Any AI Will Do

It's not the AI you use. It's the fact that you use it.

← All posts

The email that started this

A colleague wrote me after I sent around the site link. He said:

Two follow-ups: "Can Copilot do this?" and "Where should the AI keep the files?"

Good questions. Short answers: yes, and wherever you want. Long answers below.

This site uses Claude. You don't have to.

Everything on this site was built with Claude — Anthropic's AI. The CLI setup and Desktop setup pages walk through installing Claude specifically. That's because it's what I use. It's not because it's the only option.

The YOU++ idea is a pattern, not a product:

• You think. You decide what needs doing, what the constraints are, and whether the output is right.
• The AI executes. It drafts, computes, formats, searches, and builds — whatever you told it to do.
• You verify. You read what it made, fix what's wrong, and approve what's right.

That loop works with any AI that can read text and write text. All of them can.

What you probably already have

Before you install anything or ask IT for permission, check what's already on your machine.

The clipboard workflow

The setup pages on this site describe Claude reading your files directly, running commands on your machine, connecting to your email and databases. That's called tool use, and it's genuinely powerful. But it's not the only way to work.

If your AI can't access your files directly, you have a clipboard. That's enough.

Here's what the clipboard workflow looks like in practice:

1. Open your document in whatever app you normally use — Word, Google Docs, Notepad, anything.
2. Open the AI in another window — ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, your company portal.
3. Tell the AI what you need. Paste in the relevant text. Ask your question. "Here's the first draft of my status report. Make it shorter and cut the jargon."
4. Read the output. Don't trust it blindly. Fix what's wrong. Accept what's right.
5. Paste the result back into your document.

That's it. That's the whole technique. Copy, paste, think, paste back. The AI never touches your files directly. You are the integration layer. It's slower than tool use, but it works everywhere, with every AI, and requires zero IT approval.

Where to keep your files

Someone asked: "Where should the AI keep the .md files?"

Answer: the AI doesn't keep them. You keep them. The AI doesn't have a filing cabinet. It has a conversation window that disappears when you close it. Your files live where your files live — your Documents folder, your Desktop, OneDrive, Google Drive, wherever you already keep things.

If you want a folder structure for AI-assisted work, here's a simple one:

Documents/
  ai-projects/
    meeting-template/
      template.md
      notes.md
    status-report/
      weekly-template.md
    writing/
      draft.md
      outline.md

Plain text files (.md is markdown — just text with light formatting) in folders named after what they do. Nothing fancy. No special software. Any text editor can open them. Any AI can read them if you paste them in.

The folder name is your memory. The file is your work. The AI is the tool you bring to it — like opening a calculator or a dictionary. It doesn't live in the folder. You do.

The starter file works everywhere

The YOU++ starter file that ships with this site was written for Claude, but it's just a set of instructions in plain English. Any AI can follow it.

Download it. Open it in a text editor. Read it. Then:

The instructions are the same. The AI is different. The outcome is the same: you identify a small, real problem, and the AI helps you build something to solve it. The pattern is tool-agnostic.

What you lose without Claude Code

Honesty time. The clipboard workflow is not as good as Claude Code or Claude Desktop with MCP servers (connector programs that let the AI talk directly to your files, email, and databases). Here's what you lose:

• File access. Claude Code reads and edits your files directly. With clipboard, you copy-paste.
• Terminal commands. Claude Code can run programs, install software, execute scripts. With clipboard, you run commands yourself.
• MCP integrations. Claude Desktop can connect to Gmail, Jira, Snowflake, and dozens of other systems through small connector programs. With clipboard, you're the connector.
• Memory across sessions. Claude Code remembers your project structure and preferences. With clipboard, every conversation starts fresh (unless you paste in context).
• Speed. Tool use is fast. Clipboard is manual. You're doing the work the wire would do.

Here's what you don't lose:

• The thinking. The AI is just as smart in a ChatGPT window as it is in a terminal. The reasoning doesn't change because the delivery mechanism changed.
• The pattern. You think, it executes, you verify. That's the same everywhere.
• The leverage. A 30-minute problem solved in 5 minutes is still a 25-minute win, whether you pasted the text in or the AI read it directly.
• The learning. Once you've used any AI to solve a real problem, you know the shape of it. The second time is faster. The third time is automatic. The tool you started with doesn't matter.

The real barrier isn't the tool

Nobody is blocked from AI because of software. You're blocked from a specific AI because of a policy. That policy probably exists for a good reason — data protection, legal compliance, vendor negotiations. Respect it.

But the policy didn't block thinking. It blocked a product. Use a different product. Or use the one your company already bought and just never told you about. Check with IT. Ask what's approved. You might be surprised.

And if nothing is approved — if your company has a blanket ban on all AI tools — then use one on your personal phone, on your personal laptop, outside of work, on a personal problem. Organize your recipes. Plan a trip. Write a letter to your kid's school. The pattern is the same. The muscle is the same. When the policy catches up, you'll be ready.

It's not the AI you use. It's the fact that you use it.

← Back to posts