I was terrified of it two years ago. I’d read the announcements that AI was the beginning (or end) of civilization as we know it. And it will change our society, but only in some larger way than cars ended horses or PCs replaced the human workforce. That is, we will still find horses and people useful, just in different ways.
AI will be abused, as all innovations are by the bad guys, and it will change HOW we work. I trust our society to adapt. My journey from fear to daily use has been rewarding; not because AI is magical or revolutionary, but it can be used to aid my work, including these blogs.
I started with the free version of Claude (from a company called Anthropic) after my marketing hero Seth Godin recommended them. When Claude writes with me, it sounds like me. When I share original thoughts (drafts), what comes back is authentically mine—just clearer, better organized. Then, I edit their edit.
Then there is its research capacity. I’ve used it to evaluate car buying by feeding in my priorities and budget; to understand my blood tests in terms of actions I can take; to help a sibling navigate a health crisis.
Now Claude helps me organize complex business presentations with multiple moving parts, audiences, and objectives. I write the first draft, share my thinking, and it helps me see what I’m trying to say more clearly than I saw it myself. Then I edit again, keeping what rings true and dropping what doesn’t.
I’ve used it for research on social issues I care about—immigration, entrepreneurship, education, community development. It helps me find sources I wouldn’t have found, understand perspectives I wouldn’t have considered, and organize information in ways that make the complex feel manageable.
I’ve used it to turn decades of scattered files, calendars, and notes into coherent narratives. Once, I fed it ten years of calendar entries with descriptions of what I was building during those years. It organized that chaos into a readable history of a decade of my life.
In every case, the pattern is the same: I do the thinking. Claude helps me organize, clarify, and strengthen that thinking. The final product is mine, but better than I would have created alone.
Like Mikey with his Life cereal in a 1970s commercial, I say, “try it you’ll like it”. And if you don’t? Just put down your spoon. Nobody’s going to make you eat it.
Peace,
Tim McCarthy
