April 6, 2026
Is OpenClaw worth it?
Over the past few days, several colleagues have reached out to pick my brain about OpenClaw.
They ask me things like:
- How long does it take to get set up?
- How much does it cost to run?
- What am I doing with regard to security?
- What are my most killer use cases?
- How technically savvy do you need to be to use it?
- Why did I go with OC vs other options?
Basically, they want to know if they’ll get a positive ROI from jumping on the OpenClaw bandwagon, or if they’ll end up wasting a lot of resources on a fancy new toy that doesn’t really save them any time or money.
On every one of these calls, I find it surprisingly difficult to explain why OC blows my mind.
It usually goes like something like this:
Them: “What’s an example of something you’re using OC for?”
Me: “One thing is, I have it post-process my podcast episodes.”
Then: “Like what sorts of stuff does it do?”
Me: “It downloads the audio, transcribes it, adds chapters to the transcript and the mp3, and publishes the mp3 to my podcast feed.”
Them: “Couldn’t you just do that with Zoom and Zapier?”
Me: “I guess, but it’s way easier with OC.”
Them: “Okay, but... easier how?”
And this is where I typically get stuck. As it turns out, it’s pretty hard to explain exactly why OC is way easier.
I’ve given it some thought, and I think it’s because what OC does really well is to remove hundreds of “microsteps” from every process.
Most of them are so small, they’re almost invisible. And therefore, difficult to point out when I’m describing use-cases to someone at a high level.
For example, take a look at my post-interview SOP for my podcast:
- Download the audio files from Riverside
- Do simple audio corrections and edits
- Upload the mp3 to Transistor and publish it
- Write a daily email to announce the episode
- Forward the email to the guest
Pretty simple, right?
Now, here it is again with a small fraction of the actual microsteps:
- Download the audio files from Riverside
- Click over to the Recording tab
- Scroll down to the first track
- Click on the Download dropdown
- Choose Raw Audio
- Scroll down to the next track
- Click on the Download dropdown
- Choose Raw Audio
- Wait for the files to finish downloading
- Hide the browser window
- Do simple audio corrections and edits
- Command-Space to open the Mac app switcher
- Type “Aud” in the search bar
- Click on Audacity in the dropdown
- Close the Audacity splash screen
- Command-I to pull up the Import File dialog box
- Browse to the audio files on the Desktop
- Select both files
- Click the Open button
- Command-A to select all of both tracks
- Click on the Effect dropdown menu
- Hover over the Special option
- Click on Truncate Silence in the flyout menu
- Double-click the first track to select it
- Click on Level Speech
- Double-click the second track to select it
- Click on Level Speech
- Double-click the first track to select it
- Click on Level Speech
- Double-click the second track to select it
- Click on Level Speech
- Command-1 to Zoom in
- Command-J to go to the start of both tracks
- Click and drag across both tracks to select any pre-show banter
- Command-X to delete the selected portion of both tracks
- etc...
Hopefully, you get the idea because I definitely don’t want to type up the rest LOL!
The point is...
OpenClaw removes all the microsteps that live “between-the-lines” of your existing processes, so even though “I use it to post-process my podcast episodes” doesn’t sound like anything special, it feels completely different in practice.
It’s the difference between optimization and delegation.
Yours,
—J