How a Writer Uses AI Without Losing His Voice

<p>Craig Mod used to pay Campaign Monitor roughly $7,000 a year to send his newsletters. After rebuilding the tool himself with AI, his bill is closer to $150. It’s the kind of thing that convinces him we’re about to enter a “golden age of tool building”—one where anyone can build tools specifically suited to their needs, instead of settling for software from incumbents that are slow to innovate.</p><p>Mod is the writer and photographer behind the newsletters Roden and Ridgeline and books like Things Become Other Things and Kissa by Kissa—as well as a lifelong technologist. He’s rebuilt the tax software Quicken, created a private alternative for Twitter for his members which he calls The Good Place, and used AI to build an archive for his pop-up newsletters. But while Mod is an advocate of using AI to build, he draws the line at using it to write.</p><p><br></p><p>Mod talks to Dan Shipper about using AI as a research assistant, why he keeps a tech-free zone in the mornings for deep thinking, and why he’s resisting the pull of the “mainlining” AI era.</p><p><br></p><p>If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!</p><p>To hear more from Dan Shipper:</p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe</p><p>Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper</p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps:</p><p>0:00 Introduction</p><p>3:51 Rebuilding Quicken and Campaign Monitor with AI</p><p>6:24 Building The Good Place, a private Twitter alternative for Craig’s members</p><p>10:39 Why we’re entering a “golden age of tool building”</p><p>12:17 Why AI could help writers build audiences</p><p>17:35 Using AI to build a newsletter archive and a searchable board-meeting Q&amp;A library</p><p>27:58 Creating a technology-free buffer to protect deep thinking</p><p>30:31 Why Craig is resisting the temptation to “mainline” AI for ten hours a day</p><p>39:44 Why anthropomorphizing AI is “psychotic,” and why Apple got Siri right</p><p>47:42 Being adopted, and making peace with humanity’s fragile place in an AI future</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Go to https://attio.com/every and get 15% off your first year.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Links to resources mentioned in the episode:</p><p>Craig Mod’s website: https://craigmod.com</p><p>Roden (Craig’s monthly newsletter): https://craigmod.com/roden/</p>