a navigational layer between thousands of raw messages and the things I may want to find, understand, revisit, or continue later. The important principle is that compression never becomes deletion. The raw conversations remain the source of truth, the inventory provides structure, and the scans provide context and tone. The result is more than a backup system. It becomes working creative memory: something I can preserve, search, revisit, connect across time, and reuse for projects, research, writing, pattern-finding, and future creative work. In simple terms, the structure is: raw exports → offline incremental inventory → blubscans/context layer → retrieval and reuse for later projects and creative work That way, the archive stays deep without becoming heavy, and useful without constantly reprocessing everything that was already understood. Step-by-step: 1. I collect large ChatGPT conversation exports as the raw source material for the archive. 2. I build and maintain an offline inventory of the conversations that have been indexed. 3. With each new export, I compare the conversations against the existing archive. 4. I process only newly added conversations and conversations that have been revisited, extended, or otherwise changed. 5. I update the inventory with the results while leaving stable conversations untouched. 6. I create lightweight “blubscans” with small, human-readable summaries of what mattered during a day or period. 7. I use the raw conversations as the source of truth, the inventory for structure, and the scans for context and tone. 8. I retrieve and reuse the archive for projects, research, writing, pattern-finding, and future creative work.

Sometimes a story needs a simple locator map to show where something happened or where something can be found—such as a business facility, a car accident, or the best place to see a sunset. I've worked in media for a long time and understand the power of maps to tell stories. But media cost-cutting and consolidation have reduced the number of available graphic departments, so creating a map is often the last task a reporter or editor wants to take on. I used Perplexity for initial research, Claude Code and Codex to build a web app, and Perplexity and ChatGPT for post-work such as SEO best practices. Step-by-step: 1. I used Perplexity's Deep Research mode to conduct a competitive market analysis. I asked it to analyze the field I was considering entering, identify competitors and growth rates, and explicitly break out feature sets. 2. I revised the research with my own idea and asked Perplexity to run the competitive landscape against it. I also provided desired outcomes, including intended audiences and where competitors were reaching them. I added the constraint, "Do it without syncophancy," so it would stop telling me how good my potential product was. 3. I hand-drew the initial screens and functions I wanted, then used the `/office-hours` skill in the Gstack bundle, available on GitHub, to play devil's advocate, sharpen the ideas, and challenge my assumptions. 4. I wrote a long prompt describing the product, starting broadly with the concept and audience and then narrowing to specific features and benefits. For example, I specified that it should export in 16:9 and 9:16 formats so maps would be ready for mobile vertical presentation. 5. I specified the hosting environment and that the product should be a web app. I also required a planning phase followed by construction phases. I pasted the prompt into Claude Code with this final line: "Use /grill-me to ask me questions to clarify intent." After 147 questions, it started the build. 6. This was in the pre-Fable days, so I specified that Opus 4.8 should act as an orchestrator while less expensive agents, particularly in Codex, handled the actual coding. 7. I used separate phases for technical work such as wiring in mapping providers and getting the UX to work correctly. Other phases included wiring in payment and subscriptions and making sure a subscription triggered an email campaign with instructions. 8. I dedicated an entire phase to building admin tools so I could manage the marketing language on the landing page and publish blog entries. 9. After each phase, I had the Opus/Codex combination perform an adversarial code-review-and-fix cycle. I then ran the `/ai-regression-testing` skill from the ECC repository on GitHub to catch issues the code review missed. 10. After every third phase, I prompted Claude Code: "Act as a senior QA engineer and go through the entire codebase looking for inconsistencies, functions that are in the wrong place, code that is overkill and security vulnerabilities." 11. When I had a product I thought was ready for testing, I prompted Claude Code, again using the Opus/Codex combination: "Act as a senior security engineer. Run this against OWASP standards. Find problems and suggest fixes. Harden this product overall." 12. As I neared the end, I asked Perplexity Deep Research and ChatGPT (Sol/High) to find SEO solutions for the product.

I built SITREP, a self-hosted AI RSS reader that turns roughly 30 articles a day into a single briefing I can act on. It runs in a Docker container on my home NAS, ingests full article text instead of the teasers most feeds provide, and uses OpenAI embeddings to collapse the same story reported by five outlets into one item. Every morning, it writes “The Brief” with the sections Headline, Defense & Aerospace, AI & Tech, and Elsewhere, followed by the two sections I care about most: Implications for my company and Personal Leverage. Each section includes numbered citations linking back to the source articles. SITREP only proposes leverage when the evidence supports it. It also uses a curated, non-sensitive profile of my business lanes and priorities, synced from my Obsidian vault, so its recommendations are specific to my work as a defense-industry VP rather than generic advice. I can select Update Brief at any time during the day to regenerate the briefing in place with a timestamp. Step-by-step: 1. I run SITREP in a Docker container on my home NAS. 2. I have it ingest the full text of roughly 30 articles each day rather than relying on feed teasers. 3. I use OpenAI embeddings to identify and combine the same story when it is reported by multiple outlets, including cases where five outlets cover it. 4. Each morning, SITREP generates “The Brief” with the sections Headline, Defense & Aerospace, AI & Tech, and Elsewhere. 5. It adds Implications for my company and Personal Leverage, using my curated, non-sensitive business profile and priorities synced from Obsidian. 6. It includes numbered citations to the source articles and proposes leverage only when the evidence supports it. 7. I select Update Brief during the day when needed, and SITREP regenerates the briefing in place with a timestamp.

AI can make a child’s drawing look more polished, but it can also erase exactly what made it interesting. A yellow tree, a rabbit larger than a person, a horse with impossible legs, or a tiny floating object may look like mistakes to a model—but they may be the whole point. I use the child’s drawing as art direction: preserve its visual logic, then build outward. The child supplies the invention; AI helps develop the surroundings. Step-by-step: 1. I read the drawing before transforming it by making a neutral description of what is visible: placement, relative sizes, colours, expressions, unusual shapes, and small details. For example: “A large yellow tree stands on the left. Two tiny figures sit near its trunk. A blue shape fills the lower right.” 2. I avoid deciding what an unclear shape represents. “An oval object with three legs” is more faithful than “a rocket” unless the child confirms it. If possible, I ask the child what is happening, since a strange proportion or colour may have a specific story behind it. 3. I separate essentials from flexible details in two short lists. Essentials might include the yellow tree, oversized rabbit, horse’s pose, characters’ arrangement, and red object in the corner. Flexible details might include lighting, textures, materials, environmental detail, and depth. 4. I make clear that the original is the structural source, not just a mood reference. This gives the model room to work while defining the boundaries. 5. I choose a target style, such as a storybook illustration, watercolour, digital painting, comic panel, or 3D scene. 6. I explicitly ask the model to preserve unusual proportions, unexpected colours, expressions, and relationships between characters. I identify details that must remain, even if they appear anatomically impossible or visually awkward. I avoid vague instructions such as “make it better,” because they leave the model to decide what counts as improvement. 7. I use a starting prompt such as: “Use this drawing as the structural blueprint for a storybook illustration. Preserve the composition, relative sizes, poses, expressions and original colour choices. Keep the yellow tree and the rabbit larger than the person. Do not normalize unusual anatomy or remove unexplained objects. Add texture, lighting and environmental depth around the existing scene.” 8. I treat comparison as part of the workflow because specific instructions do not guarantee a faithful result. I expand the world around the invention: a blank background can become a forest, a blue patch can become a pond if that interpretation fits, and two skiing figures can gain a mountain landscape. 9. I keep the original spatial relationships: who stands beside whom, what dominates the scene, which way characters face, and where empty space matters. I give colour the same care, so a yellow tree does not quietly become green because the model expects green trees. 10. I place the source and result side by side and check whether a character disappeared, the rabbit shrank, the palette changed, or the model invented a focal point, “fixed” an unusual shape, or altered the story. I also watch for generic cuteness—big eyes, pastel colours, and perfect symmetry—which can make very different drawings converge into the same image. I ask whether the result still feels like an expansion of this exact drawing. 11. If most of the result works, I request a targeted edit, such as: “Keep this version, but restore the original hair shape.” “Make the rabbit larger again.” “Return the tree to yellow.” 12. I check the whole image after each local edit because changes can affect other areas. I keep useful versions instead of repeatedly starting over. 13. I treat handwritten text separately. I do not guess unclear wording, correct spelling, or invent labels. If the tool cannot reproduce the text faithfully, I retain the original lettering through a separate editing step. 14. I save the original photo or scan alongside the result, instructions, and useful intermediate versions. I also keep a brief note about protected details to make future transformations easier. 15. Once I have a faithful version, I explore alternatives such as a space setting, surreal painting, or cinematic scene, keeping them as branches from the original. Across several drawings, I preserve recurring colours, shapes, and characters without forcing every image into one rigid style. The child has already decided who exists, what matters, how large things are, and what belongs together. Those decisions are creative direction. A drawing does not need to become less itself to become more finished. The impossible colour may be the atmosphere, and the awkward shape may be the character. The question I return to is: “How can I help this drawing become more fully what it already is?”