You're not too old for AI.
You're just starting from a different place.
I'm Annette. I founded adoption.com in 1995, raised seven kids, ran orphanages on three continents, and walked away from tech for two decades. I came back at 54. I'm building software again at 57 — out loud, in real time, with my AI collaborator named Charlie at my side.
This newsletter is for women like us. The ones who keep hearing about AI and quietly suspect the train left without them. It didn't.
// No spam. No tech-bro chest-thumping. Just a peer showing her work.
"I'm an app developer at 57. That's the win — not the code, the identity. If I can do this, you can. And I want to make sure you do."
— Annette Thompson
What we're reading this week
Change This Default in Claude Code
Or Your AI Will Develop a Split Personality
I named my AI "Charlie" in one project. Two hours later, Charlie in another project had no idea who I was. Here is the three-rule fix.
Read the issue →How I Got Started With AI at 54
Or: how an inheritance, a dead aunt, and 300 dog rescues led me here
I was not in the AI space. I was trying to rank a dog-rescue website. Then a draft article took ninety seconds. Here is what I learned.
Read the issue →Most AI writing isn't for you. This is.
It's a collaboration skill, not a tech skill. If you've ever managed a green intern, raised a kid, or run a team — you already have the hard part.
The tools want you to succeed. This is not the 1990s computer that punished a typo. The tools are kinder now. Genuinely.
Your life experience is the unfair advantage. Younger users are faster at prompting and worse at knowing whether the answer is any good. Fifty years on this planet teaches you that.
The time you save is real. Three additional workdays per week, for the rest of your life, as a gift. That's the actual deal.
Get the next issue in your inbox.
Tuesday mornings. Real things I'm doing with AI this week — what worked, what broke, what I learned. No fluff. No "the future of work."
// Unsubscribe any time. I'd rather you stay because you want to.