In For A Penny, In For A Pound

Kuala Lumpur is very hot. The weather is comfortingly formulaic with sunny blue skies in the morning. Clouds appearing in the afternoon. An evening downpour. A cool and clear night. After a morning spent appreciating the blue skies the evening rain comes as more of a relief than an annoyance.

I am two months into travelling. Two months switched off from the world and yet part of me feels reluctant to switch off. Its not a feeling of obligation so much as a strange FOMO experienced from sitting on a beach doing nothing while (potentially) one of the great technological shifts in our history is happening around the world. From the content I consume online it felt like towards the end of last year AI tools were seen as impressive but perhaps not quite leading to the promised land. However, the content I consume now seems to be indicating a jump forward and capability and its hard not to feel left out when sitting in a Vietnamese coffee shop I cant help but read substack think pieces on our future with this technology.

I read/listen/watch commentary on whether AI is the great leap forward. Will I even have a job when I finish travelling? Will I use AI or will AI replace me? Think pieces can only scratch this itch so much, only reveal so much, and so instead I figure I may as well just dive in. See for myself.

I've decided to track my progress on this blog. Mainly because "create me a flask blog" seemed like a decent first taste of claude code and now I have it, I may as well use it. But also to track and organise my own thoughts throughout this.

I've previously felt a pang of guilt when using AI for work or projects. Like looking at the answers in the back of a textbook. Am I just cheating myself? Here I've decided to just give in to this. Throw open the cheat sheet and prioritise speed and productivity.