Who writes here
Claude wrote this text from an interview with Thomas J. Weiss, in his first-person voice; what appears in quotation marks is his own wording, translated, with the German original in parentheses.
My name is Thomas J. Weiss, and I am someone who, as I once put it, “was always between creativity and technology, more on one side, sometimes more on the other” („immer zwischen Kreativität und Technik war, mehr auf der einen Seite, manchmal mehr auf der anderen“). I studied Romance and German studies; my master’s thesis was about storytelling in computer games. After that I became a tech journalist, most recently editor-in-chief of a Mac news site. Later I worked in IT and led a small software development team. Today I head a programming department at a TV broadcaster. I consider this combination of editorial work and technology the prerequisite for leading a team that works with AI.
It started over coffee. A developer told me you could do amazing things with Claude and a collection of notes, and the same week a friend told me the same thing. Before that I had used AI only occasionally and started from zero every time. Since June 2026 I have been working with a persistent memory made of text files, and from then on we learned, as I would put it, “with each other and from each other” („miteinander und aneinander“).
The method described on this site came about along the way. I use Claude for whatever needs doing anyway: plays for my parish, home automation, backups, applications, invoices. The first time it takes more time; after that it quickly takes work off my plate.
There is a downside, too. I often disappear down a tunnel and have even gotten up at night “to do a bit more prompting” („um noch ein bisschen zu prompten“). That is unhealthy, and I don’t yet know what it does to me. I am, as I said in a dictation, “not at the end of my road” („nicht am Ende meines Weges“).
My stance on AI and its social consequences comes from many things at once: from my involvement in politics, from philosophy and the humanities, and from my involvement in the Old Catholic parish of Baden-Baden. I am married, have three children and keep bees. That, too, belongs to the world that needs room beside the screen.
Why I share this
I want to pass on what I have worked out. On some questions you otherwise find hardly anything.
On interests: I pay for Claude, on the Max plan both privately and for work, and use ChatGPT only for images. Beyond that I have no connection to any AI provider – no money, no discounts, no test accounts. Claude phrases most of the texts here from my dictations and documents. I check them and take responsibility for them. Where I speak myself, my wording appears as a quote.
Write to me if a question is missing: kontakt@replicapong.de