1st March 2026
How This Newsletter Gets Made
A human–AI collaboration, every Saturday
A later note
I wrote this in week two of the newsletter, on 2nd March 2026. The process has evolved significantly since.
Two things stand out that this version doesn’t properly capture:
- Everything in the newsletter comes from me. Something I’ve read, something I’ve done. There’s no web trawl filling in what I might have missed. It’s a week of my working life.
- I’m much clearer now on how big my role is at every step. I know exactly what I’m doing versus what the language models are doing, and I’ve done some clever things to keep them in their box along the way.
I’ll refresh the diagram in due course. For now, this is how it looked in week two.
David
Claude
Both
How it started
Edition 1 was written largely by hand — from a voice memo, through multiple drafts, with Claude helping on wording and research. Claude Code then studied that first issue and built a reusable framework: tone of voice, structure, template, style guide. That framework now shapes every future edition.
Otter
Claude.ai
Claude Code
Gather
Monday – Friday
Throughout the week, organically, whenever something strikes:
- Voice memos recorded between meetings
- Screenshots of the relevant bit
- Links sent via Telegram
- Discussions sparked by reader replies
Otter
Telegram → Claude Code
Gmail
Process
Automated
Screenshots and links are analysed and summarised. Voice memos
are transcribed. Everything lands in a running notebook of observations,
quotes and half-formed thoughts.
Claude API
Otter
Claude Code
Draft
Saturday morning
The week’s material is combined with the framework —
tone of voice, past issues, style guide — and Claude produces
a few suggested drafts.
Claude Code
Rework
The hard part
Three layers of human judgment:
Verify
Automated
A separate agent finds supporting links and fact-checks claims
before publication.
Claude Code
Personalise
Saturday
Claude drafts a personalised opening line for each engaged reader,
based on their replies and the conversations we’ve had.
David reviews hundreds of these, makes tweaks, then approves.
Claude Code
Gmail
Publish
Saturday
Final review, then sent to 550+ subscribers.
David hits the button.
Claude Code
Gmail
↩ Reader replies and debates feed back into next week’s material