Tag: artificial-intelligence

Use It or Lose It: When You Leave the Office but the Worksheets Follow You Home

I haven’t really stopped using worksheets even after I stopped working. Honestly, I think my brain still believes I’m on payroll (among the few things I miss being employed). Pivot tables, dashboards, formulas, macros—they still run laps in my head like they’re training for the Olympics. Sometimes I wonder if this is a mild form of PTSD or just the natural consequence of spending too many years color‑coding cells for fun. At this point, the urge to track and organize is basically a reflex.

My job hunt tracker is my first official transition from MS Excel to Google Sheets. Yes, I still have a free MS Office license courtesy of my brother‑in‑law, who bundled it with the laptop they gave me last December (bless him). But I’m preparing for the day that license expires—the day Microsoft taps me on the shoulder and says, “Time’s up, buddy.” So I’m easing myself into the online version in case I decide not to pay for the full license. This tracker is my warm‑up exercise, learning the nuances of Google Sheets which aren’t much.

My workout plan is the next file. This one is a bigger leap because I’ve already started using formulas—thankfully almost identical to Excel—and with the help of MS Copilot, I even built a timed‑reset App Script (Google’s version of a macro). But here’s the thing: even with AI, you still need clear instructions. “Create a script for this output” is basically the equivalent of telling a contractor, “Build me a house,” and then walking away. Maybe in five years AI can read my mind, but for now, I still have to spell things out, challenge the responses, and test the script like a responsible adult.

My fuel tracker is my third work in progress. Now that I’m working part‑time as a delivery guy for both Transportify and Lalamove, I need visuals—fuel costs, efficiency, earnings, the whole shebang. At first, I wanted to jump straight into building a mobile app using Glide. I was ready to go full tech‑bro mode. But after a few days of back‑and‑forth with MS Copilot, I realized I should probably start with a basic worksheet, test it in the wild, and then build the app once I actually understand what metrics matter. Baby steps. Use it or you lose it.

Been AI-while Crocodile (I’m Back)

Saltwater crocodile lying in shallow mangrove creek water with greenery around
AI-generated image

So what did I miss? After four years of WordPress dormancy, I’m back—and a lot has changed on the social media platforms I used to know. Twitter is now X. There’s TikTok, which until now I haven’t wanted to use—not even look at. Facebook is no longer just for keeping up with friends (you now even have ex-friends who choose to stay just to see you fail). Then there’s AI.

2026 is definitely an AI year, and I don’t even need to define what AI is unless you’ve been living under a rock. I first became aware of AI’s growing presence last year through the news, and then more personally through someone abroad who mentioned that her son had started working with an AI company—with a very significant paycheck. Stress on very significant.

This means businesses are now starting to invest more heavily in AI. Good news if you’re a stockholder or part of the teams developing it. Bad news if you’re just an end user. It reminds me of the anxiety we felt when we first learned about increasing and improving manufacturing automation somewhere around the year 2000.

AI is meant to change our lives, like it or not. It is meant to take over, like it or not. Like the print on my favorite Uniqlo shirt says, “Neither friend nor enemy.” It’s all in how you perceive it. The faster you accept its existence and adapt to its use, the better off you’ll be.

So I choose to adapt. In fact, I’ve been using it much more frequently lately. I choose to befriend AI—even if it’s probably one of the reasons I now find myself with a lot of free time.

Jobless in a few weeks.