How I AI

Nicole Ruiz is a writer and parent who has built a comprehensive AI-powered shopping system to help her family buy high-quality, long-lasting items while avoiding the noise of drop-shipping brands, paid ads, and poorly made products. She writes an interview series on Substack about how technology is changing the household.What you’ll learn:How to build a Claude Project with custom instructions for vetting brands based on heritage, craftsmanship, and return policiesThe shopping criteria that help surface century-old manufacturers over trendy direct-to-consumer brandsHow to use Claude to search through trusted vendor websites that have terrible UXWhy AI actually helps small artisans and heritage brands compete against Amazon’s infrastructureHow to use Claude Cowork to automate returns by finding receipts in your email and drafting refund requestsThe technique for getting Claude to analyze whether a brand is legitimate or just a drop-shipping operationHow to shop within a specific budget or with gift cards using AI assistance—Brought to you by:Orkes—The enterprise platform for reliable applications and agentic workflowsMetaview—The agentic recruiting platform for winning teams—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Nicole and AI-powered shopping(02:29) The problem(04:55) Building a Claude Project for household purchasing(07:44) The “anti-to-do list” concept for reducing mental overhead(10:30) Shopping for a can opener: the system in action(15:53) How AI helps century-old brands with terrible websites(18:45) Processing returns with Claude Cowork(25:06) Using gift cards strategically(26:33) Vetting brands(29:40) Recap, lightning round, and final thoughts—Tools referenced:• Claude: https://claude.ai/• Claude Cowork: https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-cowork—Other references:• Boston General Store: https://bostongeneralstore.com/• L.L.Bean: https://www.llbean.com/• Manufactum: https://www.manufactum.com/• 5 OpenClaw agents run my home, finances, and code | Jesse Genet: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/5-openclaw-agents-run-my-home-finances• From a $6.90 newsletter to $3M API: How a non-coder built Memelord | Jason Levin: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/from-a-690-newsletter-to-3m-api-how—Where to find Nicole Ruiz:X: https://x.com/nwilliams030Substack (The Third Oikos): https://www.thirdoikos.com/—Where to find Claire Vo:ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/Website: https://clairevo.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/X: https://x.com/clairevo—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.

Bryce Rattner Keithley has spent her career in talent and recruiting, working with technical leaders but never writing a line of code herself. Yet she managed to build Daily Hundred—a fitness app featuring custom AI-generated videos of anthropomorphic animals demonstrating exercises—and ship it to the App Store before her software engineer friends. Using Replit, Claude, Gemini, and a relentless beginner’s mindset, Bryce proves that in the AI era, execution is no longer the constraint on good ideas.What you’ll learn:How to build and ship an iPhone app using Replit without any coding knowledgeThe step-by-step process for creating custom AI-generated workout videos by combining Gemini images with real exercise footageHow to use Claude as your technical architect and Claude Code as your software engineerHow to navigate App Store submission requirements (including fixing rejection feedback)Why being hyper-literal in your prompts unlocks better AI resultsWhy a beginner’s mind is actually an advantage when building with AI tools—Brought to you by:WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready todayMetaview—The agentic recruiting platform for winning teams—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Bryce and Daily Hundred(04:48) Building with Replit(06:16) The beginner’s mindset advantage(11:17) Creating anthropomorphic animals(22:55) Moving from static image to video(27:15) The floating genie and other anthropomorphic animal generations(30:46) Shifting from web app to App Store submission(36:24) User feedback(37:41) Lightning round and final thoughts—Tools referenced:• Replit: https://replit.com/• Lovable: https://lovable.dev/• Claude: https://claude.ai/• Claude Code: https://claude.ai/code• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/• Higgsfield: https://higgsfield.ai/• Kling: https://kling.ai/• Railway: https://railway.app/• TestFlight: https://developer.apple.com/testflight/—Other references:• How a 91-year-old vibe coded a complex event management system using Claude and Replit | John Blackman: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-a-91-year-old-vibe-coded-a-complex• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: https://www.amazon.com/What-Got-Here-Wont-There/dp/1401301304• How Women Rise: https://www.amazon.com/How-Women-Rise-Holding-Careers/dp/0316440124• A Whole New Mind: https://www.amazon.com/Whole-New-Mind-Right-Brainers-Future/dp/1594481717• How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034—Where to find Bryce Rattner Keithley:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brycerattner/GitHub: https://github.com/brk-bot/Daily Hundred on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/daily100-fitness-challenge/id6762108062—Where to find Claire Vo:ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/Website: https://clairevo.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/X: https://x.com/clairevo—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.

In this 30-minute episode, I walk through my favorite feature in Codex: the /goal command. I show how Goals transform AI from a turn-based assistant that needs constant ‘what’s next?’ prompting into an autonomous agent that can work for hours on complex, multi-step tasks. I share three real examples: eliminating thousands of Sentry errors, cleaning 3,900 emails down to 68, and organizing hundreds of Linear tasks.What you’ll learn:What Goals are and how they differ from standard promptsHow I used /goal to eliminate hundreds of error logs in my codebase over a five-hour autonomous runThe non-technical use cases that make Goals incredibly powerful: cleaning up 3,900 emails in under four hours and organizing hundreds of project management tasks in LinearHow to write effective /goal prompts with measurable outcomes, verification methods, and constraintsWhen not to use Goals and what makes a strong versus weak GoalWhy Goals represent a fundamental shift in how we work with AI, from babysitting the model to managing it—Brought to you by:Mercury—Radically different banking loved by over 300K entrepreneurs—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction(01:50) What is /goal and when should you use it?(02:45) The difference between prompts and Goal-based loops(04:06) Claire’s first five-hour 45-minute autonomous coding task(05:05) How to manage a Goal lifecycle: view, pause, resume, and clear(06:06) How to write strong goals: outcomes vs. outputs(07:34) The six components of effective Goals(08:57) Example: Reducing P95 checkout latency with /goal(09:36) Demo: Using /goal to eliminate Sentry errors in ChatPRD(13:18) Demo: Burning down Vercel API errors(17:28) Non-technical use case: Cleaning 3,900 emails with /goal(21:24) Demo: Using /goal to clean up Linear project tasks(24:41) When not to use /goal(26:10) Why /goal changes everything—Tools referenced:• Codex: https://openai.com/codex/• Sentry: https://sentry.io/• Vercel: https://vercel.com/• Linear: https://linear.app/—Other reference:• OpenAI blog post “Using Goals in Codex”: https://developers.openai.com/cookbook/examples/codex/using_goals_in_codex—Where to find Claire Vo:ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/Website: https://clairevo.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/X: https://x.com/clairevo—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.

Today is day one of Google I/O 2026, and I walk through every major announcement live—from the new Gemini 3.5 model family to Anti-Gravity 2.0, Google AI Studio, Gemini’s consumer redesign, the Omni video model, Flow, Stitch, and Pomelli. I test them in real time and tell you exactly which ones delivered.What you’ll learn:How Gemini 3.5 Flash benchmarks against Claude and GPT models on speed and agentic coding tasksHow Anti-Gravity 2.0’s new features (projects, scheduled tasks, subagents, slash commands) compare to Codex and Claude CodeWhy the /grill-me slash command could be a more aggressive alternative to Claude Code’s clarification flow—and how to use itHow Google AI Studio’s new Workspace integration is designed to own the internal productivity app use caseHow Google’s new creative tools work in practice: Omni (video generation), Flow (cinematic video editing and character consistency), Stitch (streaming UI design with inline edits), and Pomelli (brand identity and asset generation)Why Google’s launch-to-availability gap is still a problem—and what to do when a featured product doesn’t actually work yet—Brought to you by:Magic Patterns—Prototypes that look like your productThoughtspot—Build AI-powered analytics into your product—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Google I/O 2026 day 1 overview(01:47) Gemini 3.5 flash(04:19) Antigravity updates(06:32) CLI test and agent features(07:59) Core agent features released today—May 19th, 2026(09:43) New slash commands(11:20) Antigravity test results and takeaways(12:25) AI Studio updates(13:52) Access issues(15:20) Gemini redesign(17:24) Gemini image gen test(19:16) Omni (video generation)(22:56) Flow (cinematic editing)(24:31) Avatar creation test(26:45) Pomelli and Stitch(31:13) Recap and final thoughts—Tools referenced:• Gemini 3.5 Flash: https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini/• Antigravity: https://antigravity.google/• Google AI Studio: https://aistudio.google.com/• Google Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/• Omni (video generation): https://gemini.google/overview/video-generation/• Google Flow: https://flow.google/• Stitch: https://stitch.withgoogle.com/• Pomelli (Google brand tool): https://labs.google.com/pomelli/about/—Other references:• Google I/O 2026 announcements: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/sundar-pichai-io-2026/—Where to find Claire Vo:ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/Website: https://clairevo.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/X: https://x.com/clairevo—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.

Ryan Nystrom is a software engineer at Notion. He joined in December 2024 after Notion acquired Campsite, the team communication platform he co-founded with Brian Lovin. At Notion, he’s been a core builder of Notion AI and the Custom Agents feature launched in February 2026. He manages a team of six to seven engineers while still writing code himself, currently running Project Afterburner, a push to cut Notion’s CI time to a quarter of its current duration.What you’ll learn:How to build a Notion AI custom agent that auto-generates your daily standup pre-read by pulling from Slack, GitHub, Honeycomb metrics, and yesterday’s meeting transcriptHow to configure subagents and MCP integrations within Notion AIHow Notion’s internal “Boxy” system lets engineers @mention Codex from within Notion comments and get a full pull request with screenshots in 20 minutesThe spec-first development workflow: dictate an idea into Whisper, have Codex format it as a proper spec, commit it to the repo, and let the agent implement and verify it autonomouslyWhy fast CI is absolutely critical in the age of AI coding agentsHow to prompt AI coding agents to defend their reasoning under pushbackWhy engineering managers and even senior executives should keep writing code—Brought to you by:WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready todayOrkes—The enterprise platform for reliable applications and agentic workflows—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Ryan Nystrom(02:48) How AI has upended 12+ years of the same working routine(04:30) Project Afterburner: Notion’s push to cut CI time to a quarter(09:00) Why high-frequency, high-quality meetings beat lower-frequency standups(11:10) How automated context surfaces every engineer’s work equally(12:15) Why cutting meeting prep is a burnout protection mechanism(14:26) The case for engineering managers writing code(16:13) Inside “Boxy”: Notion’s internal VM-based background agent system(20:30) Old World vs. New World code review(24:51) Prompting Codex from Notion comments(29:20) The emotions around code review(31:01) Quick recap(32:00) Spec-first development: writing and checking agent specs into the repo(35:10) The spec as changelog: version control for how a feature actually works(37:53) How engineers’ roles are evolving(39:00) Lightning round(45:21) Where to find Ryan—Tools referenced:• Notion AI: https://www.notion.com/product/ai• Notion Custom Agents: https://www.notion.com/blog/introducing-custom-agents• Codex (OpenAI): https://openai.com/codex• Claude Code (Anthropic): https://claude.ai/code• Honeycomb (observability + MCP): https://www.honeycomb.io• Whisper (OpenAI voice transcription): https://openai.com/research/whisper• Slack: https://slack.com• GitHub: https://github.com—Other references:• How Stripe built “minions”—AI coding agents that ship 1,300 PRs weekly from Slack reactions | Steve Kaliski (Stripe): https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/stripes-ai-minions-ship-1300-prs-weekly-from-a-slack-emoji• Notion 3.3 Custom Agents launch (February 24, 2026): https://www.notion.com/releases/2026-02-24—Where to find Ryan Nystrom:X: https://x.com/ryannystromLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryannystrom/GitHub: https://github.com/rnystrom—Where to find Claire Vo:ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/Website: https://clairevo.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/X: https://x.com/clairevo—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.

Daniel Roth, editor in chief at LinkedIn, went from business writer to iOS app developer, without ever learning how to code. Using Claude Code, Daniel built and shipped multiple production-ready iOS apps to the App Store, including Commutely, a personalized train-tracking app for New York commuters.What you’ll learn:How to set up a dual-agent Claude Code system (builder + reviewer)Why being a “picky customer” is the right mindset for non-technical buildersHow Daniel prioritizes features using AI-ranked impact vs. build timeWhy saving everything as Markdown files creates long-term contextThe importance of branch-based development—even when AI writes the codeHow Daniel ships to the App Store without formal engineering experienceHis end-of-day “What did I drop the ball on?” Copilot workflow—Brought to you by:WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready todayVanta—Automate compliance and simplify security—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Daniel Roth(02:46) Daniel’s AI development workflow overview(05:56) Using Claude to prioritize feature ideas(08:58) Building vs. marketing(09:47) Creating a retention plan for his app(10:38) Introducing Bob the Builder and Ray the Reviewer(13:50) How Bob and Ray work together to build features(14:37) Why Daniel focuses on learning the process(16:34) The importance of using branches for development(17:39) Managing AI agents like managing a team(21:12) Navigating the App Store(23:06) Being a “picky customer” rather than a PM(25:00) Testing in Xcode and shipping to the App Store(28:14) Quick recap(30:00) Creating terminal aliases with Claude(31:38) Demo of his Commutely app(32:10) Using Copilot to manage work responsibilities(35:05) How Daniel talks to AI without personifying it—Tools referenced:• Claude: https://claude.ai/• Claude Code: https://claude.ai/code• Cursor: https://cursor.sh/• Xcode: https://developer.apple.com/xcode/• Canva: https://www.canva.com/• Microsoft Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com/• Terminal: https://support.apple.com/guide/terminal/welcome/mac• Obsidian: https://obsidian.md/—Other reference:• Commutely (iOS app): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/commutely/id6755789873—Where to find Daniel Roth:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielroth1/Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/forward-deployed-editor-7378272989982683137/—Where to find Claire Vo:ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/Website: https://clairevo.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/X: https://x.com/clairevo—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.