Ai on Og Maciel's Journal

I Asked AI to Analyze My Reading Habits. My Wallet Almost Didn’t Survive.

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I Asked AI to Analyze My Reading Habits. My Wallet Almost Didn’t Survive.

Okay, I confess—I was bored, somewhere between watching an episode of Such Brave Girls and reading, so I opened ChatGPT and asked:

Based on the titles below representing the last digital books I purchased from Amazon, what could be inferred about my reading style and preferences?

Skinbreaker #1
Alchemised
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

From LAMP Stacks to Large Language Models

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

According to the whois command, I’ve owned the domain ogmaciel.com since January 21, 2001, and I believe it was the very first domain I ever bought. Since then, I’ve purchased multiple domains for all sorts of ideas and projects, but this one I’ve kept — and renewed faithfully — since day one.

Over the years, I’ve self-hosted (cutting my teeth on Linux by building and maintaining LAMP stacks) and used paid hosting services to run my personal blog. I used WordPress back when it was the coolest blogging platform out there, and I’ve hand-crafted HTML sites — and everything in between. I wrote prolifically about anything and everything for many years, and I’ve lost more posts than I care to admit as I switched platforms (and occasionally forgot to back things up).

Nods, Lightbulbs, and Why I Still Love Being a Builder

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Over the last month and a half, I’ve spent considerable time giving presentations at work on how AI tools can help people in their day-to-day activities. Most of these sessions focus on software engineering tasks like writing code, automated testing, setting standards, and using tools like Jira more effectively.

The Art of Presenting

Whenever I’m asked to present, I try to imagine what I’d want as an audience member. My core principle is simple: “if someone asks me to sit through a presentation, they’d better capture my attention quickly and show me what’s in it for me.”