Claude optimized Amazon while I played Final Fantasy XIV
Claude spent three hours comparing purchase histories, calculating consumption, and rebuilding 28 subscriptions while Christopher supplied about twenty minutes of judgment.
Hands On AIA weekly note from Christopher
How I Actually Use AI.
Real, ordinary ways I've used AI in life—not just at work. No grand predictions, no assumed expertise, and no pressure to use it the same way.
Published weekly. Stories may come from recent weeks or earlier experiences, and each post will say so plainly.
The archive
Notes from real life
Six ordinary things AI helped me finish or understand this week
Six real uses of AI: cooking, a private game tracker, research translation, audio assembly, criticism, and aligning a website with Substack.
Towels, a Roomba, dinner, and translation
A few ordinary ways AI saved me money, time, or aggravation.
Paperwork, shipping mistakes, mechanics, and plants
A few ways I used AI that saved me time, cut down on mistakes, or made an annoying job easier.
A 7-pound pork butt and two ChatGPT accounts
Two little questions that would normally send me hunting around for answers.
Making my own work better before anyone else saw it
A lot of my AI use this time was creative, but the payoff was still pretty practical.
Technology caused the problems—and helped clean them up
Technology misbehaved, which is apparently one of its hobbies—and then helped clean up the problems.