Perry Sun

Having a personal subscription to an AI service is all the rage these days. So many of us these days are experimenting with, or relying heavily on AI for our everyday needs.

I feel the slight urgency to join the bandwagon and sign up for paid access to ChatGPT or Claude, so that I can get a lot more over what’s available with their free accounts. It’s an opportunity to learn more of how to use AI, and potentially gain valuable upskilling.

But here’s the problem. I’m already paying for several tech-related services, so the thought of tacking on another monthly expense is bothersome. Here are my ongoing subscriptions.

• Microsoft 365 Family, which already includes AI services through M365 Copilot.
• Adobe Creative Cloud, with Adobe Firefly for AI generation of graphics, images, videos, and audio.
• Cloudways for hosting my websites, and private email service through Rackspace.

Together, I’m paying a little over $60, including an awesome grandfathered deal with Adobe. That is not too bad. But tacking on an AI subscription would add close to an extra $20. That’s also not counting other tech-relevant subscriptions such as YouTube Premium, which I frequently use as a tech learning resource.

Between ChatGPT and Claude, I’m more interested in the latter, because Claude Design and Claude Code seem rather intriguing to explore further. I also get the impression that Claude is better with hooking into MCPs for third-party platforms such as WordPress and Adobe Creative Cloud. I’m not sure about MCP access, but Claude Design and Claude Code definitely require the paid subscription.

My iPhone is approaching its final monthly installment, which should free up about $13 monthly. That would make it a lot easier to cover the $17 per month for Claude (on a yearly basis).

Every year, around mid-July is when I devote some time to update aspects of my personal brand.

This year, that happened a bit later, at the beginning of August, due to distractions from the FIFA World Cup which dominated much of July. Nonetheless, I always make this a yearly ritual to make sure my online presence is up to date.

Here are the things I did to keep up visual appearances, at least from a professional perspective.

• First, I reviewed my online resumé / CV, making any and all tweaks or updates I deem worthy. For 2026, a significant expansion was necessary, due to the fact that I had started a new job nearly a year ago and hadn’t yet documented it.
• Then, I modified the PDF version of the resumé. The PDF is available on my website as a download for printing or whatever.
• Finally, I applied all the same CV updates to my LinkedIn profile.
• As a “bonus,” I fully refreshed my Indeed profile, after not visiting it for several years. Actually, I had forgotten I even had an Indeed profile, until they recently contacted me out of the blue.

Sometimes I’ll go even further than a CV update, reviewing my website in general, and looking over my portfolio to see if there’s anything new worth adding, or even removing if I no longer find it valuable to showcase.

Regardless of whether you have an professional online presence, there are several important reasons to keep your resumé or CV up to date. First, it’s a great opportunity to take stock in what you’ve accomplished, as well as skills and capabilities you’ve gained, and have those properly documented. And then, should anything major happen with your career, like a job separation, you’re ready to take the necessary steps right away.

Finally, having a resumé refreshed and current also puts you in prime position to respond immediately, should someone contact you about a career opportunity that seems exciting.

Good interpersonal communication is always very important, especially in business or professional-relevant situations. As someone who constantly strives to improve, I’ve thought a lot of about the ways I can do better when speaking to others in a non-casual setting.

Here are some things on my mind along these lines.

“A bit” or “a little”

Despite wanting to express our true sentiments, we often inject “a bit” or “a little” because of the concern of being too abrupt or impactful with what we’re saying. I’ve decided now that unless there’s an important reason otherwise, I should be able to just express sentiments without the need to minimize them. For example, if I truly believe a draft of an article is really rough, I should be able to state as such, without saying “it’s a bit rough” to soften the blow.

“Leaning into”

The phrase “leaning into” something is used so often, to the point that it can be vague in its true underlying meaning. I would prefer to be more exact with what I want to say. For example, instead of saying that I should “lean more into” Claude Code, I’d prefer something like “engage more actively with.”

“That’s a very good question.”

A phrase used so excessively as to lose its effectiveness and intention. You should only use it to acknowledge someone’s astuteness in asking you a very specific question. And never, ever, say this in a job interview unless you really mean it. Don’t use it to try and make yourself look good.

Making the same point repeatedly

Admittedly, this is on me. Sometime I’ll say something emphatically, to make a point, then reflexively repeat it over and over again in the course of a conversation. Recently, I’ve wondered if I have ever annoyed anyone by doing so. As a result, I’ve become more conscientious and now try to avoid needlessly repeating what I say.