Clay Griffith

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[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

It's well understood that if you leave the pump before confirming if you'd like a receipt, the next driver will use your credit card to get their gas. Robbing you.

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

At 10:30 last night, our third child was born.

Welcome to our world, Lucy.

Having a kid (the birth, anyway, my wife did all the work) is as emotional and hopeful as everyone says. What will she become? What potential in this little one.

But it's also introspective. Am I enough? Will I get this right?

When our first, Tom, came, I wrote him a long letter about the kind of man I hope he'll become and the realities of the world he'll need to navigate. For our second, Jack, I just recorded a voice memo while walking through the hospital to find coffee. I always meant to write it down one day.

For Lucy, no letter. Just lots of love ahead.

You sort of realize by the third that life happens every day with a kid. The big letter preparing them for the world is special, but it isn't the thing. The real lessons, the ones you and they both need, don't wait for you to write them down.

They come real-time. You just go into it.

And that's what's on my mind today. Not preparing my kids for some life that starts later. Living it with them now, hands on.

I know what that looks like, because my parents did it for me.

Growing up, my dad gave my brother and me adventure. We never went to Disney, we rarely flew, "resort" wasn't in our vocabulary, and we never went overseas. But we certainly did stuff. We took a lot of road trips and slept on the sides of those roads when the drive got too long. A KOA, or just a parking lot. More driving and a Pop-Tart when dawn broke. We did these things called Rendezvous, where a bunch of families would meet up in a state park and live like it was the old west for the week. Throw hatchets, light fires, trade food (and booze for the dads) and play all day. We went to the beach, we occasionally saw the city, we played with circuit boards around a kitchen table at night, built robots and playgrounds and box cars and slingshots on the weekends.

I did a different kind of adventuring with my mom. Vintage stores in Dallas, arts districts, lots of "go to work with Mom" days where I got to sit in the golf-course-facing executive suites of the old telephone giant, GTE, reading my kid books at the desks of out-of-town execs. I learned to love business there, and to love anything-goes city culture in those days.

None of it was expensive. All of it was intentional. That's the part I want to carry forward. Not the same trips my parents took us on, but the same thing underneath, hands-on parent and kid adventure.

Tom and I already do this. He's going on four, our oldest, and he calls it "Tom and Daddy Day" (aka Saturday and Sunday). It's usually some degree of us just getting out and exploring. We draw a map of a local park, put an X on it, and go see what we find. He's started saying his own slogan for it.

"You never know what you'll find."

Really, that smart little guy says that. That's the posture I'm leaning into now, with all three of them.

And here's what I figured out today. I don't want to be the dad who's hoping that one day he can afford a life where he finally gets to live hands-on and adventurous with his kids, in big adventures and small ones. That day doesn't arrive on its own. Life gets in the way, we're hurried, we're busy, and the adventurous life keeps getting filed under someday.

So I'm not going to wait for it. I'm going to build a system where I just do it now. The scaffolding is already here. Tom and Daddy Day is already here. Seeing that, and leaning into it with all three of them, is what will fulfill my role as a focused parent.

It will fulfill me as a person too.

Because raising kids can be pure joy when you create moments they'll cherish. And creating those is creating moments you cherish too. Alchemy.

So, concretely. Every weekend, a choice to create adventure. And through it, to teach my kids and live life with them.

That's the point of writing this down, putting it out there, starting. Lucy is sleeping like a newborn does, and Daddy needs sleep too. But this little post is the thing I'm going to chase.

Looking forward to it.

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@bentossell Agree re:Figma comment. Next.js docs always felt straightforward to me, but you're asking for novel formats.

Maybe draw some added inspo from the personalizable prompt copy/paste feature in https://t.co/C7kXz6DSac (maybe Factory should try to get added to in that first box)

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@LTSmash420 *Slams head into desk*

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@LeadingFutureAI is a step in the right direction, and one that I want to support.

Non-partisan advocacy for pro-AI candidates will enable more serious, grounded and informed discourse in government. It's the foundation-laying phase of our AI future - every decision matters.

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

Standard is:
- have a list of questions in plain spoken language (say, 25 questions) that cover the kinds of conversational queries you hope your brand to show for
- query chatgpt, Claude, Gemini, grok periodically and monitor the brands mentioned across those prompts and their responses
- repeat

That’s the only method I’ve heard

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

I spend $250/mo. on AI tools.

I can sort of justify it.
They’re fantastic productivity drivers m.

But describing that number as a MacBook Pro per year? Um, Ouch.

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

Interesting discussions on “trust” and AI since the article Friday. Chats with folks from coworkers, to LinkedIn strangers, to my Father in Law.

For me, I trust AI way more (currently) to diagnose illness than I do to book my travel.

Matters of science vs. matters of taste.

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@function Z

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@dagorenouf How can I put https://t.co/hFmHs9WCHx up for a launch day?

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@jackfriks Idk, I think we all deserve to just party for a day.

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

Walking Down the Road "WDTR" is a bedtime story series I do with my two year old, Tom.
He's the central character. He makes up the supporting cast of 'friends'. We cap every story with an AI generation of the main story moments. Pure magic.

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

Last night in "Walking Down the Road" story series:
Tom and his Wolfman friend are sent on a quest to find the hillside treasure, guarded by fairies and their Mother Bat.

[See reply for what WDTR is]

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@jackfriks Damn you’re a likeable dude. Go get it Jack

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@alexsssaint https://t.co/hFmHs9WCHx

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@ItsKieranDrew This is a good self consciousness trigger/hook post. Read it and liked.

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@JorgeMenaDev Apply to Join, technically speaking. But free inevitably and it’s brand new (today) with no traction really yet. So if interested, it’s totally open. Would love to have you in there Jorge.

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@dagorenouf Better update the angle of that gradient on that sign up button. Doesn’t look quite right. Or should it say “join?”. Make another list of priority changes and tweaks. 💄

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@tomhacks Same short king

[Clay Griffith @ClaySaysit]

@girdley You signing up for BIPCombinator @girdley?