productivity
30 posts
- Space to be human
A week of new school routines and a storm and flood, and what I needed was space to be human.
- How developers organise and maintain agent skills
An Ask HN discussion describes skills as repeatable workflows, with shared repositories, human review, behavioural tests and updates across coding tools.
- Handing off the 60%
Planning is 40% of a task; execution is the 60% that eats your week. Plus vibe sourcing — finding the open-source tool instead of generating one.
- SoN 2.31: Don't be a meat proxy
Forwarding what the chatbot said hands the next person more work than the question did.
- SoN 2.30: Which of your AI's rules are still doing a job?
Last week's advice and Anthropic's both hold. The test is one question you can ask about any rule you've written.
- Stop Guessing Whether AI Is Coming for Your Job. Ask the Data.
Anthropic made its Economic Index queryable in plain language inside Claude. The anxious question about your own field is now a research task you can actually run — with the honesty to read its limits.
- Paperwork Shot List
A shot list for the paperwork This week I’ve spent five hours or more in the car, driving between schools to move our kid from one to another for the…
- SoN 2.25: Stop guessing and use AI to pull the data
Stop guessing and pull the actual data =================================================== I help out a small, volunteer-run cat rescue. They do good…
- SoN 2.24: AI hasn't made me faster
AI hasn’t made me faster — it’s made me able to start Last Tuesday I came out of a meeting with a narrow window before the school run, and inside of…
- Measure twice, cut once — with two AIs
3 June 2026 When you work on your own, the thing you miss most is a second pair of eyes. Trades have known this forever. Carpenters say measure…
- SoN 2.21: AI doesn't know when to stop. You have to.
Stay In Your Lane (Then Go Deeper) Honestly, I’ve been so busy I forgot what day it was and started the newsletter too late this week. But as I think…
- SoN 2.18: Where can I skill up on AI? (Free Edition)
Multi-Tool Fluency Is a Non Starter (Free Edition) Dear Reader, Which tool should I use? The job market case for getting decent at AI got clearer in…
- You Feel Faster. Are You?
A randomized controlled study found AI tools made experienced developers 19% slower. They thought they'd been sped up by 20%.
- SoN Vol 2, Issue 9: The Mirror and the Telescope (Free)
The Mirror and The Telescope Dear Reader, “Know thyself” has been advice for about 2,500 years. The inscription at Delphi, Socrates building a whole…
- Stop Wrapping Failed Systems in AI
Every few months, someone posts a version of the same question: 'Has anyone built an AI system that actually handles ADHD life management?' The answers are always the same.
- SoN Vol 2, Issue 1: Stop Prompting Better. Start Programming Your Gaps.
Dear Reader, Something shifted over the holidays. Since Claude Code Opus 4.5 launched in November, a pattern has emerged among knowledge workers…
- SoN 34: What Will You Vibe Code Next Year?
December 23rd, 2025 Dear Reader, What Will You Vibe Code Next Year? Back in July, I wrote about vibe coding and the beginner’s mind — that Zen…
- SoN 31: The AI Productivity Treadmill
December 4th, 2025 Dear Reader, Claude Opus 4.5 dropped last week, and I haven’t stopped building since. I’ve connected half a dozen MCP servers to…
- How AI Changed My Build vs. Buy Process
AI has fundamentally changed what's possible for small businesses and individual operators.
- Why I Moved My Newsletter to Wednesdays (And You Should Optimize Your Timing Too)
Data-driven timing optimization beats guesswork every time.
- “Zero Effort” AI is a Myth, and It’s Holding Us Back
Every "zero effort AI" promise is a lie, and believing it is making us worse at our jobs.
- Real Stories: AI Success in Content Management
How AI automation cut content audit costs by 94% - from 6 months manual review to 2 weeks orchestrated analysis. Real case study with results.
- Digital Resilience: From Concept to Award-Winner in 48 Hours
May 23rd, 2025 Dear Reader, This week I’ve been immersed in the exhilarating chaos of Hack the Future – a 48-hour climate resilience hackathon in…
- One Shortcut Is Worth More Than Ten Assistants
The AI Download #022 May 2nd, 2025 Dear Reader, I used to think building a great AI assistant meant covering everything: Project planning. Writing…
- Could a 4-Day Work Week Be Your Future?
The AI Download #021 April 25th, 2025 Dear Reader, Efficiency isn’t just a buzzword–it’s the key to unlocking both better work-life balance and…
- Boost Your Creative Writing with Local AI Models
The AI Download #019 April 11th, 2025 Dear Reader, Creative writing is experiencing a significant transformation thanks to advancements in Artificial…
- 💾 The Download #011: Notes on DeepSeek, revisiting Make.com automations and more.
The Download #011 February 7th, 2025 Dear Reader, This week: Notes on DeepSeek, revisiting Make.com automations and more. In the last few weeks,…
- 💾 The Download #005: Perplexity tips, BYO Buffer and more.
The Download #005: A top tip for Perplexity.ai, building my own social media scheduling manager, a power user's guide to Gmail and more
- 💾 The Download #002: Automating content creation and sharing, rethinking search and more.
#002 Dear Reader, Greetings from a wet Valencia, where yesterday a few hours of downpour brought about mild flooding, a double rainbow and some…
- 💾 The Download #001: New product launch, retooling the tech stack and more.
#001 Dear Reader, I’m writing this on a sunny Wednesday afternoon in the garden, having been forced out of my home office due to an internet outage.…