Made by a Human

I'm obsessed with nature sound recording. If I am lucky enough to do it every day until I die. That would be a great life.
Organizing principle – I aim to make the best nature sound libraries in the world, for use by the best artists in the world.
I go on recording expeditions to record the sounds of the natural world
I recorded all sounds sold on thomasrexbeverly.com. They are real sounds recorded in the natural world.
All photos and video on thomasrexbeverly.com are real and were shot in the natural world. I shoot the footage myself, or I have a human assistant.
I do all my own audio, photo, and video editing. You are paying for my curation, mastering, and 10+ years of experience recording nature in the field.
I do all the writing for my website, blog posts, and social media. I don’t generate writing or do editing with an LLM.
I write the metadata for my sound libraries.
I do not use AI tools to create voiceover that sounds like me. All dialogue recorded on my videos and podcasts is my voice.
If you email me, I respond.

I'm not a total luddite about Artificial Intelligence. Here are a few examples of what I use:

I often use LLMs as a replacement for search
I run deep research queries to find human experts or books to read on a topic I'd like to research. Then I buy the book or offer to pay the human experts to teach me for a lesson. For example, having a 60 minute video call with a humpback whale researcher (that has 30 years of field experience).
If I have an AI teach me something, I tell it to be a Socratic tutor. Then it can teach you, without doing the thinking for you.
If I use an AI, I use one of these models: Claude, Grok, Gemini, or ChatGPT
I use LLMs to proof my Soundminer sound library metadata. I do this at the end of my sound library workflow to look for inconsistencies and errors, like an advanced spell check. However, I don’t use the LLM to write the metadata.
I use LLMs for early rounds of legal contract drafting and proofing. Then I pay my lawyer for final reviews and edits.
I use AI for technical support on all sorts of technology issues. This is very helpful to me as a solo entrepreneur.
I use BirdNET from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for identification of birds in my drop-rig recordings.
I use the Merlin Bird ID iPhone app to do live identification of birds in the field.
I use the iNaturalist iPhone app to do live identification of plants in the field.

I do these things to disconnect from technology:

I often leave my iPhone at home when I go outside
I do not have email on my iPhone
I do not have social media on my iPhone
I do not like vertical, short-form video. It is junk food for the mind. I avoid it whenever possible.
I do not have AI apps (like ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, or Claude) on my iPhone. This creates friction so that I you don’t turn to the AI constantly.
If I think of something I want to learn more about, I write it in a paper notebook that I keep in my pocket at all times. Then I do the research on my laptop the next day.
I do not check LLMs, social media, or email on recording expeditions.
I love reading paper books
I love listening to 2+ hour long-form podcasts
I love hiking and listening to audiobooks
I fight the influence of algorithms (recommending shit to me) anywhere in my digital life. Instead I seek out human experts that are the best in their field, and talk to them.