Building a Self-Directed PhD With Claude AI

Building a Self-Directed PhD With Claude AI

The Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten.  T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com. In this episode, Matt Stauffer talks with software engineer and self-described "Renegade Historian" Dave Stanton, who has built an entire AI-driven workflow that lets him program — and write a 400-page history book — almost entirely by voice from his phone. They get into the nuts and bolts: an always-on Mac Mini running stacked Claude Code sessions in tmux, SSH access from anywhere, voice-to-text tools, and a self-designed "PhD" where Sonnet plays research assistant and Opus plays a hypercritical dissertation chair, with every critique tracked as a GitHub issue. Dave explains why the book itself was never really the goal. The conversation widens into the bigger questions — what gets lost when AI handles the rote work, whether to retain human connection on purpose, and Dave's honest 80/20 split between optimism and unease about where all of this is heading. * Matt Stauffer on X [https://x.com/mattstauffer]  * Dave Stanton’s Website [https://davestanton.com/book]  * Dave on X  [https://x.com/gotoplanb] * Tighten Website [https://tighten.com/]  * Blink for iOS [https://blink.sh/] * Superwhisper [https://superwhisper.com/]  * Geography as Destiny on GitHub [https://github.com/gotoplanb/geography-as-destiny]  * ngrok [https://ngrok.com/]  * Tailscale [https://tailscale.com/] * tmux [https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki] * Solo [https://soloterm.com/]  * Please Use AI by Sean Smucker [https://shawnsmucker.substack.com/p/please-use-ai]  ----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten [https://tighten.com/]. Big thanks to the companies that support the show: Mailtrap [https://l.rw.rw/pragmaticai_1]

Human Marketing in an AI Search World

The Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten.  T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com. In this episode, Matt Stauffer sits down with Meg Clarke, owner of Clapping Dog Media, to talk about how getting found online has shifted from gaming search engines to being discovered by AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. They get practical fast: why keywords are giving way to 23-word prompts, why your About page suddenly matters, why LinkedIn beats Reddit as a source AI tools trust, and how Meg now runs tech audits and analysis through Claude skills and Cowork to cut payroll and take real vacations. The conversation also opens up into something bigger — how AI lowers the barrier to starting a business, why it changes the math differently for owners than for employees, and Meg's passion for helping more women step into entrepreneurship. * Matt Stauffer on X [https://x.com/mattstauffer]  * Tighten Website [https://tighten.com/]  * Meg Clarke on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/clappingdogmedia/] * Meg’s Website [https://clappingdogmedia.com/]  * Dan Martel Book [https://www.buybackyourtime.com/] * Allie K. Miller on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@AKMofficial] ----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten [https://tighten.com/].

Using AI As a Thinking Partner, Not a Vending Machine

The Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten.  T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com. In this episode, Matt Stauffer talks with Greg Storey — author of Creative Intelligence: Don’t Ask AI, Think With It — about why most people are using AI like a productivity vending machine instead of a true thinking partner. Greg shares how AI can become a creative and strategic collaborator, exploring design thinking, divergent vs. convergent thinking, and the three questions he asks every time he starts a conversation with AI. They also dive into the bigger picture: why AI maximalism misses the point, how to stay creative as the tools become more capable, and what it means to preserve human creativity and curiosity in a rapidly changing world. * Matt Stauffer on X [https://x.com/mattstauffer] - https://x.com/mattstauffer [https://x.com/mattstauffer] * Tighten Website [https://tighten.com/] - https://tighten.com/ [https://tighten.com/] * Greg’s Website [https://brilliantcrank.com/] - https://brilliantcrank.com [https://calendly.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fbrilliantcrank.com&user_uuid=CHGHEBIIDHI72J6B&stage=1&hmac=1bf3e7f3a47213d3c13f97d5039882246cd66d741dad362facaf079d60fa72df] * Greg’s Book [https://brilliantcrank.com/creative-intelligence/] - https://brilliantcrank.com/creative-intelligence/ [https://brilliantcrank.com/creative-intelligence/] * Creative Intelligence Everyday Field Guides [https://brilliantcrank.com/creative-intelligence-field-guides/] - https://brilliantcrank.com/creative-intelligence-field-guides/ [https://brilliantcrank.com/creative-intelligence-field-guides/] ----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten [https://tighten.com/] - https://tighten.com/ [https://tighten.com/]

AI Researcher Michelle Yi on Watson, World Models, and Why AI Should Be for Everyone

The Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten.  T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com. Matt Stauffer is joined by Michelle Yi — co-founder of Generationship, board member of Women in Data, and AI Researcher at Basis Research Institute — who shares her 20-year journey across AI research, industry, and startups. Michelle traces the evolution of AI from her early days working on IBM Watson through to modern language models, reflecting on what's changed, what's been lost, and what's finally becoming possible. She and Matt dig into the importance of democratizing AI and making it genuinely useful beyond big tech. The conversation closes on Michelle's vision for a more equitable and responsible AI future — one being built through initiatives like Generationship and Basis Research Institute, and powered by people who choose to engage with AI rather than sit it out. * Matt Stauffer on X [https://x.com/mattstauffer]  * Tighten Website [https://tighten.com/]  * Michelle on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleyulleyi/]  * Basis Research Institute [https://www.basis.ai/] * NYC Rat Research in the News [https://nypost.com/2025/09/20/us-news/new-york-city-rats-are-social-beasts-even-have-unique-accent-study-finds/]  * Pyro.ai [http://pyro.ai/]  * Women in Data [https://www.womenindata.org/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16687994330&gbraid=0AAAAACLu-q86DqcRWS3oSGa6GM9p8Lx5K&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk_bPBhDXARIsACiq8R2Zu6kQIUzE7NLGWTgaTmsD7JIu4KRqgLJ5a_K0wEde7uNSuj80DuQaAt1eEALw_wcB]  * Generationship [https://www.generationship.ai/]  * Decile Group [https://decilegroup.com/?]  * Bobiverse Series [https://www.amazon.com/Bobiverse/dp/B0753LBFQ7]  * Becky Chambers Book [https://www.amazon.com/Long-Small-Angry-Planet-Wayfarers/dp/0062444131]  * Andrej Karpathy YouTube [http://youtube.com/andrejkarpathy]  * Community Usage Tweet [https://x.com/CraigThirtyFour/status/2049900579342753814?s=20]  * Setlist FM [https://www.setlist.fm/]  ----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten [https://tighten.com/].

AI in Elementary Schools: A Principal’s Take

The Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten.  T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com. In this episode, Matt Stauffer is joined by Amie McCaw, an elementary school principal in Southwest Michigan with 19 years of experience leading K-5 buildings. Together they explore what AI actually looks like inside a real elementary school and how teachers, principals, and students are navigating it. Amie shares how she uses AI for communications, observation feedback, and behavior planning, while always vetting the output and never passing it off as her own. She talks about the surprising generational divide on her staff, where younger Gen Z teachers are often the most skeptical of AI, and why she still wants her K-5 kids learning to write a sentence before reaching for a chatbot. The conversation widens into bigger questions: how AI is reshaping teacher burnout, why critical thinking has to come before trust, and why no tool will ever replace the human connection between a teacher and a child. * Matt Stauffer on X [https://x.com/mattstauffer] - https://x.com/mattstauffer [https://x.com/mattstauffer] * Tighten Website [https://tighten.com/] - https://tighten.com/ [https://tighten.com/] * Amie on Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/amiemccaw.bsky.social] - https://bsky.app/profile/amiemccaw.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/amiemccaw.bsky.social] * Amie on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amie-mccaw-53633464/] - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amie-mccaw-53633464/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amie-mccaw-53633464/] ----- Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten [https://tighten.com/] - https://tighten.com/ [https://tighten.com/]