When the shit literally hit the fan, when I found myself in the middle of a home maintenance dustup the likes of which I’d never dealt with before, I turned to Claude, the thinking partner I knew would be at my side throughout the situation.

I just didn’t count on the tears.

Here’s a quick story about how I used Claude from Anthropic to get me through today’s whirlwind. It may help you if you find yourself in a similar position: needing to manage something brand new to you which many other people deal with every week.

From Bad to Worse

What started as a clogged shower drain quickly spiraled into much more than that on a Sunday morning in March. I thought I’d dealt with the situation in the second-floor bathroom before I got dressed and walked downstairs to find sewage water raining out of two ceiling light fixtures and a crack in the ceiling.

I put in an emergency call to the plumber, dealt as best I could with the mess, then stood back and assessed.

My kitchen looked like a disaster area. Water continued to drop from the ceiling. I did not have the slightest clue where to go next.

So I opened Claude, and typed one simple prompt:

Dealing with a plumbing issue at my house. Plumbers are being dispatched. Help me think through how to handle home insurance claim. When should I consider. When should I notify the insurance company.

It stepped through some simple things to consider, then asked the extent of the issue. I described it in as much detail as I could, and it steered me.

Document everything. Pictures and videos.

How to mediate any potential hazards. Be smart. Be safe.

And contact the insurance company right away. Get moving.

Claude nudging me into motion proved be the spark I needed. Standing in my kitchen, a mess the scope of which I had never experienced before, its simple, straightforward responses got me from vapor lock to putting one action in front of another.

Processing Through It

Plumber showed up and did all they could. My girlfriend arrived, helped as much as she could, and commiserated.

And then I started to think about what had happened, what would happen next, what the cost may be, etcetera.

Sitting at the dining room table, continuing to chat with Claude, I felt all the emotions of the morning well up. I sat there, dictating a response to a chatbot, crying.

Feeling emotions is a natural human thing. I typically shunt them aside and focus on action, but in the middle of all that happened today, I let myself feel it all.

In the middle of that, at the end of a long response, Claude ended with this:

How are you holding up emotionally right now?

I know generative artificial intelligence can not feel empathy, but that response was thee most empathetic thing it could have said at that moment. It was certainly what I needed to hear, and it likely helped validate everything which was swirling around my head just then.

For me, today Claude was solid gold.

It, or ChatGPT or Gemini or another large language model can play the same role for you if you need it to.

If Something Like This Happens To You

I typically end my posts with call to action one or two of my services. Today instead, here are a few ways you can lean on the AI if you find yourself in a similar bind.

1. Describe the situation in as much detail as possible and ask for suggestions or things you may consider. AI is most effective when used as a thinking partner and not an answer machine.
2. Remember AI may make up information in its responses. Always validate and check outputs before taking a final, definitive action. I put more stock in the professionals who responded today than what Claude suggested about the issue, and I relied on their recommendations to make decisions about how to proceed.
3. Keep it updated on progress if possible. Let it know what the professionals say and how you’re thinking about it. AI can identify logic gaps or things you’re not considering.

All three of those came into play for me today when faced with a unique turn of events. And even though the situation was something I’d never dealt with before, in a few hours, thanks in part to Claude, I worked my way through a tangled mess.

I have a bumpy road ahead of me. Necessary home repairs, working with my insurance company, etcetera. The coming days will be chockablock with hard choices,

But in the midst of today’s crisis, having an always-on sidekick in my pocket felt like exactly the help I needed at the time.