🤖 AI Summary
Overview
Craig Mod, a writer and technologist, shares how he uses AI to build custom tools that enhance his creative work while maintaining his unique voice. From rebuilding software to creating private social platforms, Mod discusses the potential of AI in a golden age of tool building
and the importance of setting boundaries with technology to preserve deep thinking and creativity.
Notable Quotes
- If I don't create these barriers, I will lose connection with this other part of me that I think is the most valuable part of me.
– Craig Mod, on the importance of tech-free zones for creativity.
- We are in this epochal moment... a generational shift in how technology is used and built.
– Craig Mod, on the transformative potential of AI.
- Anthropomorphizing AI is psychotic. It’s not conscious, and we need to stop pretending it is.
– Craig Mod, on the dangers of attributing human traits to AI.
🛠️ Rebuilding Tools with AI
- Mod rebuilt expensive software like Campaign Monitor and Quicken using AI, reducing costs dramatically (e.g., $7,000/year to $150/year for Campaign Monitor).
- He created The Good Place,
a private, ephemeral social media platform for his members, designed to avoid the toxicity of mainstream platforms.
- AI helped him build a searchable archive for his newsletters and Q&A sessions, automating tasks like transcription and organization.
🌟 The Golden Age of Tool Building
- Mod believes AI is ushering in a new era where individuals can create highly specific, N of 1
tools tailored to their needs.
- He predicts increased competition in software markets as AI lowers barriers to entry, enabling smaller players to innovate faster.
- This shift could empower writers and creators to build better tools for audience engagement and self-publishing.
📵 Protecting Deep Thinking
- Mod maintains a strict tech-free morning routine, avoiding the internet and his phone until after lunch.
- He uses a dedicated, distraction-free laptop for writing, emphasizing the importance of creating physical and mental boundaries from the networked world.
- He argues that even seemingly benign technologies like Slack or social media can erode focus and creativity.
🤖 AI as a Research Assistant, Not a Writer
- While Mod uses AI for tasks like summarizing research or checking cultural sensitivities, he avoids letting it touch his actual writing.
- He values the mess
of writing as a critical part of the creative process and believes AI should enhance, not replace, human effort.
- AI’s role in his work is to streamline auxiliary tasks, freeing him to focus on the core of his craft.
🌍 Humanity’s Role in an AI Future
- Mod reflects on humanity’s fragile existence, likening our role to carrying the football of consciousness
to the next stage of evolution.
- He is skeptical of anthropomorphizing AI, calling it a dangerous distraction from real societal challenges.
- Despite his concerns, he views this moment in history as a unique and exciting opportunity to shape the future of technology and creativity.
AI-generated content may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon as a sole source of truth.
📋 Episode Description
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.
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.
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.
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!
To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe
Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
3:51 Rebuilding Quicken and Campaign Monitor with AI
6:24 Building The Good Place, a private Twitter alternative for Craig’s members
10:39 Why we’re entering a “golden age of tool building”
12:17 Why AI could help writers build audiences
17:35 Using AI to build a newsletter archive and a searchable board-meeting Q&A library
27:58 Creating a technology-free buffer to protect deep thinking
30:31 Why Craig is resisting the temptation to “mainline” AI for ten hours a day
39:44 Why anthropomorphizing AI is “psychotic,” and why Apple got Siri right
47:42 Being adopted, and making peace with humanity’s fragile place in an AI future
Go to https://attio.com/every and get 15% off your first year.
Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Craig Mod’s website: https://craigmod.com
Roden (Craig’s monthly newsletter): https://craigmod.com/roden/