The Build
The Day Claude Read The Manual So We Both Could Understand It
How an AI reading partner finally made a complex system usable.
Media & collaboration
Living with AI. Not performing it.
Wired Differently documents what practical technology makes possible when concentration, memory or simply getting started are unreliable.
The point of view
Most AI writing talks about what a tool can do. This work starts with a more awkward question: what does it let a person do when a standard workflow assumes more cognitive bandwidth than they have that day?
Lee writes from lived cognitive friction into practical systems. The work is specific, honest about failures, and designed to survive a bad week rather than demand a perfect one.
What stays true
Three useful rules.
- 01
Accessibility before efficiency
AI earns its place when it lowers cognitive load—not when it adds a cleverer way to feel behind.
- 02
Show the rough edges
Failures, limits and false starts are part of the evidence. Polish without truth is just a demo.
- 03
Human agency is load-bearing
The system can carry context, routine work and drafts. The person keeps judgement, relationships and the final decision.
Selected work
The work behind the point of view.
Lab Notes
How I Let Codex Into My Obsidian Vault Without Handing It the Keys
A practical test of useful AI authority: small permissions, real boundaries.
Lab Notes
AI Can Hold the Thread. It Doesn’t Get to Press Send.
What cognitive scaffolding looks like when the human keeps judgement and the final act.
Something for the weekend
My Obsidian Vault Needed a Front Door
A calmer way to re-enter a trusted system on days when the system itself is too much.
Current practical work
Building as well as writing.
First Steps is an early browser-based experiment for helping people prepare calmer, more useful clinical conversations from half-noticed Parkinson's symptoms. It is device-local, printable and explicitly non-diagnostic.
The wider site is also a working example: a small static workshop for archive, experiments and projects—built to stay readable, portable and free of unnecessary machinery.
Where collaboration could be useful
A real fit is more useful than a broad fit.
Thoughtful editorial
Conversations, essays or series where lived experience, cognitive access and AI actually meet.
Practical experiments
Small, bounded tests of tools or workflows—with permission to say when they do not earn a place.
Useful rooms
Podcasts, panels or workshops that trade hype for clear questions, real examples and a bit of intellectual hygiene.
Contact
If there is a real fit, get in touch.
For media enquiries, collaboration ideas or a useful conversation, contact Lee through Substack.
No mailing-list capture, automated funnel or performance theatre. Just a direct route to the person doing the work.