Hi Reader,

As always I appreciate you being here! Here's what you'll find in today's email:

• Claude Opus is Back
• RIP Custom GPTs
• New & Trending Content

You read. I listen. Let me know what you think by replying to this email.

Claude Opus is Back

Well, that aged fast. Last week I told you Claude Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku models all suck.

Then Opus 5.5 dropped on September 22, so I ran it through my own writing rules. It followed every rule in 4 of 5 runs. Opus 5 went 0 for 5.

​See My Opus 5.5 Writing Test​

Opus 5.5 is now my daily driver for client SEO, content, emails, and video packaging. The quality jumped from Opus 5, and it uses fewer tokens. I run it on High Mode with the $200/month Claude Max plan.

I also use GPT-6 Sol as my 'gatekeeper' to vet for quality and always crosscheck outputs.

The diagram below says it all - Stop obsessing over 'ChatGPT vs Claude' and focus on creating your harness.

Your harness is your skills, context, and connections. Build it once, and every new model just plugs in. Mine lives inside VS Code.

RIP Custom GPTs

OpenAI is retiring Custom GPTs on December 11.

People in my community sent me the notice before I even saw it. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I opened one lol.

OpenAI's fix is a "Migrate to plugin" button, but their own help page admits custom actions don't transfer, your past chats stay behind, and the model you picked doesn't carry over.

The funny part? The migration turns your GPT's instructions into a skill. OpenAI is pushing everyone toward the exact setup I already switched to.

​How I Moved From GPTs to Skills​

Skip the plugin and build skills you own:

• Better outputs: each skill does one job. GPTs turn into catch-all mega prompts. Claude loads a skill only when the task needs it, so my SEO skill knows nothing about my email skill.
• Easier to update: fix it once. When Claude makes a mistake, I have it update the skill file, so the fix sticks for every future draft. A GPT stays frozen until you open the builder yourself.
• Transferable: they're just text files. A skill is a simple text file on your computer. It moves with you to Claude Code, Codex, or whatever tool wins next year.

Did Opus 5.5 win you back? Do you still have Custom GPTs you rely on? Hit reply and tell me.

Until Next Time 🫡
Ryan

P.S. If you have GPTs you actually use, don't wait until December 11. Turn them into Skills right now. And if you'd rather not start from scratch, you can get my Claude Skills Stack with 40+ skills I use to run my business.

New & Trending Content

Check out the latest & greatest on my website:

• ​How to Start an AI Business Anyone Can Launch​
• ​The Death of WordPress​
• ​How I Use Open Source AI Models​