https://josephlapin.com/blog/ Essays and field guides on family, AI, work, and creativity — being human as the tools change. By Joseph Lapin, the human in the loop. en-us Sun, 06 Sep 2026 02:00:32 +0000 https://josephlapin.com/art/og-image.jpghttps://josephlapin.com/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/bedtime-story-replaced-by-unscheduled-content-review/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/bedtime-story-replaced-by-unscheduled-content-review/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working Something surreal happened with the comic this week. https://josephlapin.com/blog/context-taste-building/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/context-taste-building/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Everyone rates themselves a 3 out of 5 at AI. The gap to 5 isn't a better prompt — it's structured context, trained taste, and the act of building. A field guide from a talk to a marketing agency. https://josephlapin.com/blog/does-ai-music-count/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/does-ai-music-count/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Dr. Dre uses AI in the studio and says only people who struggle to create see it as a threat. Every music tool we now call standard — multitrack tape, drum machines, Pro Tools, Auto-Tune, sampling — was called cheating first. https://josephlapin.com/constellation/andrew-batey/ https://josephlapin.com/constellation/andrew-batey/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Constellation A profile of Andrew Batey, co-CEO of Beatdapp and founder of Side Door Ventures, who sees his businesses as his art — from growth hacking to deep-tech venture to a brewery reimagined as an artist-affinity engine. https://josephlapin.com/constellation/ray-martinez/ https://josephlapin.com/constellation/ray-martinez/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Constellation A profile of Ray Martinez, VP of SEO at Archer Education, who went from South Jamaica, Queens to more than 150 university websites — and taught himself the discipline no one offered a course in. https://josephlapin.com/blog/stop-tracking-billable-hours/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/stop-tracking-billable-hours/ Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop A field guide to leveraging AI and Claude Code for time tracking: quitting the manual timesheet and reconstructing where a finite attention actually went — across the business, winning work, and a personal writing practice. https://josephlapin.com/constellation/clayton-dean/ https://josephlapin.com/constellation/clayton-dean/ Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Constellation A profile of Clayton Dean, VP of Partnership & Business Development at Ziplines Education, who sits between the universities and the employers meant to prepare young people for an AI world. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/100-percent-human-made-as-a-kpi/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/100-percent-human-made-as-a-kpi/ Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working Everyone at this office is 100% human-made. The monitors disagree. https://josephlapin.com/blog/ai-content-stack/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/ai-content-stack/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop A colleague asked what AI tools I use for content. The honest answer isn't a tool list — it's one workhorse, a folder system full of context, and a human holding the taste gate. https://josephlapin.com/blog/talk-to-your-claude-code/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/talk-to-your-claude-code/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop How to talk to your Claude Code: the Wispr Flow voice setup Joseph Lapin dictates with across Claude Code, Gmail, and Messages — and why spoken context beats typed prompts. https://josephlapin.com/blog/i-dont-want-to-die/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/i-dont-want-to-die/ Sun, 23 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop My four-year-old found out about death in the middle of the night. On turning 41, appetite over despair, and the strange Zen of working with machines. Essay No. 4 of The Human in the Loop. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/the-ai-wave-hit-outcomes-varied/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/the-ai-wave-hit-outcomes-varied/ Sat, 22 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working Everyone's talking about the AI wave. Almost nobody's talking about the boats. So I drew the boats, with an assist from Hokusai. https://josephlapin.com/constellation/jessica-gutierrez/ https://josephlapin.com/constellation/jessica-gutierrez/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Constellation A profile of Jessica Gutierrez, the Santa Monica High School science teacher navigating AI in the classroom as a centrist moving toward hope. https://josephlapin.com/constellation/keith-woods/ https://josephlapin.com/constellation/keith-woods/ Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Constellation A profile of Keith Marcel Woods, the Bisk product leader who learned to design at eight on a tablet with no memory. https://josephlapin.com/constellation/munir-haddad/ https://josephlapin.com/constellation/munir-haddad/ Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Constellation A profile of Munir Haddad, founder and CEO of Kiosk, who turned childhood blackouts in wartime Lebanon into a career built on storytelling. https://josephlapin.com/blog/context-engineering-small-business/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/context-engineering-small-business/ Mon, 17 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Context engineering for a small business: five context layers, a loop harness, and the actual files — a 16-line rules file, memory index, and loop register. https://josephlapin.com/blog/are-you-optimistic-about-ai/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/are-you-optimistic-about-ai/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Are you optimistic about AI? A poll said no, 61 to 39. A rainy afternoon, a nephew, and a kitchen-table comic studio told the other half of the answer. Essay No. 3 of The Human in the Loop. https://josephlapin.com/blog/van-gogh-paints-us/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/van-gogh-paints-us/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop An imagined series in which Van Gogh paints modern life — people and their screens, and the machines that have quietly moved in. Nine AI paintings and an essay on the historical rhyme between gaslight and screen-glow. https://josephlapin.com/blog/culture-of-ai/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/culture-of-ai/ Sat, 15 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop A culture of AI is how your people talk about the tools, not the tooling itself. How to diagnose whether yours is working, and six ways to improve it. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/wednesday-stoop-grilling-initiative/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/wednesday-stoop-grilling-initiative/ Wed, 12 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/blog/graph-engineering-solo-operator/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/graph-engineering-solo-operator/ Tue, 11 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Graph engineering is the layer after loop engineering — treating your whole operation as a directed graph of nodes, edges, triggers, and gates. A working approach for a company of one. https://josephlapin.com/blog/garden-i-couldnt-build-in-time/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/garden-i-couldnt-build-in-time/ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop For her birthday, I gave my wife a picture of a garden that doesn't exist — made with AI from our own backyard. The first essay of The Human in the Loop. https://josephlapin.com/blog/higgsfield-claude-code/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/higgsfield-claude-code/ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop How to set up Higgsfield with Claude Code and produce great AI videos — one pipeline from idea to finished piece, with a human at the taste gate. https://josephlapin.com/blog/manage-multiple-claude-code-sessions/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/manage-multiple-claude-code-sessions/ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop How to manage multiple Claude Code sessions: four habits that work in any terminal, plus claude-dash — a free one-screen dashboard for the whole fleet. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/mentorship-as-a-contact-sport/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/mentorship-as-a-contact-sport/ Sat, 08 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/piano-lessons-as-a-managed-service/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/piano-lessons-as-a-managed-service/ Sat, 08 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/goalkeeping-as-a-distributed-denial-of-service/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/goalkeeping-as-a-distributed-denial-of-service/ Sat, 08 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/companionship-as-a-service/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/companionship-as-a-service/ Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/team-dinner-headcount-one/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/team-dinner-headcount-one/ Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/incident-report-caregiver-failover-event/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/incident-report-caregiver-failover-event/ Sun, 26 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/goal-setting-with-emerging-talent/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/goal-setting-with-emerging-talent/ Thu, 23 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/caregiving-as-a-parallel-workstream/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/caregiving-as-a-parallel-workstream/ Thu, 23 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working This week my four-year-old was sick, and he came and sat down with me while I was working, clearly bored. So I asked him: do you want to be a comic book character? https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/cross-functional-feelings-alignment/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/cross-functional-feelings-alignment/ Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/five-stages-of-learning-to-code-with-ai/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/five-stages-of-learning-to-code-with-ai/ Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/wellness-as-a-q3-initiative/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/wellness-as-a-q3-initiative/ Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/cold-exposure-as-a-q3-initiative/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/cold-exposure-as-a-q3-initiative/ Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/everything-is-equally-meaningless/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/everything-is-equally-meaningless/ Sun, 28 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/new-years-resolutions/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/new-years-resolutions/ Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/the-charity-email/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/the-charity-email/ Thu, 08 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/no-ai-speeches-at-the-holiday-party/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/no-ai-speeches-at-the-holiday-party/ Mon, 22 Dec 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working A Mostly Working strip. Work, family, and the machines in between. https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/office-christmas-party/ https://josephlapin.com/mostly-working/office-christmas-party/ Thu, 18 Dec 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin Mostly Working It's been about a year since I launched my business, and this week we ended up doing what most small offices do around the holidays: standing around with drinks, awkwardly trying to say something meaningful. https://josephlapin.com/blog/effective-brainstorming-tips/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/effective-brainstorming-tips/ Tue, 26 Dec 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Clear objectives, a structured agenda, design-thinking guidelines, and moodboarding: a blueprint for brainstorming sessions that actually work. https://josephlapin.com/blog/copywriting-tips-for-beginners/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/copywriting-tips-for-beginners/ Wed, 05 Oct 2022 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Three ideas worth unlearning: sentence length is not a run-on, drafting and editing are different modes, and most grammar rules are style choices. https://josephlapin.com/blog/ordinary-moments/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/ordinary-moments/ Thu, 08 Sep 2022 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop An ordinary hardware-store errand turns extraordinary when the employee helping choose a grill collapses — a short essay on perspective, obstacles, and being alive. https://josephlapin.com/blog/how-to-find-writing-motivation/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/how-to-find-writing-motivation/ Sun, 30 Aug 2020 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Five ways to find writing motivation — from someone who left his MFA convinced he had already arrived. https://josephlapin.com/blog/first-fathers-day/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/first-fathers-day/ Sun, 21 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop A first Father's Day essay: a day at the Pacific with a laughing son, the anniversary of a beloved dog's death, and the understanding that death and life come as a team. https://josephlapin.com/blog/a-saturday-night-lyft-with-a-madman/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/a-saturday-night-lyft-with-a-madman/ Sun, 27 Oct 2019 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop A Halloween ride home, a driver in a stovepipe hat, and a tortoise supposedly older than Lincoln. https://josephlapin.com/blog/what-is-good-writing/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/what-is-good-writing/ Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Good writing is not rule-following — it's effective communication: being understood by an audience, making them feel something, helping them grasp a complex idea. https://josephlapin.com/blog/how-to-get-better-at-reading/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/how-to-get-better-at-reading/ Thu, 10 Oct 2019 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop For a year I forgot how to read. Getting attention back is a practice, not a personality. https://josephlapin.com/blog/digital-minimalism/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/digital-minimalism/ Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop How Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport changed one writer's life: dropping vanity metrics, reading 18 books in six weeks, writing six novel chapters, and reorienting toward family and craft. https://josephlapin.com/blog/writing-creatively-not-for-money/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/writing-creatively-not-for-money/ Tue, 02 Jan 2018 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Why keep making the thing nobody is paying you to make? A night walk and an honest answer. https://josephlapin.com/blog/how-to-turn-30/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/how-to-turn-30/ Wed, 12 Aug 2015 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Written the week I turned thirty: freak out, stay in shape, drive into the desert, recommit to a goal, make a legacy. https://josephlapin.com/blog/burying-a-body-in-my-front-yard/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/burying-a-body-in-my-front-yard/ Tue, 31 Mar 2015 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop An ordinary night in San Diego, a dog on edge, and the duty that arrived unannounced in my front yard. https://josephlapin.com/blog/how-photography-makes-me-a-better-writer/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/how-photography-makes-me-a-better-writer/ Mon, 19 Jan 2015 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Stalled in a novel, I picked up a camera. What photography taught me about seeing — and about writing. https://josephlapin.com/blog/killing-your-darlings/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/killing-your-darlings/ Sun, 03 Aug 2014 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop Killing your darlings in practice: deleting years of old writing to start over, learning to see work from another angle, and returning to the place where a voice was first made. https://josephlapin.com/blog/what-i-learned-music-journalist/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/what-i-learned-music-journalist/ Sun, 29 Jun 2014 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop A K-pop assignment at the Honda Center, an angry fandom, and the lesson every freelancer learns: if your words are honest, stand by them. https://josephlapin.com/blog/the-new-digital-media-artist/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/the-new-digital-media-artist/ Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop The new artist refuses the distinctions between mediums, and uses every new technology to make new forms. Written in 2014. https://josephlapin.com/blog/grief-on-thanksgiving/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/grief-on-thanksgiving/ Thu, 28 Nov 2013 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop A memoir flash piece about grief during the holidays: a small scattered family, the voices of grandparents who are gone, and a piano played until it borders on harmony. https://josephlapin.com/blog/a-moment-in-west-hollywood/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/a-moment-in-west-hollywood/ Wed, 24 Jul 2013 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop A grocery store in West Hollywood, a stranger asking for help, and how close I came to walking past the whole thing. https://josephlapin.com/blog/what-i-learned-teaching-writing-in-rehab/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/what-i-learned-teaching-writing-in-rehab/ Wed, 03 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop A year teaching creative writing inside a rehab center, and the lesson that outlasted the job. https://josephlapin.com/blog/10-jazz-albums-story/ https://josephlapin.com/blog/10-jazz-albums-story/ Sun, 18 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000 Joseph Lapin The Human in the Loop 15,000 likes in 24 hours, a Village Voice reprint, and a proper trashing by the New York elite: the story of a jazz listicle that went viral in 2012.