Operator's notes from someone building it in public

AI is the pedal-assist bike for the life you're already trying to live. You're still pedaling. It's making the hills doable.

I'm building the system that does this for me. This is where I share what's working — and what isn't.

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photo coming

Breakfast for anyone who shows up. This is the part the system's for.

The idea I can't stop thinking about

For most of history, having a Chief of Staff, a researcher on call, a personal editor, and a standing advisory board required real money. Turns out I could assemble all of them for under twenty bucks a month. So I did.

What you get out of the box is a really smart Google. This is something else: an army of experts to augment your thinking, and an army of doers to get things done. It only becomes that when you build it — when it knows you, your life, your values, your north stars, and when it can act for you. Not just answer. Do.

You can too. That's most of what this site is about.

What it actually does for me.

Four jobs, done by one stack. It used to take a company to do this much; now it takes a laptop and patience.

The whole stack →

Chief of Staff

When I don't know where to start, it tells me where to start.

Every morning at 6:15, in Slack. Ranked by consequence, not urgency. It's wrong sometimes. I overrule it. Mostly it's right, and the morning begins before the panic does.

#morning-brief · 6:15 AM
1Call Morrison re renewal — 11 AM
2Draft Q2 proposal · Bailey account
3Writing — QB follow-up · 45m
·Suzy PT pickup, 3:45. Milk on the way home.

Advisory Board

It stress-tests my ideas before I commit real energy.

Monday at 6 AM, seven AI coaches and one rotating human seat. Strategy, Health, Finance, Writing, Parenting, Therapy, Spirit. It's the thing closest to having money I don't have.

Monday 6 AM · Advisory
Strategy
Health
Finance
Writing
Parent
Therapy
Spirit
+ Human

"Ben — you said you'd finish the QB replacement before taking new writing work. You're doing both. Which slips?"

Operator

Anything repeatable, it just does.

Email triage. Housekeeping scans. The things that used to cost me a Saturday morning. Drudgery transferred, time returned. The machine is better at this than I am, and I'm allowed to admit it.

Inbox · 23 → 3 · this morning
14archived — newsletters, receipts, promo
6replies drafted, queued for me to scan
3flagged — needs Ben

Accountant

It replaced expensive software with smaller, cheaper software I own.

QuickBooks → a Notion database + 340 lines of Python. Wispr Flow → native dictation. Nine more. Each replacement is on the Kill List. The whole stack runs for under twenty bucks a month.

Kill List · a partial
QuickBooks→Notion + 340 lines of Python
Wispr Flow→native dictation
Calendly→a prompt

+ 9 more on the real page

$19.71 / month·what all of this costs me to run.·What a human Chief of Staff used to cost, at my level, was "no."

What I've been writing.

Recent essays. The pinned one is where I'd start.

All writing →
Feb 12
Start here
Feb 12·9 min

You Don't Have a Boundary Problem. You Have a Belonging Problem.

You don't need a better script. You need to stop asking permission to be yourself.

RelationshipsInner work
Apr 6
Apr 6·12 min

AI Doesn't Have a Hallucination Problem. Humans Have a Clarity Problem.

What three years of obsessive daily AI use taught me about why your AI gives bad answers.

AIInner work
Mar 30
Mar 30·6 min

I'm Still Processing What Happened Last Night.

On stoner rock, secondhand fear, and the gentlest room I've been in years.

Inner work
Feb 15
Feb 15·5 min

First Hygge. Now Glad I Deg.

How Scandinavian words are changing how I love.

Relationships
Feb 13
Feb 13·7 min

You Never Failed at a Habit.

No amount of "why" can overcome a "how" that drains you.

Inner work

What I'm into.

Everything →

If it increases my sense of well-being — or the well-being of the people I care about — I'm interested. Big ideas that rewire how I see things, tiny hacks that make Tuesday morning feel different, and everything in between.

Right now: desert psych rock and gypsy punk. E-biking. Jeeping. Philosophy and theoretical physics on YouTube. Audiobooks, podcasts, stand-up comedy. Dark chocolate and small plates at places where the conversation is better than the food. Weekly therapy. IFS work. The quiet slow-burn that's changed everything. Flat caps. Designing my spaces to feel like mine. Cooking breakfast on the griddle for my family on Sundays — plus anyone who shows up. Visiting my in-laws, who live in Napoleon Dynamite's actual house.

I love people who are genuinely curious, who pay the price to learn things, and who come back with ideas different from mine.

Today I Learned

Small things I notice. Ren helps me remember.

Read all →
  • Apr 23You can pipe structured Notion DB output straight into a Slack DM block without JSON.stringify — it keeps the dividers.
  • Apr 22Kids argue less on road trips if you give the youngest the map. They don't read it. They just hold it.
  • Apr 21Most "agent reliability" problems are actually prompt scope problems. Narrow the job. Rerun.
  • Apr 20Suzy's trick: when a kid can't find the word, don't fill it in. Ask what color it feels like. Works on adults too.

Member

Building yours, not just watching mine.

Free is what I'm doing and learning. Member is the working pieces — the prompts, the schemas, the Python, the rules — so you can build your own Me Inc. without starting from scratch.

Free — Ben's Weekly

Essays and field notes. One email a week.

Member — $47/mo

Everything free, plus the how. Monthly behind-the-scenes and an AMA.

Peek inside →

What's inside · a recent module

QuickBooks, replaced.

The Notion database that replaced QuickBooks

Full schema · copyable

The Python that auto-categorizes every transaction

340 lines, commented

The prompt that asks Ren when it's unsure

Plus the escalation rules

Start-to-finish walkthrough

~2 hours to your own version

prompts/classify · excerpt

Given the transaction below, return: account, confidence (0..1), ask_ren (true if confidence < 0.7).

Rules: Match the vendor string against the registry first. If no match, check the amount pattern against…

continues in Member

photo coming

About

I'm Ben. I live in South Jordan, Utah with my wife Suzy and our three kids. I've owned small businesses since 2000. I write. I build things. Right now I'm obsessed with AI — not the hype part, the what does it let a regular person actually do part.

I have ADHD, diagnosed in adulthood. The reason I built all of this isn't productivity. It's presence. If the system handles the drudgery, I get to actually be there — with Suzy, with the kids, with the people I love. AI isn't my assistant. It's the kind of help that used to only be available to people with real money. I've always loved building and hated the maintenance. Now I get to do more of the first and less of the second.

Also writing a book: They Were Wrong About You. Slow. No date.

And you

You can build yours, too.

Slower than you think. More possible than you think. You don't need to be a developer. You don't need a budget. You need patience, a few hours a week, and the willingness to invite it in.

I write about how I do it, every week. That's the whole point of this site.

If this is your kind of thing, come along. I'll save you a seat.

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