Writing & Speaking
More thoughts on writing with AI assistance, trying out Claude Code for the first time, the GPT 5 disappointment, and some tips on content delivery
Hey guys, tomorrow I’ll be traveling to Querétaro and taking a week off. I’ll use this small break to make music with the OP-1 and hang out with my wife. That means there won’t be a newsletter next week. For now, though, here’s what caught my attention lately:
On AI Writing
Just a few days ago I watched this video by Tiago Forte. Honestly, it surprised me how much pushback he got in the comments. It feels like there’s a big misunderstanding about what it means to write with AI, or rather, what it can mean. Yes, it can be lazy writing. It can be writing without human input. It can be pure noise without a heart. But it doesn’t have to be.
I don’t see this as “AI writing for you” so much as “AI working with you.” In fact, every serious writer I’ve seen who shares their approach to using AI encourages collaboration, not just letting the machine do all the work. Tiago’s approach, for example, is not very different than my own. It’s all about giving AI input to handle drafts and structure. Yes, he still gives AI his own personal input from the very start. He then comes in himself to shape the draft into the final piece it will become. In my experience, a lot of writing comes down to editing anyway. It’s taking raw ideas, throwing things out, and refining everything into something true to your voice. The final result still depends entirely on personal taste and experience—at least when you’re using AI as a partner, not a replacement.
I find it crazy that some people are so upset. On the other hand, it’s super interesting.
I get both sides of the debate. I know there’s a worry that leaning on AI means you lose some of the honesty or personal connection that makes art… well, art. At the same time, I’m grateful for tools that make it easier to bring ideas into the world, especially when you’re juggling a lot. Creativity has always been a risky and often difficult pursuit. If AI can help you get where you want without sacrificing your vision and voice, I don’t see the problem. It doesn’t make you less of an artist or writer; it’s just another tool to get to the good stuff. And if you think AI is here to kill all creative careers, I don’t even know what to tell you. Creativity was here long before AI, and it’ll be here long after.
Perhaps a big part missing from this “AI vs. Creativity” conversation is education. People need to know that using AI as a tool isn’t just a sneaky shortcut. It’s a way to build on what you already bring to the table. Right now, there seems to be so much paranoia spreading around. Have you read those tips that attempt to help with AI-detection in written content? “If you see em-dashes, it means it was written by AI.” Man, I love em-dashes. It’s funny to think there’s people who will now find these in your writing and stop reading you for it.
A couple highlights that stood out:
“I started wondering what if there was a way to use AI to handle the half of the writing process that doesn’t need my personal attention so I can focus 100% of my time on the remaining half that does.”
“It’s not important that I do 100% of the writing myself. This realization hit me really hard because I realized I was spending so much of my time on the parts of writing, the aspects, the activities within writing that don’t necessarily require my unique perspective.”
On Cursor and Macrowhisper
This past week, I pushed another update for Macrowhisper. Some of the new features and fixes are all about the new context capture in Macrowhisper. I put together a video to show what’s new, covering URL actions and some ideas for how you might use them. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can check it out here:
A day or two before I posted that video, I wanted to squash a couple more bugs. I’d run out of credits for the best models in Cursor, so I gave Claude Code a shot after hearing great things about it. I was hesitant, given that it’s more of a CLI tool than Cursor. Yes, I’m still intimidated by some of these tools that can only be used via Terminal. I watched a few YT video tutorials and just went for it.
Wow, I was blown away.
Paying $20 for Cursor Pro doesn’t make sense to me anymore unless they change something in their pricing structure. Next time I need to work on bigger changes for Macrowhisper, I’ll probably just grab a month of Claude instead. It was faster, the results were way better, coming from Cursor I didn’t have any trouble adapting my workflow, and I got exactly what I needed. Model intelligence really matters to me because I don’t know how to code. Every time I tweak something, I need to do LOTS of testing checking that nothing else broke, since I can’t just read the code and spot the problems. So far, from what I’ve seen, I know I can trust Claude Sonnet 4 via Claude Code way more over Cursor’s Auto-Model. And for the same money, I can use more of this model directly with Anthropic.
For the updates that made it to last week’s release (and a smaller release coming soon), I used Claude Code through the API since I had $5 in credits about to expire. I burned through those pretty fast and ended up dropping another $10. Not my finest budgeting moment, almost as much as a monthly subscription. To make my credits last, I started using Sonnet 4 in Claude Code to lay out a very specific plan, then let Cursor’s auto-model handle the actual coding. Seems like auto-mode follows instructions better than it spots bugs or proposes solutions. Doing it this way has been helping me use the rest of my already-paid Cursor subscription and save a bit of money with Claude.
On GPT 5
It’s been more than a week since ChatGPT-5 dropped, and I read this article that talks about the big disappointment it turned out to be for most. The expectations were set incredibly high, and this new model didn’t live up to them.
I wanted to bring this up since I just mentioned about working on Macrowhisper with Cursor and trying out Claude Code for coding. Honestly, my need for the smartest models right now is just for this one project. I’ve been very happy with GPT-4.1 for most other tasks—especially for writing assistance. For the longest time I was exclusively using Claude models for writing tasks because they have a reputation for sounding more human. It is true, they do sound more natural, but I discovered after 4.1 came out that it was much better at understanding my system prompts and following specific limitations. When I give it a list of banned words or sentence structures to avoid, GPT-4.1 actually follows these instructions better than Sonnet 4.0, which on the other hand is great for coding but not as good at following my writing constraints.
The thing about GPT-5 is that maybe it is better 4.1 in almost every aspect except speed. And the speed is what kills it for me. I tried it on Cursor last week with medium reasoning effort—the Alfred workflow I created for Macrowhisper came out of ChatGPT-5 in just one or two prompts, which was pretty impressive. But I’ve tested the model all week via API on different apps, and honestly, the only place it feels fast is directly on their website. Since I don’t pay for the ChatGPT subscription, that’s not useful for me. I need it integrated into my workflow and system, and I just don’t have the patience to wait for results that are just marginally better than I was using before. I was hoping this speed issues were only related to demand and their servers not being able to handle it well at first, but it sounds like this might just be how the model is—slow by design. So yeah, it’s been disappointing.
Has any of you guys tried Kimi, though? I’ve been testing this for a variety of tasks through Groq and I think this may be the one model that has surprised me the most recently. I haven’t put it through its paces in code, but for writing tasks it’s been super nice. The speed is amazing.
On Content Delivery
A couple of days ago I watched this video about content delivery and communication. It made me pause and think for a moment about the journey so far with the YT channel. When I first decided to actually use the channel for something, it wasn’t this “let’s build an audience” thing, it was more about wanting to share thoughts, curiosities, and just try to get better at organizing my ideas on things that matter to me and could be useful or inspiring to others. I’ve got to admit, there are some videos up there that are pretty awkward to go back and watch. I always heard you could just have an outline, speak with passion, and things would fall into place. For me, that only worked to a point. I’d start with a plan and then, next thing I know, I’m way off-track, rambling about something that popped into my head and has nothing to do with the video. Or I’d go super slow trying not to lose track of the next point in the outline I was supposed to follow.
After a class or two on Skillshare, I just figured out that this freestyle speaking to the camera was not my strength at all, so I went full script mode. I mean, these days, almost everything you hear on my channel is something I wrote out, and sometimes even pre-recorded, and I just repeat it with my earphones on. I still find it very important plan a clear structure ahead of time, and a lot of the tips from this video I’m sharing are things that I’ve tried to implement already in one way or another. Of course, I know there’s a LOT of room for improvement, but it’s encouraging to see I’ve come a long way already. I continue to watch videos like this one when I have a chance to catch some more tips.
Some practical takeaways from the video:
Start with your main point—give people a map so they know where you’re heading.
Try to answer the questions people might have before they even ask them. This makes everything easier to follow.
Keep an eye on the mental load you’re putting on your audience. The right words and a clear structure can make a big difference.
On Signatures
Okay, this is random, but I found this web app that lets you create a digital signature—well, more like a fun graphic tied to your name or username. You just type it in, and you get this unique design you can download. If you want something less common, try using your social media handle instead of your real name, so you’re not sharing the same graphic with every other Robert out there.
I know. Nothing life-changing, and I don’t even know what the use case is for this haha, but it’s one of those little curiosities from my week that’s just kind of fun and well-made.
On Cinema
P’tit Quinquin (2014). A film that apparently aired as a TV show because of its length. I thought it was an unexpectedly brilliant piece of cinema with very unusual humor and a very honest portrait of the human condition. Synopsis: A murder mystery that opens with the discovery of human body parts stuffed inside a cow on the outskirts of a small channel town in northern France.
Transit (2018). A slow burner with a story that had lots of literary qualities. A romance that kept me guessing. I liked it! This film goes particularly well with a glass of wine. Synopsis: In an attempt to flee Nazi-occupied France, Georg assumes the identity of a dead author but soon finds himself stuck in Marseilles, where he falls in love with Maria, a young woman searching for her missing husband.
Eddington (2025). Okay, I’ve seen a lot of negative critiques on this film. I do understand that many of the things portrayed here are things that people don’t want to discuss. But I personally think the director did a great job of not taking one side or another, but rather trying to create an experience through the film itself. I thought it was quite brilliant, to be honest. Lots of cinema language. Lots of suggesting and leaving space for the viewer to come up with personal conclusions. And the cinematography was amazing. Synopsis: In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
If you liked this you may also enjoy some content I have up on my YT Channel! I don’t hang around social media a lot, but when I do I’m on IG or Twitter. You can also check out some of my online classes, listen to my music, or in case you haven’t already, subscribe to my weekly newsletter. Thank you for reading!