Tag: blog maintenance

This afternoon I used the following prompt to help me assess posts I’d written a few years ago for updating:

I have a personal blog at https://sjl.us
Please review my blog posts that are between two and five years old and give me a prioritized list of which ones you think I should update.

I was curious how well it would do at this task. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised. Here’s the result:

Here’s my prioritized list of your blog posts (published roughly April 2021–April 2024, i.e., 2–5 years old as of April 2026) that I recommend updating, ranked from highest to lowest priority.

I reviewed the site structure, monthly archives, and indexed posts via searches. Your blog has dozens of posts in this window (mostly personal essays, photography, history, productivity/PKM, and heavy AI experimentation from the 2022–early 2023 wave). I prioritized based on:

• How much the topic has aged (AI/prompting/tech tools change fastest; photography, personal reflections, and history are more timeless).
• Potential value of an update (adding 2026-era insights, new examples, current tool versions, or follow-up reflections makes the post fresher and more useful to readers).
• Thematic clustering (your AI/PKM series from 2022–2023 forms a natural arc that would benefit from a cohesive refresh).

I focused on the highest-impact ones rather than every post. Many others (e.g., pure street photography, freeway essays, family stories like the Tracy obituary, or 2021 COVID-era reflections) are still strong as-is and don’t need updates unless you want to add new photos or minor notes.

Top Priority (Strongly recommend updating soon — these are the most dated but highest-potential)

1. Multi-step prompting for Claude (August 11, 2023)
   https://sjl.us/2023/08/11/multi-step-prompting-for-claude/
   Why update? Early Claude-specific prompting techniques; the entire field (Claude 3/4 families, GPT-4o-class models, Grok, etc.) has advanced dramatically. Easy win: expand with 2026 best practices, new multi-step examples, and comparisons.
2. My Current PKM Stack as of September 2023 (September 20, 2023)
   https://sjl.us/2023/09/20/my-current-pkm-stack/
   Why update? Details your Obsidian/Instapaper/Feedly/Drafts workflow at the time. Tools and plugins have evolved a lot; readers love current “state of my stack” posts. A 2026 version would be highly engaging.
3. Using AI to Help Write (November 15, 2022)
   https://sjl.us/2022/11/15/using-ai-to-help-write/
   Why update? Pure GPT-3-era experimentation. Perfect opportunity to contrast 2022 capabilities with today’s multimodal models and show how your own AI-assisted writing process has matured.
4. LLMs = Dream Machines (December 11, 2023)
   https://sjl.us/2023/12/11/llms-dream-machines/
   Why update? References to early hallucination discussions and Andrej Karpathy’s tweet feel historic now. Update with current “dream machine” examples and how you use LLMs in 2026.
5. Crafting Effective Prompts for Your AI Assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Bard, etc.) (September 9, 2023)
   https://sjl.us/2023/09/09/crafting-effective-prompts-for-your-ai-assistant-claude-chatgpt-bard-etc/
   Why update? Another core prompting/PKM-adjacent piece from the explosion period. Pair it with the multi-step post for a nice “2023 vs 2026 Prompting Guide” refresh.

High Priority (Worth updating — clear value-add)

6. An AI Thanksgiving (November 22, 2022)
   https://sjl.us/2022/11/22/an-ai-thanksgiving/
   Why update? Fun GPT-3 + DALL·E experiment. Readers would love a 2026 “then and now” version with newer models/image generators.
7. Hacking Creativity with AI (August 22, 2023)
   https://sjl.us/2023/08/22/hacking-creativity-with-ai/
   Why update? Early chatbot creativity techniques; the creative workflow space has exploded since then.
8. On the Minimum Viable Environment (MVE) and Apple’s Vision Pro (July 1, 2023)
   https://sjl.us/2023/07/01/on-the-minimum-viable-environment-mve-and-apples-vision-pro/
   Why update? Pre-launch speculation. Vision Pro shipped in 2024 — you can now add real-world usage, ecosystem updates, and whether MVE thinking held up.
9. Drafts – a tool for idea capture (April 16, 2022)
   https://sjl.us/2022/04/16/drafts-a-tool-for-idea-capture/
   Why update? The app was celebrating its 10th anniversary then; it’s now 14+ years old with major feature/UI changes. Your long-term usage makes this a great “then vs now” post.

Medium Priority (Nice-to-have updates if you have time)

10. Reading Books in 2022 (May 11, 2022)
    https://sjl.us/2022/05/11/how-im-reading-books/
    Why consider? Kindle/app habits and highlighting workflows have evolved; easy to refresh with current tools and your 2026 reading volume.

Other notable 2023 AI-adjacent posts (e.g., NotebookLM deep-dive from Dec 2023, Explorations of PKM from Oct 2023) would slot in here if you want to do a broader “AI/PKM 2023 Retrospective” series.

Lower Priority / Probably Leave As-Is

• Photography series (e.g., “Capturing the Art in Everyday Scenes,” Paris posts, “Redwood Circle,” etc.) → Timeless and visual; they hold up well.
• History/personal essays (e.g., “Ode to a Queen,” “The World’s Most Beautiful Freeway,” “Remembering Blue Chip Stamps,” “Old Man Walking,” 2021 book recs, “Stuck in Neutral”) → Evergreen or emotionally resonant; updating could dilute their original voice unless you have new material.
• Holiday/personal posts (e.g., Thanksgiving 2023, Merry Christmas 2021) → Fine as snapshots in time.

Quick recommendation on approach: Start with the top 5 (they form a nice cluster around AI prompting/PKM). Updating them together would create a strong “2023 AI Reflections – Revisited in 2026” section or category on the blog. Many of these posts already reference each other, so cross-linking updated versions would be powerful.

If you’d like me to pull full content from any specific post, draft sample update language, suggest new sections, or help with images/AI-assisted rewrites, just let me know! Your blog has a great reflective voice — these updates would keep it feeling current without losing that personal touch.