Pro-AI · Anti-hype

Simple tools that work.
No hype, nothing to sell you first.

Whether you have never touched AI or you build with it every day, there's a door here for you. Free tools, plain-language guides, and nothing to sell you until you decide I'm worth it.

FreeNo accountNothing to sell you first

Start where you are

Three doors, depending on where you're at with all this. Pick the one that sounds like you. Everything here is free to try.

New to AI · start here

It feels like everyone gets this but me

Barely used AI, or it feels intimidating? Start with the Prompt Helper: tell it what you want in plain words, and it writes the request for you. No account, no jargon.

Open the Prompt Helper
Everyday life

I just want less hassle day to day

Small wins at home and work. Keep in Touch quietly shows you who you're overdue to reach out to, so you stop losing people to a busy life. Private and offline.

Open Keep in Touch
If you build · work in tech

I write code and want sharper tools

You're comfortable at a command line. Here's the spec-driven method I build with, in the open, plus the tools behind it, like the Instruction Checker that catches vague build instructions before AI runs with them.

See the builder tools

More free tools

The professionals you can't always afford, made free and plain. Each runs privately in your browser — nothing saved, nothing sent.

career

Job Coach

Fix a résumé bullet, draft a tailored cover letter, and rehearse interview answers.

Open Job Coach
negotiation

The Negotiation Room

Prep and rehearse a salary, rent, or bill conversation before you have it for real.

Open the Negotiation Room
travel

Trip Planner

Turn a few answers into a day-by-day itinerary tuned to your budget, pace, and taste.

Open Trip Planner
reflection

Sounding Board

A private, gentle space to think something through and steady yourself. Not therapy — a companion for the space between.

Open Sounding Board
safety

Second Look

Paste the message that made you pause. Get an instant checklist of what to verify before you click, reply, or send anything.

Take a Second Look

Field notes

What I'm learning, built in the open. The takes are free; the receipts are attached.

Read all the field notes →  ·  Get them by email →

Work with me

The tools above are the portfolio. If you want me to do it for your team, here are four ways in.

2-week project

Blueprint Sprint

A fuzzy AI idea in, a clear plan and a working first version out. Fixed scope, fixed price, no hourly billing.

$9k–$14k fixed. Quoted flat before we start.

Book a sprint
team workshop

Ship with AI — Cohort

A short, hands-on course that trains your team to get real, reliable work out of AI instead of confident nonsense.

$10k–$25k per company, depending on team size.

Bring it to my team
cohort + community

The Operator's Table

A four-week guided course plus a private room of people doing this for real. Learn the method, stay for the people.

Cohort $12k–$20k · community $40–$80 per seat / month.

Join the waitlist
part-time

Part-time AI product lead

A senior product brain steering your AI push a few hours a week: I decide what to build, write the plan, and stop the wrong ideas early.

$4k–$6k / month. Two or three companies only.

Talk to me

Tell me about the work

No pitch and no call required to start. Say what you're trying to do and I'll reply with whether I can help and what it would cost.



Courses

Three self-paced levels. Start wherever you actually are.

level 1 · $19

AI Starts Here

A short course for people who feel behind on AI and are not. Five modules, plain language.

See the course
level 2 · $39

Get AI to Actually Help

Five real workflows: the job hunt, high-stakes negotiations, real trip planning, staying in touch.

See the course
level 3 · $79

Spec-Driven Building

Ship real software without becoming an engineer, by writing specs precise enough that AI builds from them.

See the course

Books & publishing

book

The AI Practice Book

Thirty hands-on exercises to get genuinely good at working with AI. Paper, pencil, and a chatbot.

Tell me when it's out
free sample

Five first exercises

A taste of the book, free. Try them today with any AI open in front of you.

Read the free five
for writers · a little setup

Book Topic Finder

Want to write one yourself? This finds book topics people search for but few authors have covered, so yours can actually get found. A small tool you run on your own computer.

Get it

Who's Mick

I'm Mick Cairn. I build small tools that work and write about doing more with less, using AI, without the hype. Everything on this page is something I actually made and use.

My whole thing is proof over hype. I don't have a course to sell you or a résumé to wave around. I have working tools you can try right now, the method I built them with out in the open, and opinions I'll back with receipts.

If the tools are good, that's the credential. If they're not, no bio would fix it. Pro-AI, anti-nonsense, on your side, against the people selling you complexity and beside you when it all feels like too much.

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