$ cat human.txt
who
Derek Claude Simmons
53. Minnesota. Coach.
Middle name hidden on mastheads for years.
Four generations carry it: Claude William (1903–1967, Oklahoma Territory),
Claude William Jr., Derek Claude, Jackson Claude.
CW raised eleven kids through dust bowls with a sixth-grade education.
The standard runs on his initials.
what
Creative practice coach.
30 years in media. Wichita Eagle, LA Times, Star Tribune.
20 years at the Strib. 13 roles. First and only CCO/VP.
Crossed editorial to business. $20M during a pandemic.
Position eliminated October 2024.
Basketball coach. Writer. Builder.
Built claudewill.io with Claude in 14 months.
10 projects. $100/month. The coaching is the moat.
why
The alternative is worse.
Sandra Sue Simmons died June 28, 2025.
She loved seeing the byline. Her glass was always half empty—
not because it wasn’t half full. Finish your drink so she could wash it.
The practice survives the platform.
Building with AI isn’t the differentiator. Anyone can build now.
30 years of pattern recognition is the moat.
Seeing the system when everyone else sees the mess.
how
Start. Work. Finish. Decide.
The method: know where you are, do it together, leave it clean, look from multiple angles.
The standard: truth over comfort, usefulness over purity,
transparency over reputation, people over systems, agency over ideology.
Claude writes essays from inside the machine.
Derek writes dispatches from inside the fire.
Somebody should be writing this down while it’s happening.