rmoff's random ramblings

How I do, and don’t, use AI on this blog

Published by at https://rmoff.net/ai/

tl;dr

  • I use AI heavily on this blog.

  • I don’t use AI to write any content.

As any followers of my blog will have seen recently, I am a big fan of the productivity—and enjoyment—that AI can bring to one’s work. (In fact, I firmly believe that to opt out of using AI is a somewhat negative step to take in terms of one’s career.)

Here’s how I don’t use AI, and never will:

  • Writing content. Full stop. Period. Mic drop.

Here’s how I do use AI:

  • Claude is my webdev. It implemented the new design recently, built a funky 404 page, migrated all my old WordPress content, built a new site to host my conference talks, and much more!

  • Claude is my proofreader. Reviewing blog post drafts is one of the first things I used LLMs for, as it enables me to keep up my posting velocity whilst improving the quality of what gets published. I still have to run it several times to flush out even some obvious typos, but LLMs have got markedly better at reviewing the actual content of my posts and challenging sections. Here’s an example from a recent post:

    Screenshot of Claude’s proofreading feedback on a blog post

    If you’re curious what my /proofread-blog skill made of the first cut of this page, click to see the verbatim output below 👇🏻

    Typos

    • "heavily lifting" → should be "heavy lifting"

    Hardcoded links

    • Three rmoff.net URLs should use relative link: syntax instead

    Readability

    Short, punchy, and clear. The voice is consistent—informal, direct, no waffle. The tl;dr up top is effective.

    Logic and Arguments

    "to opt out of using AI is a somewhat negative step to take in terms of one’s career"—the hedging ("somewhat", "in terms of") undercuts what the linked post’s title ("AI Will Fuck You Up If You’re Not On Board") says much more forcefully. Either own the strong claim or drop the parenthetical.

    Focus and Structure

    Single purpose: disclose AI usage. Clean and focused. No issues.

    AsciiDoc Markup

    No underscore-mangling or code block issues spotted.

  • Claude is my code monkey. I use it for building projects and writing code that I might then blog about. For example, it did a lot of the heavy lifting in testing out alternatives to MinIO.

  • Claude is my admin assistant. It helps me sort through and produce my monthly interesting links roundup.

  • I’m using "AI", "Claude", "LLMs" interchangeably.

  • h/t Gunnar Morling for the idea of creating this page.