Today marks the 16th post in my 30-day writing challenge with Saadiq. We've each staked $100 on the line, with a simple handshake agreement: miss a day, and the other claims the pot. It's not a crypto thing, just good old-fashioned accountability.

Saadiq is one of my favorite product leaders in my network. I got to know him in 2010 when he was the co-founder of Hot Potato (acquired by FB) and I was working with them on adding game mechanics to it for Hot Potato 2.0. Fast forward all these years and we are both still interested in emerging technologies like cryptocurrency and AI. He made the leap into crypto full time first with Candy Digital and then at PROOF.

A couple of weeks ago, we caught up, and Saadiq showed me how he's using AI to create apps and prototypes. This is the dream for any creative technologist. I have a computer science degree and I'm technically capable, but I'm decidedly more on the product design and strategy side. I know if I spend the time to really learn these tools, I can do a lot of rapid prototyping of products. But like all good things, such as going to the gym, it's hard to make time to master new tools even when I know they're transformational.

Reading Saadiq's essays during this challenge has been eye-opening. At first, I realized I was missing out on ways to use AI in my work. Then came the FOMO, followed by a bit of self-reproach for not embracing AI more fully. Finally, I buckled down and spent a few days flexing these tools and setting up my workflows.

It's not that I was completely AI-illiterate. I've been using AI for image generation in my art since 2021 and regularly tap ChatGPT for various tasks. But Claude was my first real breakthrough. Stumbling upon Claude Artifacts (which I frustratingly can't find now) was a lightbulb moment – I suddenly saw how I could use Artifacts to build small apps and test concepts.

The most crucial shift, though, has been in mindset. AI used to be near the bottom of my problem-solving toolkit. Now, my first thought is, "How can AI help with this?"

Just last Friday, I was procrastinating on a tedious task involving a massive CSV dataset. Every time I opened that file, I'd find an excuse to do something else. In desperation, I threw it at Claude. Despite my experience with CSVs and ChatGPT, it hadn't occurred to me to use AI here. With Claude's help, it took just 15 minutes to make sense of the data, reverse-engineer the original form, and create a prototype Artifact.

I've tested many tools recently, and I'm particularly excited about Cursor. But so far, the Claude+Projects+Artifacts combo has been my highest-leverage toolkit. My challenge now is to consistently apply this AI-first thinking to every problem I encounter.