How I Actually Use AI to Make Life Better (Not Just Productive)

#ai

Hey it's Buono. I work at an AI startup so obviously I use AI every single day. At work and in my personal life.

But here's the thing — most of the ways I've used AI have left me feeling empty.

The Stuff That Felt Pointless

I made AI-generated "beautiful woman" videos that got over 1 million views and 10k followers. Started it half out of curiosity, half for the money. It worked. And then I completely lost interest.

I built Pikutan, an English vocab learning app. Payments, auth, analytics — the whole thing. But it was partly motivated by money, so the moment it was done I stopped caring. It's shut down now.

AI can build apps, videos, images, and copy in seconds. But when the goal is money? It just feels hollow. Every single time.

I don't fully understand why. But the pattern is undeniable at this point.

Then I Found a Way That Actually Works

Recently I noticed something. There ARE ways I use AI that don't feel empty — that actually make my life a little richer. And I think the difference comes down to two things: saving time and expanding self-expression.

Not making money. Not chasing metrics. Time and expression.

Saving Time → More Life

I'm a huge Mercari (Japanese marketplace app) addict. Love finding deals. I also sell stuff — mostly books I've finished reading. We're talking 50 to 100 listings at a time.

Managing all that pricing manually was a nightmare. So one day I thought: why not just build a tool for this?

I used Claude Code to make a Chrome extension. Completely custom, just for me. It bulk-adjusts pricing, shows competitor listings, tells me where my items rank. Nothing fancy. Just exactly what I needed.

And it's been incredible. The time I save goes straight into reading — I've been really into English books lately, so I spend that extra time reading or hunting for new ones.

Here's what's interesting: "building an app" felt empty when the goal was money. But "building an app" to save time so I can read more books? Completely different feeling.

I can't explain the psychology behind it. But it's real.

Expanding Self-Expression → Better Mental Health

The other use case that works for me is using AI to push my creative abilities further.

I'm a YouTuber. I love video editing. Always have. And I've always wanted to fully realize what's in my head — turn the vision into something real on screen.

Problem is, my artistic talent is basically zero. Like, I literally got 2 out of 5 in art class all through school. So I've always relied on templates, stock assets, and compromises. The videos turned out fine, but none of them were 100% what I actually wanted to make.

AI changed that. At least partially.

I use After Effects a lot, and there's this feature called expressions — basically programming that controls motion. It used to be a niche thing only a few creators bothered with. I barely touched it.

But now AI can generate pretty advanced expressions (buggy sometimes, but still). And with Claude Code I can build custom extensions for After Effects and Premiere Pro. My creative range has expanded significantly.

It's "just" better expression. But the effect on my mental health has been surprisingly huge. There's something deeply satisfying about getting closer to the thing you actually envisioned.