About AI is a pencil
AI is a pencil is a newsletter about thinking with AI, not handing your thinking over to it.
It’s written for people who work with words, ideas, and communication, writers, podcasters, educators, consultants, and anyone who regularly needs to turn complex thoughts into something other people can understand.
This isn’t a newsletter about prompts, productivity hacks, or chasing the newest tool. It’s about using AI as a quiet collaborator, a place to sketch, question, and test ideas before they leave your head.
Why “a pencil”?
A pencil doesn’t generate ideas for you.
It helps you get them out.
That’s how AI shows up here.
I use AI the same way I’ve always used notebooks, margins, drafts, and conversations, as a way to slow down thinking, draw out assumptions, and add missing context before something becomes public. Sometimes it’s clumsy. Sometimes it surprises me. Often it just helps me notice what I hadn’t said yet.
This newsletter lives in that in-between space.
What you’ll find here
Each issue is a short reflection or experiment based on real work, writing, teaching, podcasting, and communication in the wild.
You’ll see things like:
How AI can help unpack ideas that feel “obvious” in your head but aren’t to others
Using AI to stress-test clarity before sending an email, publishing a post, or recording an episode
Reflections on language, context, and audience that don’t fit neatly into tutorials
Experiments that worked, experiments that didn’t, and what I noticed either way
This is less about answers and more about better questions.
Who this is for
AI is a pencil is for people who:
Think faster than they can explain
Care about nuance, tone, and being understood
Feel overwhelmed by AI hype but still curious
Want to use AI without rushing, automating, or flattening their voice
You don’t need to be technical. You don’t need to be “good at AI.” You just need to be someone who works with ideas.
About me
I’m a podcast strategist and educator with a background in teaching adults English language and communication skills, mostly overseas in Asian countries. I spent many years working in language education and assessment before moving into podcasting and long-form communication.
I’ve also spent time in graduate programs exploring NLP, specifically around making second-language writing easier and more accessible for international students. That mix of language, clarity, and technology is what shapes how I approach AI today.
I don’t use AI to replace thinking. I use it to make thinking visible.
How to read this newsletter
There’s no required order. No “system” to follow.
Read an issue, sit with it, try something if you want, or just notice how it changes the way you think about your own work. Some posts will feel practical. Others will feel reflective. All of them are created from aha moments with a lot of intentionality.
If you’ve ever wished AI felt more like a notebook and less like a megaphone, you’re in the right place.
