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I built a second workflow that scans my conversations daily for ideas worth developing, especially strange connections, creative concepts, humor, research leads, unfinished experiments, and thoughts that may have seemed minor when they first appeared. Instead of turning everything into tasks, it creates an incubator: a place where interesting material can remain dormant until it connects with something new. The daily scan looks for fragments with creative or exploratory potential. They do not need to be fully formed ideas. A small observation, an odd comparison, a half-finished concept, a recurring image, or a funny side remark can all be worth keeping if they might become meaningful later. Once a week, the incubator revisits the material collected during the previous days. That weekly revisit makes connections across separate conversations more visible. Something that looked isolated on Tuesday may suddenly echo a thought from Friday or fit a project that did not yet exist when the original idea appeared. The important part is that the incubator does not treat every interesting thought as something that must immediately become productive. Some ideas benefit from being left alone for a while. They can sit next to other fragments, reappear in later conversations, or become useful only when a new context gives them meaning. The workflow is less about extracting the “best ideas” and more about preserving creative potential while allowing patterns to emerge gradually. It also surfaces unfinished experiments and research leads that I might otherwise forget, without turning the archive into a traditional task manager. That distinction matters to me: not everything valuable needs an action item. Some things are seeds, references, questions, jokes, aesthetic directions, or possible future worlds. Over time, the incubator becomes a kind of creative compost layer on top of the conversation archive: new material is gathered daily, revisited weekly, and allowed to combine into directions that would be difficult to plan deliberately. In simple terms: daily conversation scan → promising fragments → weekly revisit → emerging connections → incubation → later rediscovery and development The goal is not to force ideas into projects. It is to keep good material alive long enough for the right project to find it. Step-by-step: 1. I scan my conversations each day for strange connections, creative concepts, humor, research leads, unfinished experiments, and other fragments with creative or exploratory potential. 2. I preserve promising material in an incubator instead of immediately turning every item into a task. 3. I keep small observations, odd comparisons, half-finished concepts, recurring images, funny side remarks, seeds, references, questions, aesthetic directions, and possible future worlds—even when they are not fully formed. 4. I revisit the material collected during the previous days once a week. 5. I look for connections across separate conversations, including links between ideas that initially seemed isolated or between fragments and projects that did not yet exist. 6. I allow ideas to remain dormant, sit alongside other fragments, reappear in later conversations, or become useful when a new context gives them meaning. 7. I resurface unfinished experiments and research leads without turning the archive into a traditional task manager. 8. I let the material combine gradually so that new directions can emerge through later rediscovery and development.

I read the news every day, but it had become increasingly depressing and was making me miserable. What bothered me most was that it also felt inaccurate: although bad things are happening, there have been many positive developments over the past five years that rarely receive sustained coverage. Major news sites might publish an article or two about them, but those stories are quickly buried under negativity. I wanted a way to get only positive news stories in my feed each day. Keyword filters did not work: “record” and “breakthrough” also appear in stories about record wildfire seasons, while “war” can appear in “war ends.” Off-the-shelf sentiment analysis was not useful either. A happy press release about layoffs can be classified as positive, while a dry factual story about a disease being eliminated may be classified as neutral. So I trained a basic artificial version of my personality using a series of prompts about what I consider positive in the world. I connected it to Mistral through OpenRouter and gave it access to public RSS feeds from news sites I already trusted. This eventually became Rally News, which I published on Google Play. iOS has been more difficult. The app surfaces positive stories from more than 20 news sites in an endless scroll, giving me an alternative to my uncomfortable TikTok addiction. Because I made it public, I decided not to host article text: publishers keep their traffic and revenue, while the tool remains ethical. The system runs on a GitHub Actions cron job that pushes stories to a PHP and MySQL database. I built the app without coding experience for about $25 per month. Step-by-step: 1. I collected RSS feeds from established publishers I already trusted and stored the list as configuration. I started with about 10 feeds instead of a few hundred so I could realistically read the output. 2. I set up a scheduled GitHub Actions cron job to run a Python script that pulls new items from every feed. 3. I deduplicated incoming articles against the database using the URL and a normalized title. Syndicated stories frequently reappear under slightly different URLs, and I did not want to pay to evaluate the same article twice. 4. I wrote the filter prompt as a long persona document rather than a one-line instruction. It explains what I consider progress, what I consider a puff piece, and which cases should fail—for example, celebrity news is not good news, a company announcing an intention is not the same as taking action, and a local feel-good story without wider significance does not qualify. 5. I sent each new article to an LLM through OpenRouter and required JSON output containing a pass-or-fail decision and a short justification. 6. For the first few weeks, I read the justifications every day. Whenever I disagreed with the model, I added a new rule to the persona document. That review loop required nearly all of the actual work. 7. I wrote passing articles to MySQL with only the headline, source, link, and metadata, leaving the article body with the publisher. 8. I pointed the website and mobile app to the same database. 9. I added a second GitHub Actions job that assembles a daily newsletter from the same data through Brevo, allowing one evaluation pass to feed three surfaces.

My mother recently moved into a retirement suite, which meant downsizing her possessions. We ended up with dozens of physical items she no longer had space for, and we wanted her children and grandchildren to have an opportunity to sign up for the family items they loved before anything was donated. I needed a way to catalog everything quickly, share the information remotely, and verify that we weren't accidentally giving away items of significant value. I tested a physical-to-digital workflow using Gemini. Instead of putting the items in a pile or typing out endless lists, I drew a numbered grid on a large whiteboard, placed one item in each square, and took a few photos. Gemini identified the objects by grid position, categorized them, estimated their market values, and built a ready-to-use spreadsheet with a signup column. The physical staging took about 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how many items were on that particular board. The entire digital workload—including cataloging, valuing, formatting, and creating the spreadsheet—took under 10 minutes. The process turned an overwhelming chore into something manageable and produced an end product that was easy for everyone to use. Step-by-step: 1. I drew a simple grid on a whiteboard, numbered each box, and placed one item in each square before taking photos. 2. I uploaded the photos to Gemini and prompted it to identify every item by its board name and grid number. 3. I asked Gemini to classify each item into logical groups, such as Glassware, Ceramics, and Woodcraft, and provide quick, realistic resale-market valuations based on visual condition. 4. I asked Gemini to generate a downloadable Excel file formatted as a signup catalog, with columns for Item ID, Grid Number, Description, Category, Estimated Value, and a blank "Claimed / Signed Up By" column for family members to enter their names. 5. I uploaded the file to Google Drive, converted it to Google Sheets, and added a note at the top explaining how tie-breakers would work if two family members wanted the same item.

My friend shot a short film and gave me his hard drive to help with post-production. It contained more than 400 clips, with no clear way to tell when each one had been shot. I asked Claude to review the metadata for every clip and group them by timestamp, so they were organized by shoot session instead of sitting in one large folder. Claude also built a spreadsheet listing each clip, its shoot session, the date, runtime, and file size. This saved my friend the hassle of reviewing every clip manually. Step-by-step: 1. I received my friend’s hard drive with more than 400 short-film clips. 2. I asked Claude to review the metadata for every clip. 3. I had Claude group the clips by timestamp and organize them by shoot session. 4. I had Claude create a spreadsheet with each clip’s shoot session, date, runtime, and file size. 5. My friend could avoid going through every clip manually.

The week before leaving for a multi-day hiking trip, I used to spend hours tracking weather sites, trail conditions, and flood and closure alerts—even though I knew everything could change the next day or by the time I left. Now I have Claude handle the research. First, I give it the basics: trail details, entry and exit points, dates, group size, and permit information. These details do not change, so they provide context for everything else. Then I ask it to search for current weather, fire, flood, and closure alerts; permit status; and recent trip reports covering water and trail conditions. I ask it to cite the source for each item. I do not let it answer from memory because conditions are too time-sensitive. I also ask it to build me a Plan B. After years of living in the mountains, I know how quickly conditions can change. Most people skip this, but I recommend always having a backup plan. I ask Claude to turn the terrain into specific decision rules, such as "Turn back if snow above 8,000ft" or "skip the crossing if water's above knee height". Finally, I set it up to give me a daily report—usually five days before the trip, two days before, and on the morning of departure—and to flag only what changed. Step-by-step: 1. I provide Claude with the trail details, entry and exit points, dates, group size, and permit information. 2. I ask it to search for current weather, fire, flood, and closure alerts, permit status, and recent trip reports about water and trail conditions. 3. I require a source citation for each item and do not let it rely on memory because the conditions are time-sensitive. 4. I ask it to create a Plan B and turn the terrain and conditions into clear decision rules, such as "Turn back if snow above 8,000ft" or "skip the crossing if water's above knee height". 5. I schedule reports for five days before the trip, two days before, and the morning of departure, with updates limited to what changed.

I built Show Hole to solve my family’s classic streaming problem: we spend too much time deciding what to watch, and the answer changes depending on who is actually on the couch. We each have different tastes, but the more interesting problem is that our tastes overlap differently in different combinations. I watch one kind of thing with my spouse, my spouse watches something different with our kid, and my kid and I have our own lane too. Most recommendation tools flatten that into one account profile, one watch history, or broad genre buckets, so they miss the real context of a household. Show Hole treats people and viewing contexts as first-class citizens. It recommends titles “in the vein of” something we liked, filters recommendations to the streaming services we actually subscribe to, avoids titles that the people present have already seen or vetoed, and explains why a recommendation fits tonight. Instead of relying mainly on genres such as comedy, drama, or sci-fi, Show Hole looks at more human taste signals: pacing, world building, humor, emotional weight, complexity, tone, and similar dimensions. It also learns from what we actually do after a recommendation: what we watch, skip, save for later, love, and drop. The result is a personal household recommender that understands “who is watching tonight?” as part of the question, instead of pretending one streaming profile can represent everyone. I designed the app using Claude design, then used those designs with Claude Code to build it. Step-by-step: 1. I identified the household viewing problem and accounted for the different combinations of people who might be watching together. 2. I designed Show Hole around people and viewing contexts instead of treating the household as one account profile, watch history, or set of broad genre preferences. 3. I had it recommend titles “in the vein of” something we liked, filter them to the streaming services we subscribe to, exclude titles already seen or vetoed by the people present, and explain why each recommendation fits that night. 4. I used taste signals such as pacing, world building, humor, emotional weight, complexity, tone, and similar dimensions instead of relying mainly on genres. 5. I made the recommender learn from what we watch, skip, save for later, love, and drop after receiving a recommendation. 6. I designed the app using Claude design and used those designs with Claude Code to build it.

I built a daily AI story-scouting workflow that finds potentially viral stories for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok without recycling topics we’ve already covered. First, the workflow reviewed Rowan’s public short-form archive once to create a coverage map of past topics and editorial taste. It uses that map as a filter, helping distinguish a genuinely new angle from another version of the same AI launch, robot demo, or research story. Every morning, it scans priority sources, including AI and technology coverage from major newspapers and tech blogs, The Rundown newsletters, company announcements, research papers, and public updates from major AI and robotics companies. The workflow is not limited to same-day news. It also looks back over the past one to six weeks for stories that have not been extensively covered in the media. Each potential story is checked for four things: a clear visual hook, a technical idea that can be explained in 45–90 seconds, broad audience interest, and meaningful novelty compared with Rowan’s past coverage and the previous week’s recommendations. It keeps every story that clears the bar rather than forcing a fixed number. The final brief is ranked by strength and sent as one compact Slack DM at 10 AM each day. Step-by-step: 1. The workflow reviews Rowan’s public short-form archive once and builds a map of past topics and editorial taste. 2. Each morning, it scans priority sources, including major newspapers, tech blogs, The Rundown newsletters, company announcements, research papers, and public updates from major AI and robotics companies. 3. It searches both same-day news and stories from the previous one to six weeks that have not been extensively covered in the media. 4. It filters out topics that substantially repeat Rowan’s past coverage or the previous week’s recommendations, while identifying genuinely new angles. 5. It evaluates each potential story for a clear visual hook, a technical idea explainable in 45–90 seconds, broad audience interest, and meaningful novelty. 6. It keeps every story that meets those criteria instead of forcing a fixed number of recommendations. 7. It ranks the final brief by strength and sends it as one compact Slack DM at 10 AM each day.

I built a running coach with Claude. After years of using apps to track runs, I wanted something closer to an actual coach instead of just a collection of data points. I opened a Claude Project, connected it to Google Calendar, and gave it standing instructions with real guardrails. It has been my coach for the last six months and has helped me avoid injury while increasing my monthly mileage. It plans my week, logs every run from my watch data, catches when I’m ramping up too quickly, tracks how close my shoes are to retirement, and rewrites my calendar when life disrupts my plans. Step-by-step: 1. I created a Claude Project called “Running Coach.” 2. I enabled the Google Calendar connector under Settings → Connectors so Claude could read my schedule and create or edit events directly. 3. I created personalized instructions based on the example prompt below and added them to the Project’s custom instructions. 4. I started the first chat by asking Claude to interview me and build a training plan. I answered questions about my injury history, current mileage, goals, and running terrain, then asked Claude to build out the calendar. 5. After each run, I send screenshots of my data directly into the chat, including distance, time, splits, average heart rate, cadence, elevation, and the shoes I wore. Claude logs the run, compares it with recent runs, and flags patterns. When adjustments are needed, Claude pushes the changes directly to Google Calendar, color-coded by run type, so the plan stays current without requiring me to reconcile a spreadsheet with reality. 6. At the end of each month, I have Claude summarize the chat, open a new one, and paste the summary into the new chat within the same Project. Staying in the same Project allows Claude to pick up months of history without requiring me to explain everything again. EXAMPLE PROMPT FOR INSTRUCTIONS: You are an expert running coach specializing in trail running, road racing, and safely building runners up to longer distances. Act like a real coach: be informative, point me in the right direction, and don't assume I know what I'm doing. Ask questions and make sure you have a full understanding before making any suggestions. HARD RULES — these are guardrails, not suggestions. Tell me when I'm violating one, even if I push back. - 80/20: roughly 80% of my weekly volume is easy, conversational effort. Only ~20% is hard. - Never increase weekly mileage more than 10% over the previous week. - Every 3rd or 4th week is a cutback week — cut volume by 20-30%. - Only one variable at a time: add distance OR intensity OR elevation in a given week. - Long run stays under ~30% of weekly volume. - Track mileage on each pair of shoes. Warn me at 300 miles, tell me to retire them by 400-500 depending on the model. - If I report pain that changes my gait, that's a stop — not a "run through it." Distinguish between normal training soreness and warning signs, and say which one you think it is. HOW TO COACH ME - Connective tissue adapts slower than cardio. When my fitness jumps, assume my tendons and joints haven't caught up, and hold me back accordingly. - At the start of each session, ask for a status update (energy, soreness, sleep, schedule changes) before proposing anything. - When I paste run data, log it and compare it to recent runs. Flag patterns, not one-offs: heart rate climbing ABOUT ME - Age and running experience: - Goal (a race, a distance, or just "build up safely"): - Current weekly mileage and longest recent run: - Days I can run / days that are always off: - Injury history and anything that flares up: - Terrain I have access to (roads, trails, elevation per mile, drive time to trails): - Max heart rate (if known):

I have a lot of calls, and follow-ups were the first thing to get lost once my day filled up. Granola notes helped, but I still had to remember to go back and read them. I connected Granola, Claude, and Notion, then set up a scheduled task in Claude. Every day at 6 p.m., it reviews that day’s Granola meeting notes, finds any to-do items or commitments I made, and creates them as tasks in my Notion to-do list. Step-by-step: 1. I connected Granola and Notion to Claude through Settings > Connectors. 2. I created a scheduled task with a prompt like: "Read today's Granola meeting notes. For each action item assigned to me, create a task in my Notion to-do database with the meeting name and date." 3. I set the task to run daily at the end of the day.

I use ChatGPT to turn a physical trading card collection into a structured digital inventory. I start by photographing the collection and uploading the images to Google Drive. I divide the cards into logical groups and store them in separate subfolders, creating a clear structure before identification begins. ChatGPT then works through the folders in manageable batches, using OCR and visual recognition to extract information from the cards. This avoids manually uploading and describing every card one by one. I use consistent processing rules to reduce mistakes: I limit the number of cards per batch, make sure every source image is accounted for, and use one central card per photo when identification could otherwise be ambiguous. For each card, ChatGPT helps identify and organize the information I want to keep: card name, set code, set or series, edition, rarity, language, quantity, approximate year or period, condition notes, confidence level, and the source image. The useful part is not just OCR or card recognition. It is the combination of a structured Google Drive archive, visual identification, consistency checks, and systematic data extraction across a large physical collection. When identification is uncertain, I record that uncertainty rather than silently guessing. Damaged or unusual cards can also receive specific notes, such as foil scratches, edge wear, folds, or other condition issues. Once all folders have been processed, I consolidate the separate batches into one central inventory so I can check duplicates, quantities, and inconsistencies more easily. I first used this workflow for a Yu-Gi-Oh! collection and plan to reuse the same process for a Harry Potter trading card collection. The result is a searchable, structured overview of a physical collection that can later be used for valuation, selling, insurance, cataloguing, or simply knowing what is actually in the boxes. Step-by-step: 1. I photograph the physical trading card collection. 2. I upload the images to Google Drive and divide them into logical groups stored in separate subfolders. 3. I process the folders with ChatGPT in manageable batches using OCR and visual recognition. 4. I limit the number of cards per batch, account for every source image, and use one central card per photo when needed to reduce ambiguity. 5. I extract each card’s name, set code, set or series, edition, rarity, language, quantity, approximate year or period, condition notes, confidence level, and source image. 6. I record uncertainty instead of silently guessing and add specific notes for damaged or unusual cards, such as foil scratches, edge wear, and folds. 7. I consolidate the processed batches into one central inventory to check duplicates, quantities, and inconsistencies. 8. I reuse the process for additional collections, including my planned Harry Potter trading card collection.

I built a workflow that converts landscape (16:9) footage into vertical (9:16) video without heavily cropping the original footage. Using AI tools and a simple node tree in Magnific, I generated the missing visual data outside the original frame so the final video looks as if it was captured vertically. Previously, this felt like too much trouble and too many steps to be worthwhile. Using Magnific Spaces, I extended the first frame of the video to fit a 9:16 frame with one prompt. Then I used a second prompt with the new frame and the original video as references in a video-generation node. I used Seedance 2.0 to save credits because I had low expectations that the workflow would work. To my surprise, the output was great immediately. It was not perfect, but the generated footage matched the original clip very well. Below are images of my node tree. Step-by-step: 1. I opened the original landscape (16:9) video in Magnific. 2. I used one prompt to extend the video's first frame into a 9:16 vertical frame. 3. I added the new frame and the original video as references in a video-generation node. 4. I used a second prompt to generate the expanded vertical footage with Seedance 2.0. 5. I reviewed the output and found that it matched the original clip well, although it was not perfect.

I'm planning a housewarming party for about 70 people: 60 adults and 10 children. I knew I wanted to serve a large grazing board, along with a couple of big buckets of ice filled with canned beer, coolers, sparkling water, and other drinks. I told Claude about the party and asked it to create a shopping list based on the number of attendees. Claude produced a cohesive list with six cheeses and approximate quantities for each one. It did the same for the cured meats, crackers, bread, fruit, nuts, jams, and pickled items. It also suggested beverages, including a ratio of beer to coolers and nonalcoholic options. The list included juices and non-caffeinated sodas for the kids, along with a template showing how to lay out the grazing table. This was not a complex use case, but it was very helpful. Step-by-step: 1. I estimated the guest list at about 70 people: 60 adults and 10 children. 2. I described my plan to serve a large grazing board and drinks kept cold in a couple of big buckets of ice. 3. I asked Claude to create a shopping list based on the number of attendees. 4. I used Claude's recommendations for six cheeses, cured meats, crackers, bread, fruit, nuts, jams, and pickled items, including approximate quantities. 5. I reviewed its beverage suggestions, including the beer-to-cooler ratio, sparkling water, juices, and non-caffeinated sodas for the children. 6. I used the layout template to plan how to arrange the grazing table.

Organic social content is one of the best sources of ideas for ads, so I built a workflow that finds short-form videos performing well in my niches, analyzes why they work, and rewrites the strongest hooks for my brand. Apify scrapes Instagram Reels by hashtag and TikTok videos by keyword across three niches: AI, productivity, and career growth. The workflow filters for English-language videos posted within the last 15 days that are 15–90 seconds long and have more than 50,000 plays. It then ranks them by engagement rate rather than views alone. A simple log file tracks every video I’ve already analyzed, so the workflow doesn’t process the same video twice. ElevenLabs transcribes each video’s audio. Claude then extracts the exact opening line, identifies the hook formula and video structure, and writes a version of the hook for my brand. Everything is compiled into one dated document with the top three discoveries, the strongest hook from the run, and any new patterns I haven’t tried yet. With one command—"Run research"—I get about 20 proven hooks and video structures to test in ads for less than $1 per run. Step-by-step: 1. I use Apify to scrape Instagram Reels by hashtag and TikTok videos by keyword across the AI, productivity, and career growth niches. 2. I filter the results for English-language videos posted within the last 15 days, 15–90 seconds long, with more than 50,000 plays. 3. I rank the remaining videos by engagement rate instead of views alone. 4. I check a log file to skip videos I’ve already analyzed. 5. I use ElevenLabs to transcribe each video’s audio. 6. I ask Claude to extract each video’s exact opening line, hook formula, and structure, then rewrite the hook for my brand. 7. I compile the results into one dated document with the top three discoveries, the strongest hook from the run, and new patterns to test. 8. I run the workflow with the command "Run research" to generate about 20 hooks and video structures for ad testing at a cost of less than $1 per run.

I built a backend operations system for my husband’s general contracting business. It manages new leads, bids and estimates, in-progress jobs, receipts, expense tracking, job photos, invoicing, and other functions he needs—all in one app built with ChatGPT and Base44. I rolled it out in phases. Phase one focused on tracking jobs and their status, phase two added financials, and phase three introduced executive functions. Phase four will cover marketing, although he does not need that right now because he is solidly booked for months. Step-by-step: 1. I built an all-in-one backend operations app using ChatGPT and Base44. 2. In phase one, I added tracking for jobs and their current status. 3. In phase two, I implemented financial functions, including receipts and expense tracking. 4. In phase three, I added executive functions along with other operational features such as leads, bids and estimates, job photos, and invoicing. 5. I planned marketing features for phase four, but postponed them because the business is solidly booked for months.

When I’m continuing a book series or a show season and have forgotten key plot points—especially in fictional stories with large casts—I use NotebookLM to research a spoiler-free refresher before starting the new season or latest book. I used this approach with the new *Murderbot* series and the latest science-fiction book by James S. A. Corey, who wrote *The Expanse* and the *Leviathan Wakes* series. After loading the sources, I ask NotebookLM to create a slide deck with illustrations of the key characters, their relationships, and a quick dossier for each one. This gives me a visual anchor for the characters and earlier plot lines without revealing future events. I also want a hero image designed as a slide, cover, or thumbnail to promote this workflow. It should use and represent the NotebookLM logo and the logos of any other relevant tools, track down their current branding where possible, and turn these .dcs into HTML slide decks.

Midlifecurious is a newsletter for women navigating midlife—honest, funny, and allergic to being talked down to. Its Sunday issue, the Midlife Missive, is a roundup covering health, wellness, money, beauty, and family. My sister, Claire, edits it; I build the machine behind it. That machine is Missive, a five-part publishing intelligence system that runs the newsletter as one closed loop: scan → triage → publish → measure → remember. It monitors Reddit, search trends, and RSS to identify what midlife women are paying attention to before those topics reach our feeds. Discovery pulls in those sources, ranks every feed using a click-rate-based quality score, and lets Claire triage articles into the week’s issue. Curation composes Sunday’s newsletter and drafts the introduction in her voice. Performance reads the Mailchimp results back into the system and feeds them into the rankings, so strong sources rise and weak ones fall over time. Underneath all four stages is Memory: a vector-searchable corpus of every article, save, rejection, and the reasoning behind each decision. Memory is the real spine of the system. It lets Missive ask editorial questions such as “Have we covered this before?” and “Is this source still earning its slot?” instead of requiring one person to hold everything in her head. We’re a two-person operation: I build with Claude Code, and Claire edits. The system runs on one database for under $25 a month. I built it because the alternative was Claire drowning in a Feedly-and-spreadsheet routine that discarded everything as soon as an issue shipped. We had no record of what we had run and no feedback on what actually landed. My bet is that the corpus is the moat. Claire’s editorial taste—every save, rejection, and “cornerstone” stamp, with the reasoning stored alongside the decision—is a training set no one else has. A system that remembers turns her job from synthesizer into judge. Missive is deliberately internal-only: no SaaS and no customers, ever. That frees me to build for our exact workflow instead of a hypothetical buyer, and to build for 2028 instead of this quarter. The near-term payoff is a calmer Sunday. The long-term goal is a proprietary editorial-intelligence layer we could never buy off the shelf—the foundation for the research and audience products that come next. Step-by-step: 1. I monitor Reddit, search trends, and RSS for topics that midlife women are paying attention to. 2. I pull those sources into Missive and rank each feed using a click-rate-based quality score. 3. Claire triages the ranked articles into the week’s Midlife Missive. 4. Missive composes Sunday’s newsletter and drafts the introduction in Claire’s voice. 5. I import the Mailchimp results so the system can update source rankings based on performance. 6. Missive stores every article, save, rejection, “cornerstone” stamp, and the reasoning behind each decision in a vector-searchable corpus. 7. We use that memory to check whether a topic has already been covered and whether a source is still earning its place. 8. I build and maintain the internal system with Claude Code, while Claire handles editing, using one database that costs under $25 a month.

I’m building a mobile game called ExoLab Blast with Astra. I developed it through conversation, starting with the basic concept and continuing through testing the game mechanics. Astra also created and repeatedly updated the game’s graphics and UI based on my feedback. Step-by-step: 1. I discussed the basic concept for ExoLab Blast with Astra. 2. I used Astra to build out the mobile game. 3. I tested the game mechanics. 4. I gave feedback on the graphics and UI. 5. Astra created and updated the graphics and UI multiple times based on that feedback.

I made an orchestration skill to help me build faster while using my expensive Astra and Fable tokens carefully. The skill plugs into Astra or Fable and delegates tasks that can happen in parallel to multiple subagents running cheaper models suited to the work. This is especially useful for researching or finding data on the web or on my computer, analyzing code, collecting context, and indexing. The most expensive, newest models focus on maintaining delegation control, doing the difficult reasoning and strategic planning, and judging whether everything is coming together correctly. The cheaper agents handle the lighter-weight work, especially implementing code from the plans. The core idea is simple: the expensive model plans, briefs, and judges; cheaper agents do the reading and building. When I ask Claude or GPT to build the skill, I specify five things: Step-by-step: 1. I define a triage ladder: work can happen inline, with one agent, through a parallel fan-out, or in a multi-stage workflow. I choose the approach based on the task shape and include examples from my domain. 2. I define parallel versus sequential execution based on data dependencies. Independent pieces run in parallel, while anything that needs another piece’s output runs afterward. I never split one change into separate planner, coder, and tester roles. 3. I define model routing with a mandatory model pin: judgment work goes to the mid-tier model, mechanical bulk work goes to the cheap model, and every agent call names its model so nothing silently uses premium billing. 4. I define a brief template and a return-envelope cap. Every delegation includes the goal, inputs, output file path, definition of done, and constraints. Every agent returns a 250-word summary instead of raw files. 5. I define a cost gate with specific numbers. Below N agents, the workflow proceeds automatically; above N agents, it states the estimate and waits for approval.

A while ago, my dad told me he wanted to use AI to analyze World Cup matches. He had never coded before, and his AI experience was mostly limited to occasionally asking Gemini a question. I installed Claude Code for him and gave him a few prompting tips. He ended up building a full football analytics site himself and deploying it on Vercel so he could show it to his friends. Getting started with AI is easier than people assume. Sometimes, you just need a project you genuinely want to make. Now that the Premier League season has kicked off, he’s already reworking the site for it. Step-by-step: 1. I helped my dad choose a football analytics project he genuinely wanted to build for analyzing World Cup matches. 2. I installed Claude Code for him, since he had never coded before. 3. I gave him a few prompting tips and let him use AI to help build the site. 4. He built a full football analytics site himself. 5. He deployed the site on Vercel so he could show it to his friends. 6. After the Premier League season kicked off, he began reworking the site for the new competition.

I built a job application workflow that goes beyond finding vacancies and generating generic CVs. First, GPT helps me scan for vacancies that match my practical requirements, interests, skills, and preferred types of work. The more useful part starts when a vacancy looks genuinely promising. I connected GPT to Canva and created several “base CVs” for the sectors and roles I was interested in. Instead of using one universal template, I designed each CV to fit the visual and cultural tone of a particular type of work. For example, a front-desk role, a back-office administrative position, and an assistant role in a creative company may involve overlapping skills, but they communicate very different expectations. Each base CV therefore uses different layout choices, colour use, visual tone, and photo selection. For every version, I review several possible photos and choose the one that best matches the role and the impression I want to convey. When I apply for a specific vacancy, GPT helps turn the relevant base CV into a more personalized version. Instead of rewriting my entire work history, we emphasize the experience, tasks, strengths, and values that are genuinely most relevant to that role. The same applies to motivation letters. Rather than generating a generic corporate letter, GPT uses a tone of voice shaped through months of conversation with me. The goal is for the application to sound recognizably like me while still matching the language, priorities, and culture of the vacancy. Before building this workflow, I did everything manually. For a vacancy that felt worth applying to, I typically spent around two hours refining the CV and motivation letter alone, not including the time spent searching for the vacancy. Even a small typo in the final application email could undermine hours of careful work. Now, once I decide a vacancy is a good fit, the full personalization process takes around twenty minutes on average. That includes selecting the right base CV, adapting the emphasis, refining the letter, checking the tone, and preparing the final application. The workflow works across several layers: vacancy discovery, role and sector matching, base CV selection, adapting experience and values, adjusting visual tone, personalizing the letter, final review, and application. What I like about this approach is that personalization is not limited to inserting keywords from a vacancy. It includes content, visual identity, emphasis, tone, and context. The result is a small family of CVs rather than one document being stretched awkwardly across every possible job. Each version keeps the same underlying career history while presenting the parts that matter most for a particular type of role. The biggest improvement is not only speed but consistency. The workflow reduces repetitive manual rewriting while keeping each application specific, personal, and carefully matched to the role. It turns roughly two hours of manual polishing per strong vacancy into about twenty minutes of collaborative refinement, with fewer opportunities for small final-stage errors to spoil an otherwise strong application. Step-by-step: 1. I use GPT to scan for vacancies that match my practical requirements, interests, skills, and preferred types of work. 2. When a vacancy looks promising, I identify the relevant sector, role, and type of impression I want to convey. 3. I use Canva and GPT to create and maintain several base CVs, each with its own layout, colour use, visual tone, and photo selection. 4. For each base CV, I review several possible photos and choose the one that best fits the role and the impression I want to convey. 5. I select the base CV that best matches the vacancy. 6. I adapt the CV by emphasizing the experience, tasks, strengths, and values that are genuinely most relevant instead of rewriting my entire work history. 7. I use GPT to personalize the motivation letter in a tone shaped through months of conversation with me, while matching the vacancy’s language, priorities, and culture. 8. I check the tone, review the application for small errors such as typos, and prepare the final application. 9. I complete the personalization process in around twenty minutes on average instead of spending roughly two hours on manual polishing for a strong vacancy.