00:00 - Opening

Hey, welcome to Slow Builds.

The other night I spilled a full cup of black coffee all over a white-gray couch.
Completely black.
Total panic mode.

But somehow, that coffee spill ended with my wife and her parents telling me I need to get life insurance.

And the strange part is, when I actually looked into even trying to get it and did a couple quotes, the insurance companies themselves told me I probably should not be buying this because I do not seem to need it based on my situation.

00:30 - How It Escalated

So what happened is after the spill, and trying to do our best to clean it up, which I think we might have saved the couch, later that evening she went down to visit her parents.

Towards the end of that I started getting texts and phone calls just basically saying:

Go get life insurance.

Apparently the logic of how they got there was:

Oh, he spilled coffee. Maybe something is wrong.

What if it was a stroke?
What if he has a heart attack?
Do you have life insurance?
No?
Go get it now.
You need it.

So it was a very quick escalation from spilling some coffee to you might die.

01:05 - I'm Not Against Life Insurance

And now to be clear, I am not against life insurance.

Insurance just has to solve a real problem.
And that is the entire point of it.

You insure risks that would cause real financial damage if they happened.

So I started asking questions.

Why do we need it?
If I died, what would the money be used for?
What situation do you see needing to have the money?

And the only reply I kept getting was just:

Get it.
I do not care.
Get it now.

01:40 - So I Looked Into It

So when she did come back, she said pretty adamantly to go get it or she was going to go get a life insurance policy on me herself.

So I was like, fine.

Obviously it is probably not going to cost us that much.
And for a few dollars a month, I do not mind getting it.
Just for peace of mind.
To make her happy.

Because happiness and peace of mind is a lot.

If it costs me anywhere from like $8 to $20 a month, it is worth it.
Happy wife, happy life.

02:10 - What The Insurance Companies Said

So I did go online and I filled out questionnaires on a few different sites, and I was extremely honest about everything.

I did not hold back.
Debts, assets, income.
Extremely honest.

And two of the insurance companies actually came back and told me:

Based on your situation, we do not recommend getting life insurance.

Which you almost never hear from any insurance company.

Usually they are happy to sell you anything.
They will take your money.

And even the other one came back and offered a small plan.
It also said the same thing:

Based on your situation, we do not see a need for it.
But if you want a small plan to help cover funeral costs and unexpected expenses, this is what we would offer.

So I took screenshots of this and I sent it to my wife.

And I have not heard anything since.

03:00 - We Used To Have It

But the funny thing about it is, I do not know if she forgets or her parents forget, but we actually used to have life insurance.

A fairly large policy.

But it was back when it made sense.

We had more than one mortgage because we had rental properties and were just starting out in that game.
We had a brand new house that we lived in.
We had very young kids.
My wife was not working.

We had lots of debt.
Credit cards.
Lines of credit.
Mortgages.
New car debt too.

03:40 - Why It Made Sense Then

Also at the same time, because the kids were young, my wife was not working, and I was self-employed and flying out every Monday and flying home every Friday basically.

I was on the road consulting with companies.

So I could be in any city at any time during the week.
Bad weather.
Flying.
Getting to strange places.

This was before iPhone, so I had to print out my directions, get off a plane, and try to find my way.

I could end up in the wrong part of town.
It could be a snowstorm in a place that I am not familiar with.
I might get stuck somewhere.

You do not hear about planes too often, but God forbid, you never know.

So a lot of things could have gone wrong.

And my family was in a situation where if something did happen to me, she needed to have that insurance.

It made perfect sense to have a plan in case something went wrong that would remove the stress of having to worry about the finances, at least for a certain amount of time.

Because at that stage of our lives, with young kids, her not working, and all the debt, she would not have been able to survive on her own financially.

So that is when it made perfect sense.

04:50 - Life Changes

But life changes.

Time goes on.
The kids get older.
My kids are now in their 20s.
They basically take care of themselves.

Debt disappears.

Obviously there is always some small amount of debt here and there, but it is groceries, a trip you just went on, something you pay off.

It is not this massive debt sitting over your head that you are trying to chip away at.

We do not have that in our lives anymore.

Our savings are built up.
Our retirement funds are built up.

That is a big part of this entire channel.
Slow builds.
Investing.
Finances.

So over time, eventually what happens is you realize the thing that you were buying insurance to cover, you replaced it on your own.

You do not need the insurance anymore.

At this point, I would rather take the $20 or $50 a month it would cost me and buy some shares and build up my own personal investments and add to my dividend payouts.

To me, that makes more sense.

06:00 - The Question I Keep Coming Back To

So I keep coming back to the same question that I try to get her to answer:

If I died tomorrow, what problem would actually exist, and what do we need to cover it?

And in our situation:

She has a job.
We have investments.
She has her own.
I have mine.
We do not owe anything on our home.
It is maintenance mode.

We have a rental property.
We could sell it.
But it is also being rented at the moment, so there is income from that and it is an asset building on its own.

We do not have any major debt.

We did go on a vacation.
One of my kids has one semester left in school, so we help out with that.
But again, it is not something that is breaking the bank for us.

So we do not really have the same financial risk anymore.

If something did happen to me, she is taken care of by the things that we put away and by the things we did to get ourselves into this situation.

07:05 - What Insurance Is Actually For

And I think sometimes people misunderstand what insurance is actually meant to do.

It is supposed to protect against those big risks.

The things that, if something happened to one person in a relationship or family, would financially devastate everyone else and leave them in a bad place.

Possible bankruptcy.
Struggling.
Stress.

Sometimes people start insuring things they do not really need insurance on.

07:30 - The Car, Loan, and Mortgage Insurance Problem

The newest one, at least that I know of, is that when you buy a car now, you can insure the car payment itself.

Same with line of credit insurance.
Same with the mortgage insurance the bank offers you.

It is just an extra monthly payment so that if something happened to the person buying the car, the payments are paid off.

But the problem with those checkboxes is they only pay off what is remaining.

So if you get down to the last payment and you only owe $1,000, and something happens, well, you paid all that money month over month and they are only going to clear the debt.

So basically you paid all that money for $1,000.

Sure, there is some peace of mind along with paying every month.

But when you compare that to an actual life insurance policy, you pay the same amount every single month and if something did happen, you get the amount that you agreed to at the beginning of the term.

So if you had a car and you owed $25,000 on it, and you were paying the car company $10 a month for that insurance, then at the end of it, if there is no money left on the car, you just walk away with a car.
That is basically it.
You do not get any money.

Whereas if you only owed $1,000 on the car and something happened and you had a life insurance policy, you would get $25,000.

You put $1,000 on the car, you own the car, and you still have $24,000.

So there is a big difference between a lump sum policy and insurance attached to a product.

08:50 - How People Get Overinsured

And I think this is where a lot of people become overinsured, almost by accident.

Maybe they already have life insurance or some kind of policy somewhere, and that policy is already big enough to cover quite a bit of the expenses or things that might come up.

But then they go buy the car.
Or take out the loan.
Or get the mortgage.

And the checkbox is there.

Checking that box gives a feeling of relief.
A feeling of safety.

And that is why they do it right then in the moment.

Because they do not want to take the time to reevaluate their situation.

But in most cases, you probably are already covered, or maybe it is something you do not need to insure at all.

It is obviously not ideal to deal with trying to sell a car after someone passes away, but in most cases you could offload the car pretty quickly.

In the case of a property, property usually goes up in value, especially if it is something you live in or something that you take care of.

If you are the kind of person who is looking into life insurance, there is a good chance you take care of your home.

So there is a good chance that place is worth more now than when you began your mortgage or loan against it.

So having insurance that just pays off the line of credit probably is not the best case.

You are usually better off getting a larger lump sum policy if you actually need coverage at all.

10:10 - Reflection

Insurance is a very powerful tool, but it works best when it is solving a specific problem.

Otherwise it can quietly turn into something else.
Just another monthly payment.

And I think that is what made this whole situation interesting to me.

Because early in my life, life insurance solved a very real problem.

But when I sat down and looked at our situation today, I realized that problem does not exist anymore.

And that is something we do not talk about very often with money.

A lot of financial decisions are temporary, but they are also emotional.

A lot of times they make perfect sense in one stage of your life, and then quietly stop making sense.

Life changes.

And for me, life insurance was one of those decisions we did not need anymore.

Back then it solved the problem.
But today, after years of building assets and building stability, the problem it was covering is not there now.

11:15 - The Slow Builds Reflection

And I think that is something interesting about building slowly and the purpose of this channel.

If you keep paying attention to your finances over time, you start to notice that some of the protections you needed early on in your life eventually get replaced by the things you built.

Your savings.
Your investments.
Your assets.

And one day you realize something a little strange and exciting.

The thing insurance was meant to replace is the thing you already have.

You built it yourself.

And that might actually be one of the quiet milestones of financial independence.

Not when you can buy more protection, but when you realize you probably do not need it.

12:00 - Ending / Question

And I am curious about something.

Have you ever had a financial decision that made perfect sense early in your life, but later on you realized it did not really apply to you anymore?

How hard was it to cancel a policy or call up your bank to remove the mortgage insurance or line-of-credit insurance?

Was it a big decision?

Have you gone back and looked at those things to ask:

Has my life changed?
Is this something I could possibly go without?

Because that seems to happen more than people talk about.

And I am pretty sure there are a lot of overinsured people out there who are probably putting money in places that would be better used elsewhere.

Even if it is just going out for a date night, a movie, an extra coffee, or something small that improves life now.

That might be better than giving money to an insurance company for something you may not actually need.

Thanks for watching, and let me know what you think.
I look forward to the comments.

00:00 - Opening

Hey, welcome to Slow Builds.

So I've mentioned a few times now that I was going to explain how this channel actually started.

And the honest version is... AI built most of it.

I know that sounds very dramatic, but it's pretty much mostly true.

AI structured it.
AI outlined it.
AI named it.

AI pretty much did everything.

I'm just the one sitting here talking as awkwardly and as cringe as I am.

I'm just going along for the ride to see where this takes me.

00:39 - It Started With My Kid

This didn't begin with me wanting to be on YouTube.

My kid was posting on TikTok and started getting some really good traction - a lot of followers, a lot of views.

They wanted to move into YouTube for longer-form videos and just see what that would take.

So I did what I always do.

I started researching.

I wanted to figure out the YouTube algorithm, the best way to go about creating a channel, how to keep retention, what makes channels have longevity, and what makes a channel actually last longer - not just from hype.

And I kept coming back to the same thing.

You can't just throw up one video and hope it works.

Sure, you might get one video to go viral.

But you need consistency.
You need history.
Common themes.
A recognizable voice and image that people trust.

Once people start watching, they come back because they know what to expect.

And this is what I told my kid.

02:02 - The 52 Video Plan

At some point during this journey of researching for my child, I asked AI something simple.

If someone was serious about doing a channel - or even from my kid's point of view - how many videos would it take to build enough history that someone would actually subscribe?

Not just click subscribe and never see another video again.

AI suggested thinking in cycles.

Not viral attempts.

A full year.

One video per week.

52 videos.

That made it feel less emotional and more like a plan.

So I asked it to map out a year.

ChatGPT took the history of our conversations and everything I had asked it before... and it produced 52 video ideas.

It mapped out 52 titles.

It organized them into themes, pillars, and bridges between topics.

Then it took the first few and gave script ideas.

So suddenly there was a roadmap and a starting point.

And that's when it started to feel like this might actually be something real.

04:01 - Recording the First Video

Eventually I thought... let's just record one.

After redefining scripts and trying to figure out how I was going to keep track of everything, I just said:

Let's take the first one and record it.

AI helped with lighting, positioning, and the structure of the video.

I filmed it.

It was very awkward.

So instead of scrapping it, I dropped the entire video and transcript into AI and asked it to analyze it.

It came back with notes.

Adjust the script.
Change the framing.
Reposition things.

So I did it all again.

Not that it made much difference.

You can go look at the first video.

Even this video, I feel like I'm getting a bit more comfortable - but it's still hard.

Right now there's someone standing nearby and it's kind of freaking me out.

You might have heard the cat meow too.

I'm not in a setup that makes me feel fully comfortable.

But even with that first awkward video, AI said something interesting:

Just post it.
It's real. It's authentic.

Over time you'll get more comfortable.

05:45 - Locking In The Channel

At that point I figured if I was going to keep going, I should lock it in.

AI gave me several name ideas.

I went searching for domains and YouTube handles.

The idea was Slow Builds, but the best available option was Slow Builds Lab.

As a developer, that phrase meant something specific.

Slow builds usually means compiling code - waiting for your code to finish building.

But AI reframed it.

Slow builds as in time building things.

Compounding.

Growth.

Analytical thinking.

Once I had the name and the URL, it became real.

We had:

• 52 video ideas
• scripts for the first several videos
• a website URL
• a YouTube handle

At that point, it was happening.

07:12 - The Website (Built By AI)

The funny part is... yes, there is a website.

AI told me where to put it.

Since I'm already a developer and use GitHub all the time, I simply told AI to build me a site.

And it did.

The site is slowbuildslab.com.

It created an about page.

It generated a logo using Canva based on the name and early scripts.

The logo uses gears and growth imagery, which I actually like a lot.

AI also built the banner for the channel.

Getting the banner aligned correctly across devices was difficult because of all the different screen sizes.

But eventually AI figured it out.

08:33 - The Video Workflow

The workflow now is pretty simple.

AI helps generate:

• script drafts
• title ideas
• descriptions
• first comment
• thumbnail ideas

There's a lot of back-and-forth while shaping the scripts.

Once the script is ready, I film the video.

Like I'm doing right now.

I barely edit.

Usually I just trim the beginning and the end.

Sometimes adjust volume or reduce background noise.

That's about it.

After recording, I export the audio and run it through Whisper to generate a full transcript.

Then I add that transcript into my Apple Notes.

AI formats it into sections with timestamps.

Then I check if the title, description, or comments need adjustments.

Usually they don't.

Then the video gets uploaded.

10:49 - Updating the Website

Once the video is live, I grab the URL.

My Apple note contains:

• the title
• the description
• the pinned comment
• the YouTube link
• the full transcript

Then I open Codex and tell it a new video went live.

Codex reads the note, updates the website code, commits to GitHub, pushes the changes, and deploys.

Within minutes the video appears on the website in the correct order.

That whole system runs without me touching anything.

11:28 - The Hardest Part

Honestly, the hardest part of the whole process is the thumbnail.

AI image generation often changes my face too much.

So instead I grab still frames from the video.

Remove the background.

Give AI the thumbnail concept.

Tell it not to modify my face too much.

And that becomes the thumbnail.

It's pretty straightforward.

12:14 - Why I Wanted To Do This

One of the reasons I wanted to try this experiment is something I'm noticing on YouTube.

Some of the fastest growing channels right now are not hyper-produced.

They're raw.

Someone opens their phone and starts talking.

They might be outside by a lake.

Or sitting in a room like this.

The videos are messy.

Unedited.

Just humans being humans.

Long-form conversation.

With so much fast, short-form content everywhere, people seem to want connection again.

It feels like you're sitting there with the person as they think through something.

And that authenticity matters.

14:07 - Where AI Fits

AI removes a lot of the friction.

It helps write scripts.

Suggest titles.

Generate ideas.

Plan a full year of videos.

Without that help, starting from scratch would feel overwhelming.

Instead, I know there's always another idea waiting.

And as I keep making videos, new ideas get added to the list.

So the pressure disappears.

AI also helped with the structure, the thumbnails, and the website.

But when I hit record...

It's just me.

15:31 - Finding My Voice

The videos I like most lately are the ones where I go off script.

I start with the structure.

But then I just talk.

AI formats the sections afterward so I can stay organized while recording.

That helps me keep track of where I am without losing the flow.

Over time I'm getting a bit more comfortable with that.

16:16 - The Real Bet

The bet here isn't that AI will make this successful.

The bet is simply that I said I would try it.

Maybe it goes nowhere.

But I want to see if authenticity compounds.

If I can show up once a week.

Not perfect.

Not polished.

Just consistent.

And see whether people are interested.

17:03 - The Experiment

These videos aren't perfect.

They're not highly produced.

But I want to see if consistency keeps you in the game.

As AI becomes more common and more content gets generated automatically, I want to see if something simple still works:

A real person.

Talking honestly.

Showing up every week.

And seeing where it goes.

00:00 - Entering Something New

Hey, welcome to Slow Builds.

We're clearly entering something new with AI.

I don't fully know what to make of it yet.

There's a lot of excitement, a lot of noise - and there's also a lot of fear.

And to be honest, I'm feeling all of it.

I'm very unsure.

But at the same time, I'm very optimistic.

I'm excited to see what comes from this new age we're entering.

00:36 - Is This Another Industrial Revolution?

I've heard it compared to the Industrial Revolution.

And in some ways, that makes sense.

Back then, industries changed because we built factories and assembly lines. That infrastructure took decades. It was expensive. Change was slow.

If something needed to be modified, it wasn't easy. It took money, time, and effort.

This feels very different.

AI isn't replacing muscle first.

It's replacing thinking.

01:30 - The Middle-Class Question

AI is starting with cognitive tasks.

Call centers.
Paralegals.
Entry-level accounting.
Even higher-level accounting.
Junior developers.
Logistics planners.

Then you move into hybrid roles:

Truck drivers.
Taxi services.
Delivery systems.
Port operations.

Those physical-digital jobs could shift faster than we expect.

And that's mostly middle-class stability.

That's what worries me most.

Not collapse.

Compression.

Reshuffling.

02:33 - Ethics, Incentives & Power

The other thing that worries me is the people at the top.

Corporations building it.
Corporations deploying it.
Governments trying to regulate it.

Incentives move fast.

Sometimes faster than ethics.

Greed can move quickly.

And AI is powerful.

When something powerful moves fast, guardrails matter.

Empathy matters.

I hope the people steering this understand that.

Because we don't get unlimited resets with a tool like this.

Once it's embedded everywhere, it's hard to pull back.

We have to keep this one on the rails.

03:42 - The Question That Changed My Framing

The other day, I was out with a friend.

He asked me why I'm still building apps.

And I could tell what he meant.

At my age, I've built companies. I have a job I'm happy with. I'm not chasing anything.

He assumed I was trying to hit the big one.

The next Snapchat.
The next WhatsApp.
The billion-dollar exit.

But that's not it.

I just like building.

04:33 - Before AI: Friction Everywhere

Before AI, building meant friction.

You'd come up with an idea.

Then research it.
Document it.
Make stack decisions.
Figure out feasibility - technical, legal, practical.

You could burn weeks just validating an idea.

Now?

I can pick up my phone and start talking.

Type a thought.

Get an overview of what's possible almost immediately.

Build prototypes over a weekend.

Get architecture guidance.
Domain ideas.
Hosting plans.
Integration advice.
Even help shaping a sales pitch.

The overhead is dramatically lower.

05:50 - My Current Experiments

Right now, I have several ideas in motion:

A chores app.
A coaching concept.
A dividend tracker.
A trade tester.
A GPS tracker.
This channel.

Some are live.
Some are half-built.
Some might never launch.

And that's fine.

Because the goal isn't the unicorn.

It's creative output.

AI didn't make me more creative.

It removed drag.

06:54 - The WALL-E Fear

I joke about the WALL-E future.

Robots do everything.
We float around.
Unlimited entertainment.
No effort required.

Maybe some of that happens.

But I think something else happens too.

AI shrinks routine cognitive work.

And that expands creative leverage.

It's like having a small team behind you.

Engineers.
Researchers.
Documenters.

You still need taste.

Direction.

Judgment.

But you're not alone in execution anymore.

And that changes who gets to build.

08:22 - Different Perspectives, Same Leverage

One of my friends is a designer - a UX thinker.

He's not a coder.

AI lets him bring ideas to life without being blocked by code.

On my side, I understand the code deeply.

AI helps me move through it faster and focus more on user experience.

Different strengths.

Same leverage.

That's powerful.

09:11 - Holding Both Sides

So yes.

I'm unsure.

I worry about job displacement.

I worry about middle-class compression.

I worry about greed moving faster than laws and ethics.

But I also see:

Faster discovery.
Cheaper production.
Better medicine.
Smarter energy systems.
New businesses.
New roles we haven't even named yet.

Every major tool shift reshuffles value.

It doesn't delete it.

10:01 - Why I'm Leaning In

For people who want to think, build, and adapt -

This might be one of the most enabling ages in history.

That blows my mind.

I don't know where this era goes.

I don't know who gets hit first.

But I do know this:

I can build more now than I ever could before.

Not because I'm chasing something big.

But because the friction is lower.

That makes me want to create more.

10:39 - Closing

So yes.

I'm unsure.

But I'm optimistic.

My optimism outweighs my fear.

I'm glad I get to witness this shift.

We're living inside a chapter people will read about someday.

They'll say "before AI," the way we say "before the internet."

I'd rather lean into this and be part of it

than look away.

Thanks for watching Slow Builds.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one.

And yes - I let AI help shape this script based on my inputs.

That feels fitting.

Opening - "Why did I ignore it?"

Hey and welcome to Slow Builds.

I remember a friend telling me about Bitcoin in early 2012.

He started talking about how he watched a video introducing it. He had a friend who was mining it and told him about it.

Back then, the idea that we could "mine money" on our own computers made zero sense to me.

He was saying it was going to disrupt financial institutions.

And I completely ignored it.

And I'm a developer. I have a computer science degree. I have a math degree. I love investing. I love technology.

So why did I ignore it?

The dismissal - "It felt unserious"

For years I completely shunned Bitcoin.

I considered it hype. Vapor. Speculative noise.

Every cycle looked the same:

Up. Crash. Memes. Crypto bros.

It felt unserious.

There was no real backing to it.

The price swings felt random. They didn't seem to have any logical reason for why it would go up and then drop right back down.

And I told myself I was being rational.

I told myself I was being financially responsible by staying away from it.

I thought I was protecting myself from the nonsense around Bitcoin.

I thought I was protecting my money.

And I'm not saying I made the wrong choices.

I did make the right choices on some things.

Some things... no.

But Bitcoin is one I think I misjudged.

The turning point - a calm conversation

And what's funny is...

It didn't take one of my tech friends.

It didn't take a financial advisor.

It didn't take someone I look up to from an investment point of view.

It was one of my non-tech friends.

We were at a Hozier concert, out in a field.

He wasn't trying to pitch me on it. He didn't hype it up.

He just asked: "Did you see this about Bitcoin?"

And I basically said straight up:

"I don't buy into the hype. I don't invest in Bitcoin. I don't believe in it."

And he just started talking.

Not hype. Not "to the moon."

Just calm.

He talked about scarcity.

He talked about investment firms quietly buying it up.

He talked about governments experimenting with it.

He did the whole "futuristic gold" comparison - as an asset with limited supply.

He was measured.

And it stuck with me.

I walked away from that conversation thinking differently.

Going off-script: governments, debt, and narratives

I'm gonna go a bit off-script here.

This was around the time when Trump was coming into power again - I think it was that time.

And there was all this talk about debt, and government money, and bills that would allow treasury money to go into Bitcoin... and how that could offset debt.

A lot of it sounded like nonsense.

But it still opened my eyes.

Because it made me pay attention to something I hadn't really considered:

Governments are trying to use it.

They're trying to re-leverage debt.

And that kind of pressure could force Bitcoin into the "new asset" category.

Stores of value: gold, real estate, art, stocks... then Bitcoin

And that's where it comes down to this:

There are only so many stores of value in the world.

Gold is limited. It's hard to find.

You dig massive holes, go deep, just to find a tiny amount.

And even if you had gold...

In the future you don't want to be carrying coins and bricks around, chipping pieces off, weighing it like it's the old days.

Then you have real estate.

Land has always been valuable.

But land is expensive - and getting more expensive.

And it's not liquid.

You can't move a property "on a dime."

And owning property has overhead.

There's friction.

I've owned several rentals. I still have a rental, but it's family.

Still... there's headaches.

Floods. Mold. Vacancy. Collecting rent.

Property tax. Heat. Light. Water.

It's overhead.

Then you have art and collectibles.

Also limited. Also valuable.

But it takes a lot of money to buy in.

You can't buy "half" a collectible. You buy the whole thing.

And when you sell, you still need someone willing to pay for it.

Then you have stocks - tied to companies, revenue, growth, and what shareholders are willing to pay.

Outside of that...

You're kind of limited.

Shares.

Art.

Gold.

Material stuff - silver, bronze, diamonds...

Even diamonds are getting weird now because synthetic ones are flooding the market.

And then you have Bitcoin.

Digital scarcity - "21 million matters"

Bitcoin is a whole different kind of scarcity.

Digital scarcity.

There are only 21 million.

There's still about a million left to go, and that matters right now.

That's not like most cryptos where there isn't a real limit.

Where the supply can just keep expanding and the price can swing.

Bitcoin isn't like cash.

The US can print more money.

Canada can print more money.

You don't have that with Bitcoin.

It's not infinite.

And that's a structural constraint that forces value.

Once people agree it's worth something...

Because it's limited, each fraction becomes more valuable - as long as someone is willing to pay for it.

Theories: grounded, practical... and the wild AI one

So I have a few theories.

Including a pretty wild one.

The grounded one:

It becomes digital gold.

A reserve asset.

The practical one:

It's borderless value.

A way to transfer value between individuals and institutions without relying on banks, fees, currencies, cross-border friction, or regulatory overhead.

It's just... move value.

That alone makes it valuable in my mind.

Now personally?

I don't want to be the guy who buys pizza with Bitcoin.

I don't want to be the "40 Bitcoin Domino's pizza" story.

So for me it's set it and forget it.

Buy it slowly.

Take your time.

Slow Builds.

I bought some other stuff too - Ether, and a couple others.

But the majority of anything I put into crypto goes into Bitcoin.

Not most of my money.

But most of that crypto money goes into Bitcoin.

AI agents + money: what do they use?

And this is where my wild theory comes in.

It sounds crazy when you say it out loud...

But maybe there's something to it.

We've got OpenClaw.

We've got all these AI models.

You build agents.

Your agents go out, talk to each other, do work on your behalf.

And there are already stories of people giving agents access to bank accounts and credit cards...

And then they get wiped out.

Or the agent buys something insane.

Or signs up for some random course.

So if agents are going to go out and do things...

They're going to need to purchase things.

They can't just freely pass everything back and forth.

In my mind, they'll use some kind of digital currency.

And I think it's going to be Bitcoin.

Because AI agents could transfer it back and forth without relying on bank accounts.

Without currencies and fees.

Without all the limits and regulatory friction.

It's borderless. Frictionless.

A digital way to purchase and transfer value - agent to agent - to complete tasks.

We have no idea where this goes.

But it's a thought.

Bitcoin as the "measuring stick"

And even if Bitcoin isn't the one they use directly...

I still think Bitcoin becomes the underlying measuring stick.

Like gold used to be.

Gold to USD.

We don't do that now, but things start somewhere.

Bitcoin is finite.

Limited.

It's established.

It hasn't been "cracked."

It works.

So I think it becomes the default standard that everything else gets compared to.

When it drops: fear, opportunity, and narratives

Right now the price is dropping.

And I don't panic.

Maybe it's macro.

Maybe it's liquidity cycles.

Maybe it's big players moving markets.

Or maybe it's just human pattern-seeking.

I don't know.

But what I do know is...

It's a scarce asset.

And it doesn't feel "safe" when it's falling.

Bitcoin feels stupid to talk about with people who aren't tech.

People who can barely use an iPhone.

People who still use cash to buy a candy bar.

They'll never understand it.

But when I see the market drop...

I see opportunity.

Yes, it's still way higher than it was in 2012.

But it's also a better opportunity than it was six months ago... maybe a year ago.

Now I can get in at a better baseline.

Manipulation theory + "losing the middle"

And this is where I go off on my own theory again.

I have a feeling the Bitcoin market is being manipulated.

I think governments and financial institutions are still moving forward with their plan.

They didn't just drop massive amounts of money and walk away.

They put in orders.

They don't care what the price is in the moment.

They're buying.

And they already own a lot of Bitcoin.

And I think what happens next is...

They try to lower the price so they can buy more.

They scare retail investors.

People sell at the lows.

And the big players scoop it up.

Meanwhile, for poor people - it still feels too expensive.

Sure, they can buy tiny fractions... but most won't.

And don't listen to me - this is not advice - I'm just rambling.

But the point is:

They lower the price.

They buy more.

And people who panic lose their chance.

For me?

I see it and I want to buy a bit more.

So when it jumps back up, I'm not chasing it.

And this is how we lose the middle again.

More poor.

More rich.

Less middle.

That bothers me.

It ties into AI, money, everything.

We keep losing the middle.

Compounding, holding, and leverage (not selling)

I'm not rich.

I'm not in the rich category.

I'm just trying to keep my head above water.

But with Slow Builds - the way I buy things and hold things - I believe in compounding.

That's why I want to buy Bitcoin.

And I don't plan on selling it.

I'd rather leverage it later.

If the value goes up and I still own it...

I can use that asset as leverage.

Just like I leveraged my home for a line of credit.

You leverage assets.

You don't sell them.

Because once you sell them, they're gone.

If you own land, shares, art, collectibles, real estate, Bitcoin...

If you own it, you can leverage it.

So if one Bitcoin is worth $100,000...

I should be able to get a loan for $50,000.

Minimum.

And then maybe you use that money to buy other assets.

Again - my numbers might be off.

This is not advice.

I'm just thinking out loud.

Please don't go spend all your money because of anything I'm saying.

Closing - "I'm not laughing anymore"

So this isn't about going all in.

It's about recognizing something I dismissed.

Bitcoin used to be a joke in my head.

A meme coin at best.

But Slow Builds isn't about chasing hype.

It's about noticing structural shifts early enough to participate...

Without betting the house.

If Bitcoin is hype, it fades.

If it's digital scarcity, it compounds over decades.

I don't know which it will be.

But I'm not laughing at Bitcoin anymore.

That's the shift.

I buy it regularly.

I believe in it.

And even if it doesn't become what I think...

I'm no worse off.

At worst, it's still an asset worth something to somebody.

Maybe I lose some money.

Maybe I make some money.

Maybe it becomes something we all need later.

Or maybe it disappears.

But I'm in the game.

I'm in it for the long term.

And it's one of my slow builds.

Hey - thank you.

00:00 - This Is Not a Tutorial

Welcome to Slow Builds.

I want to start by saying I'm not an expert.
This is not a tutorial.
This isn't a "how to write better prompts" video.

I'm not here to teach you how to use AI properly.

I'm just trying to make sense of something I noticed.

I got my 2025 ChatGPT Year in Review.

And it said I'm in the top 3% of all ChatGPT users.

Also... top 3% of first-time users.

Both surprised me.

And honestly?
I didn't feel proud.

I felt uncomfortable.

Because most days I feel messy using it.

01:30 - Early Tech, That Part I Understand

The "early user" part makes sense to me.

I've always gravitated toward new tools.

Early Twitter.
UserVoice when it was brand new.
South by Southwest during the early SaaS explosion.

We were from the early wave of startups and internet tools growing up in small-town Canada.

So being in the first few percent of users?

I can grasp that.

But top 3% overall?

That scared me a bit.

Because I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.

03:00 - I Feel Like a Hot Mess

When I use ChatGPT:

• I rephrase constantly.
• I correct it.
• I correct myself.
• I restart mid-sentence.

Half my chats start with:

"This might be dumb, but..."

And end with:

"Wait. That's not what I meant."

So part of me wondered-

If I'm top 3% and still this unsure...

What does that mean for everyone else?

04:10 - So I Asked It

Instead of guessing, I asked ChatGPT directly:

"You put me in the top 3%. How?"

If you look at volume alone - new chats started -
I'm nowhere near the top.

I don't use it like Google.
I don't fire off quick one-off searches.

The difference, it said, was depth.

I go deep inside conversations.

I stay in them.

I follow up.
I push back.
I clarify.
I ask for alternatives.
I ask it to go deeper.

It values sustained dialogue over quick surface usage.

That made sense.

05:30 - How I Actually Use It

I don't delete chats.
I return to them.

Trips.
Car purchases.
Family texts.
Recipes.
Side projects.
Work integrations.

I'll stay inside one thread and keep building.

Even on walks with my wife.

We once spent an entire 30-minute walk troubleshooting why the pool chlorine kept dropping.

It became a third voice in the conversation.

We could interrupt it.
Correct it.
Ask for clarification.

It didn't replace thinking.

It extended it.

07:00 - Code, Quality, and Going Deeper

I use it heavily for code.

But not to blindly generate more.

I use it to:

• Refactor.
• Re-examine.
• Challenge assumptions.
• Ask if there's a better structure.

There's a narrative out there that AI makes developers ship bloated code.

Maybe.

But I think that's a usage issue.

The tool isn't the problem.

The intent is.

09:00 - It Wasn't Volume. It Was Staying in It.

Being top 3% didn't mean I mastered AI.

I don't have:

• A giant prompt library.
• An elite workflow.
• Fancy automation chains.

It was about staying in the conversation long enough to reach clarity.

Not accepting the first answer.
Rephrasing.
Refining.

That repetition taught me better prompting over time.

11:00 - Messy Is My Default

I use it the way I think.

Midstream.
Switching directions.
Throwing in random thoughts.

In one chat I might ask:

• Who's the shortest NBA player?
• How long to roast a chicken?
• Would an eSIM work for an app idea?

It's chaotic.

But it mirrors how my brain works.

I don't use it to move faster.

I use it to get unstuck.

There's a difference.

12:30 - The Awkward Phase

Most people quit during the awkward phase.

When answers feel generic.
When you don't know how to ask better questions yet.
When you feel like you're "doing it wrong."

I didn't get better because I mastered it.

I got better because I stayed awkward longer.

I kept opening it.
Kept asking.
Kept refining.

14:00 - Context Changes Everything

Over time I learned something simple:

If I need something serious,
I give it context.

I tell it who to be:

• Senior developer
• Therapist
• Investor
• Chef
• Life coach

Not because it's magic.

But because clarity creates better output.

The constraint improves the result.

15:30 - "It's a Time Waster"

I see people saying ChatGPT kills productivity.

And I understand how that can happen.

But that's true of any powerful tool.

Your phone is incredible.

Navigation. Banking. Work. Communication.

It's also three hours of scrolling.

The tool is what you make it.

If you use it to escape,
it becomes escape.

If you use it to build,
it becomes leverage.

Most days, I use it to build.

18:30 - You're Probably Not Behind

If your prompts feel messy...

If you constantly rephrase...

If you restart mid-chat...

You're not behind.

You're probably early.

As long as you're opening it,
trying,
experimenting-

you're ahead of the people who refuse to touch it.

20:00 - It Learns You Slowly

By staying in longer conversations,
it starts learning how you think.

My recap reflected:

• My work as a developer
• My family dynamics
• My travel preferences
• My personal goals

That didn't happen from one-off prompts.

It happened from continuity.

21:30 - A Slow Build on a Fast Tool

This isn't about mastering AI.

It's about staying in the conversation long enough
for it to compound.

It's a slow build
on top of a tool that's moving fast.

And that feels very on-brand for this channel.

00:00 - Opening

Welcome to Slow Builds.
So this one again is another rambling that I'm gonna go through.

And this one's more of an investment one.

And when you make investments, sometimes they don't work out the way you felt they should've...
or you got in at the wrong time.

But you always have to look at your investments - in my mind - as full-on long term.

And you just gotta go with the ups and downs.

So...

00:32 - Buying Nike at the worst time

I bought Nike pretty much at the worst time possible, in my mind.

I bought it right at the peak - not the peak, I guess - but one of the largest peaks they'd had for a long time.

It was well over $100 a share.

It was right before COVID.

They had just brought in a new CEO.

Things were looking great.

And then... yeah... COVID hit.

00:55 - Nike felt untouchable

The stock was doing great for a while because - like I said - anywhere you looked...

Every team, every sporting event, at the mall, every show...

No matter what you looked at or where you went, you saw a swoosh.

It seemed like everyone had it.

They sponsored everything.

Great stories were being told.

Great support.

Everything felt really good.

But then... like I said... COVID hit.

01:29 - COVID made the CEO's idea "work"

They had that new CEO who happened to come in on a high.

And he came from a background that didn't really fit that type of market... and that kind of product.

But because of COVID...
and the whole situation surrounding that...

his ideas worked.

Which... did it hit a lot?
Yeah.

01:55 - The biggest mistake: go direct, cut stores

His biggest mistake was he saw the sales going through the roof - shoes flying off the shelves - and he's thinking:

"Let's cut out the middleman."

"Let's go direct to customer."

"And let's get rid of the stores."

And you know what? Perfect timing - stores are shut down.

Nobody can go in and buy anything or try anything on.

So everyone's online buying.

It's the perfect situation for someone who doesn't really understand the product...

...but yet his idea manages to work.

02:29 - It worked... for that moment

And it did okay in that time frame because it gave customers a way to still get the product they wanted.

They were able to go run.

Like you couldn't buy a treadmill.

I live in Canada and my treadmill was broken and I couldn't get one.

So I'm running outside - and where we are it's pretty cold.

I'm talking... no wind... minus 20 Celsius.

Because I had to run... and I had to have my Nikes... because that's what I wear when I run.

Actually... I do wear Nike... but they stopped making the one I love... so now I'm a second runner.

But regardless.

03:13 - When COVID ends, people want stores again

So he managed that.

But then what happens is...

When COVID's over, people want to get out.

They want to go to the stores.

They want to talk to people.

They want to be in that environment.

And what happened in my mind is...

during that period, these stores still gotta put something on the shelves.

They still need product.

And if Nike doesn't want to be there...

other brands fill the hole.

03:57 - Shelf space shift: On + Hoka get their chance

And that gave an opportunity for the up-and-comers - the brand-new ones - like On and Hoka.

They got to fill space that normally they wouldn't even get a shot at.

New Balance has always been around - they got more shelf space.

Saucony - I've always worn it - it's always been there.

But again, they fill a void.

04:15 - Shoe retail background: reps + training mattered

And shoppers want to touch and feel.

And the other thing is...

I worked in shoe retail for quite some time - in my university and high school years.

Nike and Reebok - and all these brands - would send reps with the shoes.

They'd go store to store...
or set up nearby...

And they'd teach you about the products.

What the product's for.

What's new about it.

What changed.

Who it's not for.

And that makes a huge difference.

Because your salespeople are knowledgeable...

and they can help people make the right decisions.

And when you help someone make the right decision...

and that decision happens to be a Nike shoe...

they're gonna buy a Nike again.

05:14 - Runners are loyal

We used to get runners come in and they'd ask me about shoes I didn't even know were coming out yet.

And if it wasn't there... they'd just leave.

I didn't understand that at the time because I didn't run.

Now I get it.

I know exactly what size, which shoe, which make.

Unless there's a new model.

That's the only time I tinker.

06:00 - Customers try the new brands... and Nike loses share

So... shelf space gets taken over.

You've got On and Hoka and other brands filling that space.

The customer gets a chance to try them.

And sure - these are great shoes.

No issues.

And true runners are loyal.

Once they find something... they don't like to change.

Blisters. Ankle problems. Shin splints.

You gotta be careful when you run a lot of miles.

So Nike lost that market share right there.

And that's hard to get back.

06:59 - Second mistake: killing story + innovation

And on that front...

he took away the storyline.

He took away the athlete.

He took the heart and soul out of Nike, in my mind.

He tried to make it like a machine - just pumping stuff out.

You can't just knock out the same thing over and over again and hope people buy it just because it's iconic.

Dunks. Dunk lows. Skateboarding. Jordan.

You can't just regurgitate.

08:28 - Combined impact: off shelves, no story, no innovation -> stock drops

So all this together...

taking it off shelves...

losing market share...

taking away the story...

no innovation...

So what happens?

Stock goes down.

They're losing revenue.

Share price drops.

And again - I bought it at the worst time thinking Nike's everywhere.

09:31 - What I do: I double down (average down)

But again... what do I do?

I double down.

When I buy a stock and believe in it and I see the price drop...

to me that's a chance to average out.

I always believe it's gonna go back to where it is.

With Nike, I believe there's a new beginning.

10:42 - Nike reset: board + consumers spoke

Nike realized it.

The board realized it.

Shareholders spoke.

Consumers spoke.

People moved on.

But no matter how much the others grow...

their revenues combined still don't meet what Nike does.

And the one thing Nike has the ability to do - even when they look like they're suffering - is they can push back.

11:59 - New CEO brings back wholesale + innovation

With the new CEO back in - he was there before - I can't remember his name...

he brought back innovation.

He said: Nike is an innovation company.

This is what we do.

They brought back wholesale.

Foot Locker. Dick's. All those stores.

Now they're carrying it again.

Back on shelves where it needs to be.

12:42 - Nike can fund innovation others can't

And Nike is slowly gaining it back a little bit in running.

I always go to running because that's the biggest thing I do.

Hoka and On mainly do running and walking.

They don't have the budget to spend hundreds of millions... or a billion...

to chase the next evolution.

Whereas Nike can go try to make the fastest marathon shoe.

They can push track and field.

They can test crazy ideas.

Some might end up in the garbage.

But Nike can afford that.

15:35 - Stories are coming back too

And he's bringing back the stories.

He's bringing back what makes Nike, Nike.

That feeling...

when you wear it... and you believe.

And outside of running, they have so many other avenues.

I just don't see Nike failing.

Which is why... again... I double down.

17:15 - Slow builds / long-term framing

So I guess what I'm saying as part of this channel is...

I bought something knowing I was gonna hold it a long time.

I knew it was high.

But I thought it would at least stay there... maybe move up slowly.

I wasn't looking for a rocket ship stock.

This is something that chugs along.

Pays dividends.

18:46 - Dividend + DRIP + compounding

And here's the other thing...

they didn't drop their dividend.

They even increased it.

So even though the price is down...

I'm able to get a little more.

And the amount of money Nike makes is still massive compared to almost all of them.

So they're working from a place where they can learn.

And turn it around.

19:52 - Why I wanted to release this now

This is why I wanted to get this video out.

Because everywhere I look now they're talking about the innovations.

They're talking about the mistakes.

They're talking about reversing it.

And I'm like... man... I've been talking about this forever.

Even friends have said: "What price do I need to buy some now?"

And I'm like... I hope it does go back.

Because I've been buying at the low.

20:30 - Investing fear: "what if the market goes down?"

And I have a lot of people in my life who are scared of investing.

Their biggest thing is:

"What if the market goes down?"

"What if I lose all my money?"

And I always say... if you lose all your money...

those companies don't exist anymore.

And if banks, energy, telecom, pharma... all disappear...

we have way bigger problems than our portfolios.

21:36 - Price drops are a feature (for long-term dividends)

And then I always say:

Dividends reinvest.

Price drops are awesome.

Because the dividend buys more shares.

If the price goes up, I get less.

So over time... I actually want those downs.

So with Nike... I'm glad it's down.

It's a chance to get more cheaper.

22:09 - Closing

Again... this is the long game.

This is a slow build.

I'm taking my time.

I believe in Nike.

I've always loved Nike.

There are certain brands I stand behind.

And I really believe they're gonna turn this around and make it a great thing.

Alright. Thanks.

00:00 - Opening: This Is a Ramble

Hey, welcome to Slow Builds.

This one's a ramble.
Maybe even a bit of a rant.

It's the first time I've talked about investing on this channel, and that's part of my slow build philosophy. It's something I take seriously.

And this one comes from a little frustration.

Not anger.
Just... confusion.

00:40 - Why This Is Personal

This comes up because of my daughter's boyfriend.

He qualifies for a disability.
He wants to work.
He is working.

And I'm trying to convince her to make sure he follows through on this.

But there's hesitation.

And that surprises me.

Because she understands investing.
She's maxed her TFSA.
She contributes to RRSPs.
She talks about big goals.

So I don't understand why this one feels hard.

02:30 - What the RDSP Actually Is

In Canada, there's something called the Registered Disability Savings Plan.

If you qualify medically and you're working:

• You open the account.
• You contribute.
• The government contributes.

That's it.

The part I love most?

You have to work.

This isn't just free money for doing nothing.

You qualify, you participate, you contribute.

04:00 - The Simple Math

Let's break this down simply.

If he puts in $500 per year:

The government adds:

• $1,000 bond (while eligible)
• $1,500 grant (on the first $500)

So that $500 turns into $3,000 for the year.

That's not hype.
That's math.

$42 a month.

That's less than eating out once or twice.

And the government is effectively putting in about $208 a month beside it.

05:50 - Over Time (The Boring Part That Matters)

From age 20 to 49:

Out of pocket: about $15,000 total.

Total in the account (just deposits, no investing):
Around $80,000.

That means roughly $65,000 of that is government money.

That's what I mean when I say:

You're leaving money on the table.

08:45 - If It's Invested (Set and Forget)

If you just invest it conservatively.

Nothing crazy.
No chasing dreams.
No Tesla bets.
No gambling.

Just something boring. Broad. Dividend ETF. Even bonds.

Let it drip.

Let it compound.

Now you're not looking at $80,000.

You're potentially looking at $150,000 by 49.

Which could throw off $400-$500 a month in income.

Layer that with:

• CPP
• OAS
• Maybe GIS depending on situation

Now retirement doesn't look scary.

11:30 - The "You Can't Touch It Until 60" Problem

This is where the hesitation comes in.

You can't touch it until 60 without clawbacks.

But that's the whole point.

It's a retirement program.

It's designed to be untouchable so future-you is protected from present-you.

And honestly?

That's a feature.

Not a flaw.

13:00 - Why I Actually Agree With This Program

People with real disabilities often hit income ceilings.

Not because they're lazy.
Not because they don't try.

But certain roles require things not everyone can do long-term:

• Social intensity
• Leadership energy
• Executive functioning
• Stress tolerance

So earnings flatten.

The RDSP feels like the government acknowledging that.

Saying:

"If your lifetime earning potential is structurally lower, we'll help offset it."

That feels fair to me.

15:30 - The Other Side: Lifestyle Creep

Now compare that to people who can move up.

They make more money.

But what usually happens?

Bigger house.
Better car.
Lifestyle inflation.

They don't pay themselves first.

Then 40-50 hits.

And panic sets in.

Because salary went up...

But assets didn't.

18:30 - This Is the Part That Gets Me

It's $500 per year.

Not per month.

Per year.

And over 30 years, it removes pressure.

It removes panic.

It builds dignity.

It builds optionality.

And I just don't understand leaving that behind.

21:00 - Dream Big... But Build Slow

I don't want my daughter not to dream big.

I love that she dreams big.

"I'll be a millionaire by X."

Great.

But you still do the slow builds.

You still pay yourself first.

Because if the big dream works?

You won't regret having an extra $150k sitting there.

And if it doesn't?

You won't regret protecting yourself.

24:00 - The Real Frustration

Yes, people abuse systems.

Yes, that bothers me.

But this program has guardrails:

• You qualify medically.
• You open the account.
• You have to work.
• You wait.

It rewards participation.

It rewards effort.

It rewards time.

26:00 - Closing

You don't need to get rich.

You don't need to gamble.

You just need to not leave money sitting there.

If it's offered...
And you qualify...
And all it takes is $500 a year...

Take it.

Set it.

Forget it.

Let it compound.

That's it.

Hey, welcome to Slow Builds.

I think we've been taught that if something feels easy, it doesn't count.

And then if you use help, it just means you're cheating.

I don't think that's true anymore.

I cheat all the time.

Not on standards or quality, never on my wife, and definitely never on taxes.

Only on things that cause friction.

Things that slow me down, and almost always on the boring stuff.

Because nobody wants to do that. One place I cheat quite a bit, intentionally and unintentionally in a lot of ways, would be fitness and nutrition.

It's done in a way to keep me motivated, to not burn me out, not to make it feel like a burden all the time.

So one example would be like if you go to the gym, you're going to do your three sets of press and you want to hit 10 to 12 reps per set, but you hit eight and feel like, "I'm done."

You know what? You're there. That's the big win right there. The fact you showed up. You're there and you had a goal. You might not have hit it. That's fine.

Another one is the treadmill. I run on treadmill a lot, and I run outdoors a lot.

But I find that the treadmill and the Apple Watch don't line up all the time.

So it feels like there's kind of a cheat where I can run a little faster, go a little longer when I'm indoors on the treadmill if I only go off the watch.

And I'm fine with that.

Because then when I go outdoors, what happens is it is GPS. It is true. There's no lying on that one.

And when I see that my numbers outdoors are not hitting the same as the treadmill, I feel like, "What's wrong?"

Like, I'm faster than this, so I speed up and I do my best to hit those numbers.

So it's sort of like a little motivational cheat code in that sense.

And same with calorie counting. I've always counted my calories.

Calories in, calories out. That's it.

If you don't care about having a muscular body and you just want to lose weight, it's just about counting your calories.

Don't eat those bags of chips or that double scoop of ice cream. Eat a salad without extra dressing and extra cheese.

Have healthy options. Have your chicken breast with rice and some broccoli, and you're good to go.

Sauce is what kills you.

But anyway, what I mean is you track it, and I work out quite a bit, so I know what everything kind of is.

But I also know that not everything is tracked for what I burn.

If you take the stairs instead of taking the elevator, or use the bathroom downstairs so you take extra steps, or you shovel instead of letting the plow do all of it, that's all movement.

And I find what happens in that situation is I'm allowed to have that croissant or that Polar Bear ice cream.

Sure, on paper it looks like I didn't burn as many as I'm taking in, but there's a little bit of a cheat there and I reward myself with that.

I don't fret about it because I've been through it and I know it.

Another place that cheating really comes into play and makes life easier is special moments.

For gifts and stuff like that, especially Christmas, Valentine's, anniversaries, photo books.

We all have millions of photos. Everything is photographed and everything is backed up in the cloud.

Instead of wasting time trying to figure out the perfect gift that I think is perfect, I throw together a photo book.

Pick a year. If you went on a trip that year, usually that's what I do.

I'll take all the pictures from the trip and make a specific Bahamas book or New York trip book or anything like that that brings it all back and floods the memories.

In the end, people like those gifts the most. They're simple, but more meaningful.

And when we have so many pictures, I just print them all.

Another hack I do with that is I use Instagram.

When we do go on a trip, I post everything to Instagram, and that becomes my photo album that I can go off of, plus all the other ones.

We usually have boxes and envelopes full of pictures just sitting around.

Any other day, it gives us something to do to go look at those pictures.

Another one is handmade cards.

I know that feels cheap to the person making it, like school-grade handmade Valentine's or handmade Christmas cards.

But again, people love those the most.

And this is where AI fits into the picture and where we start moving into useful places we can use AI.

One example: two years ago, it was our 25th anniversary.

As kids, we called ourselves Pooh and Roo.

I gave AI a prompt. I said, "How would Roo ask Pooh, and what would Pooh say when asked how long 25 years is?"

Boom, it came out with the perfect response, like it came right out of Pooh's mouth.

Then I needed an image for this because it was too good.

I asked, "Can you draw an image of Roo and Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood watching the sunset?"

Awesome.

Then you use Canva or Staples, throw it together, and in less than 24 hours you've got a printed card.

You made it yourself, you tweaked it, but you did use AI.

So it's a cheat, but it's the best kind of cheat in my mind, because those are the ones that stick around a long time.

Those are cherished a little more than going down to the grocery store or Hallmark and picking something someone else did.

Sure, AI wrote text for me, but it was my inspiration. It was our history. I picked what went there.

I was able to create it myself.

And that's the way I like it.

I've done examples before where I use AI on a daily basis, and it's sort of like a cheat too.

Before I send texts, if I feel emotional or reactive, emails, text, or even confronting someone, I'll put it in AI.

I'll give it context about the situation and say, "This is what came back, and this is what I'm thinking about responding with."

It helps me slow down and reframe it.

Most times it's spot-on, or it'll ask me: Do you want to be confrontive? Do you want to resolve this or make it worse? What is your end goal?

It helps me revisit what I would say and keeps me out of bad situations.

So it's cheating in a way. It gives me nudges in the right direction.

Another place is recipes.

I use AI for recipes all the time.

I don't like going to the grocery store and then realizing I don't have one expensive ingredient I only need once.

So I use AI for substitutions.

I have this, I want to make this, what goes together, what kind of sauce goes on it, what's good for quick dressings.

I even started tagging recipes in an ongoing ChatGPT project called Food.

It condenses them, puts them together, knows what we like, and gives me quick ideas.

Then I can ask, "I have this in the project, what can I make from the recipes we have?"

And like I mentioned before, and I'll do a deep dive video in the next few, this channel itself is heavily supported by AI.

AI helps with script ideas, ordering, thumbnails, descriptions, comments, and my website workflow.

I say that, but I've learned pure AI scripts don't work best for me because I feel like a robot.

So I get a script and ad-lib off it to make it more me.

AI handles the structure, which takes pressure off.

I don't edit these videos much, and I'm pretty bad at editing.

When we go deeper on cheating, one thing I notice is I "cheat" on one AI with another.

I'll use ChatGPT, then Grok, then Claude, depending on the task.

For recent events, I find Grok often has better current context.

I use ChatGPT for most day-to-day thinking and drafting.

I use Claude for larger code and document tasks that need deeper processing.

Sometimes I use ChatGPT to help generate prompts I then give to Claude.

That's another way I cheat.

As a developer, another cheat is repetitive code.

If I need to check whether an object has name, and whether it's nil, blank, empty, etc., I don't always want to rewrite that pattern.

I'll use Copilot or Codex to scaffold it fast.

That's not breaking standards. That's removing repetition.

Then I ask: should this become a reusable method?

Maybe it already exists in our system.

Claude helps me find similar methods across a large codebase, evaluate whether one can be extended, and avoid breaking other things.

That happens super fast.

Then we have a robust method everybody can use.

Sure, AI helped write it, but it was still my idea and judgment.

Same thing with tests.

AI writes test drafts for me.

I still run them, verify them, and make sure everything passes.

At work, I also use AI for Jira work.

We have Claude connected to Confluence, Jira, code, and Slack.

I can brain-dump messy notes and have it produce clearer tickets and docs that architects, designers, and PMs can review.

That helps me focus on actual implementation.

Right now I'm also testing a personal setup with OpenClaude and agents.

Agents for docs, tests, git, implementation updates, and status reporting.

They run multiple times a day on cron jobs and send Telegram or email updates: what's done, what's blocked, what needs review.

Then I focus on features.

I prompt for a feature idea, we prioritize it, break it into sprints, and agents pick up queued work.

I still approve code, review tests, and decide what ships.

But repetitive orchestration is automated.

That's the ultimate cheat, and I'm excited about it.

So I guess in the end, what I'm saying is: yes, I cheat.

And cheating is okay in this context.

As long as it's not illegal, not harming relationships, and not lowering standards.

I don't want AI to replace my thinking.

I still want authenticity.

I want it to be me.

I just want to outsource the busy work, remove repetition, and reduce friction.

I don't want lower quality in the work, the product, the meal, or the gift.

I want less unnecessary effort around the things that matter.

If something saves me time and helps me stay consistent while I focus on what actually matters, I'm okay with that.

To me that's not cheating. That's being smarter.

I'm not trying to win by cutting corners.

I'm trying to stay in the game long enough to compound.

Thanks for sticking around. Hopefully you enjoy this video.