Three years ago I first started messing with AI — tried a bit of generative stuff just for fun. Wondered about equipping under-educated people to use it and amplify and sharpen their communication. Was curious. Hopeful, even.
Then I swung hard away from it. And at heart, that’s where I remain: strongly opposed to generative AI. It shouldn’t write for you, compose for you, paint for you, brainstorm for you. It shouldn’t replace your struggle, your thinking, your unique humanness.
Then earlier this year I decided to try Claude Cowork, a more serious tool for getting stuff done. I used it a lot. Tried a ton of stuff with it. Made skills and plugins and workflows—all living inside of Claude. It was fun! It was saving me time. I was excited.
But then stuff started breaking. Models changed. AI would sometimes disregard what I’d instructed. Something that once worked would suddenly come out backwards. Everything I built eventually broke down.
I cooled. I moved on.
I used it only marginally.
But now I’m in a new cycle: Code. Exploring what it looks like to build things using AI, but that don’t require AI to run. Today I’ve been working on the RSS reader of my dreams.
RSS is a way to escape some of the noise and consume non-algorithmic content in a calm way. I had a number of specific things I wanted with an RSS reader and spent weeks looking for it. It didn’t exist. I found some good ones, some expensive ones. $12 a month for RSS!
So I made my own. I prompted my own.
It’s amazing. Everything that I want.
I might sell it.