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All posts

Everything written so far, newest first. 20 posts.

A hand on a stack of old books by the window, a closed laptop and a cup of tea
Thinking

Talking to a book instead of reading it

Instead of reading thick things from the first page, I ask first and open only the chapters that touch my question. Terms of service, statutes, licence documents, and books. I read less and keep more.

· 3 min
Flow from a page's og tags to the messenger reading them to a preview card
Software

When Your Link Preview Shows Nothing

Getting a bare URL instead of a card means the page never declared og tags. Here is how I generate a preview image for every post automatically.

· 2 min
A hand correcting a printout with a red pencil beside reading glasses
AI

When the AI is wrong, catch it by asking

AI is confidently wrong. Four questions that expose a wrong answer inside the conversation, without any tools, plus three real cases my company caught while putting AI to work.

· 3 min
A map spread on a wooden desk with a compass and a pencil
Thinking

Drawing a map of what I do not know, with AI

The scariest part of new work is not knowing what you do not know. Five questions that find that dead end, the aporia Socrates led people to, within an hour, plus one of my own maps.

· 3 min
Diagram splitting 'not on Google' into an indexing problem and a ranking problem
Software

When Your Blog Does Not Show Up on Google

Not showing up means two different things, and telling them apart first stops you from spending days fixing something that was never the problem.

· 3 min
Hands plugging a cable into a small silver computer on a shelf, a mug beside it
Software

Why Linux is the final OS choice in the AI era

People say they use a Mac because the terminal is comfortable there. If that is the reason, the answer is Linux, and more so. Written on a machine from 2011.

· 3 min
A chalkboard with doodles and a laptop listening from a stool
Thinking

The Feynman technique, explained to an AI

The Feynman technique says explain what you learned to someone else. It always needed a listener. Now an AI listens and points at the gaps. Here is what happened when I explained DNS.

· 3 min
Diagram comparing a search term with a question that carries three things
Thinking

A question is not a search term

Type a search term into an AI and you get a dictionary back. Three pairs of things I actually typed show how the shape of the question changes the answer.

· 3 min
Two wooden chairs facing each other under an olive tree in a stone courtyard
Thinking

What the Socratic method is, with an example

The meaning of the Socratic method, the two words midwifery and aporia, one short dialogue, and why a 2400-year-old technique became useful again.

· 3 min
Seven question-mark cards pinned on a string above a desk
Thinking

Seven Socratic prompts I actually use with AI

One question and a closed tab is just search. Here are the seven follow-up questions I ask after the first answer, taken from real conversations while running a small company.

· 4 min
Staircase diagram of five AI fluency stages and what each leaves you
AI

The Five Stages of Working With AI

From asking a chatbot the odd question to running six agent sessions at once. The four stages I went through, and the fifth one I am entering.

· 5 min
A hand-drawn web page wireframe on a wooden desk with a pencil, ruler and coffee
Work

Website Quotes in the AI Era, From Both Sides

Building got cheaper. Deciding did not. Here is why I now bundle training into every quote, so the owner can maintain the site without me.

· 6 min
Old letters stacked through a storeroom with an open ledger
Work

A Dead Airline's Emails Just Sold for $10 Million

Google paid $10 million for a bankrupt airline's internal email. A few years ago that data would have been deleted. What survives automation is the record.

· 5 min
Timeline comparing 128 planned runs with 17 actual runs over 21 hours
Software

I Told It to Run Every 10 Minutes. It Ran 17 Times.

A free scheduled job kept missing its time. Counting the runs showed 17 where 128 should have been. How I fixed it without buying a server.

· 4 min
A laptop on a stone bench in front of an ancient column
Thinking

The Socratic Method, 2400 Years Later

The most effective way to learn anything was invented in Athens. The catch was that there was only one Socrates. That constraint is gone now.

· 5 min
A person seen from behind working at a laptop under a desk lamp at night
AI

The First Thing My AI Transformation Changed Was Me

The scene in The Matrix where flying a helicopter downloads into Neo's head. That is happening to me. AI moved my ceiling first, and automation followed.

· 3 min
Diagram: Apps Script for work inside the sheet, n8n for work between systems
Software

Google Apps Script Already Worked. Here's Why I Added n8n

My quote automation already worked in Google Apps Script. I brought in n8n anyway. Why I added a second tool, and which jobs Google Apps Script still owns.

· 7 min
A printer, a stack of paper, envelopes, a stapler and coffee on an office desk
Work

Quotes in 5 Minutes, Not a Day, With Google Apps Script

USD list prices, per-product discounts, and volume tiers kept us writing quotes by hand for years. Claude and Google Apps Script cut it to five minutes.

· 5 min
Bar comparison of yearly hosting: Wix $408 versus Cloudflare $0
Software

From Wix to Cloudflare, $408 a Year Down to Zero

Two websites I had put off for years, migrated off Wix in two days with Claude and Cursor. How I moved a site whose source code was gone.

· 7 min
A desk with an open laptop and a doorway opening onto a path outside
AI

Why I Started My AI Transformation

The first post on this blog. Why I decided to move my work onto AI, and why I chose to keep the whole record out in the open rather than privately.

· 1 min