AI & I

Seth-Stephens Davidowitz wrote a book in 30 days—and he did it with ChatGPT.Seth is a data scientist, economist, and author who challenged himself to write a book—Who Makes the NBA?—in less than 1 month after realizing how fast he could work by using ChatGPT plugin Advanced Data Analysis. But along the way he discovered something else: Writing with AI wasn’t just faster, it was also way more fun. Seth outsourced the boring parts of data analysis—like cleaning data, merging files, and looking up code snippets—to AI. This left him to focus on what he loves: thinking up questions to ask the dataset.In a world where AI can answer any question humans know the answer to, asking the right questions is becoming increasingly important—a skill Seth isn’t just really good at, but also finds joy in. In this episode, Seth walks me through how he used AI to analyze data and write a book in 30 days. We get into:- How to create and edit complex charts with AI in seconds- Using ChatGPT to brainstorm creative ideas - How AI is redefining who can be an artist - Why ChatGPT is an excellent tool to get a quick ballpark estimate- Developing a sixth sense about when ChatGPT is wrong- The power of AI instantly answering hard questions that would normally take months of research We also use ChatGPT to analyze a dataset of Olympic athletes live on the show—in pursuit of finding out which sport I’m best suited for!This episode is a must-watch for anyone curious about data science and how AI is transforming the future of creativity (or who is just a fan of the NBA).If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it ⁠here for free⁠. To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to ⁠Every ⁠Follow him on ⁠X⁠Links to resources mentioned in the episode:Seth Stephens-Davidowitz: ⁠https://twitter.com/SethS_D⁠ ⁠http://sethsd.com⁠Seth’s books: ⁠Who Makes the NBA?⁠ , ⁠Everybody Lies ⁠ and ⁠Don’t Trust Your Gut

Nicholas Thorne is building Squarespace for the AI age. It’s called Audos, and it’s an AI chatbot to help any entrepreneur go from idea to:- Pitch deck- Working website- Custom GPT- User interviews with real customers All in just a few minutes. And he did it using ChatGPTapp. It’s AI all the way down—and it’s one of the most impressive AI businesses I’ve ever seen.Nicholas is a general partner at Prehype, an incubator that launched Barkbox and Ro Health. It’s also where I started Every, so it was great to come full circle.Nicholas’s job at Prehype is to launch new companies. He’s taken everything he’s learned running an incubator and used it to help entrepreneurs start businesses at scale—with AI.As we talk, Nicholas walks me through the interactions of Audos’s chatbot with a user live on the show. Nicholas tells me that he used ChatGPT to prototype most of Audos’s features—despite being non-technical himself. He shares exactly how he did this by showing me how he’s using AI to create a new feature for the product.We get into:- Ways AI can make you a more effective founder- How to use ChatGPT to build your prototype- Strategies to refine problem statements with AI- Using GPTs to gather and synthesize customer feedbackThis episode is a must-watch for anyone who has ever toyed with the idea of starting a business—and wants to do it with AI.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ⁠ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT⁠. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgptTo hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: ⁠https://every.to/subscribe⁠ Follow him on X: ⁠https://twitter.com/danshipper⁠ Timestamps:00:00:00 - Teaser00:00:48 - Introduction00:12:10 - How AI can make you a more effective founder00:17:03 - Live demo of Audos! 00:24:07 - Why Nicholas built an AI tool to enable entrepreneurs00:25:35 - How Audos puts you in “edit mode” instead of “create mode”00:28:12 - Tools to gather customer feedback, generated by Audos00:32:58 - How Audos actually works00:35:07 - Nicholas uses ChatGPT to prototype a new feature00:42:37 - How to establish checks and balances while using ChatGPT00:57:20 - AI as a force for pushing entrepreneurship to new heightsLinks to resources mentioned in the episode:Nicholas Thorne: ⁠@thorneny⁠; ⁠[email protected]⁠ Audos: ⁠https://www.audos.com/⁠Nicholas’s book, Me, My Customer, and AI, is slated to publish next month. Follow him on X for updates: https://mmcai.super.site/

Antidepressants changed my life.I have OCD and antidepressants did what nearly a decade of therapy, meditation, and supplements couldn’t: they allowed me to live my life without being in a 24/7 spiral. (Bonus: they actually made therapy and meditation far more helpful once they started to work.) I think antidepressants are seriously misunderstood. Yes, they blunt negative emotions. But they also operate on personality and sense of self: they can make you bolder, less sensitive to failure, and less risk-averse.In short: they are a technology that changes how we see ourselves and the world.That’s why I invited Dr. Peter D. Kramer on my show. Dr. Kramer is a psychiatrist and the author of eight books, including Listening to Prozac, which is an international bestseller. He has practiced psychiatry and taught psychotherapy at Brown University for nearly four decades.Listening To Prozac is one of my favorite books, and it documents Dr. Kramer’s experiences as a psychiatrist seeing how antidepressants like Prozac changed his patients’ sense of self and personality.Now, you might be wondering why have him on a show about ChatGPT? Well, technology can change who we are even if it comes as a software product rather than a pill. It’s undoubtedly true that as generations of humans learn to live with AI, it will change what it means to be human—and how we see ourselves and the world. I think that can be a good thing, but it could also be scary.I wanted to talk to Dr. Kramer about his book, and see if we could apply some of his insights in Prozac to ChatGPT. It was an incredible conversation, and I was honored to talk to him.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper To learn more about the topics in this episode:Listening to Prozac by Peter D. KramerChatGPT and the Future of the Human Mind by Dan ShipperSSRIs by Scott AlexanderLinks to resources mentioned in the episode:Dr. Peter D. Kramer: https://twitter.com/PeterDKramer ChatGPT and the Future of the Human Mind by Dan Shipper: https://every.to/chain-of-thought/chatgpt-and-the-future-of-the-human-mind Listening to Prozac by Dr. Kramer: https://www.amazon.com/Listening-Prozac-Landmark-Antidepressants-Remaking/dp/0140266712 Should You Leave? by Dr. Kramer: https://www.amazon.com/Should-You-Leave-Psychiatrist-Autonomy/dp/0140272798 Against Depression by Dr. Kramer: https://www.amazon.com/Against-Depression-Peter-D-Kramer/dp/0143036963 Ordinarily Well by Dr. Kramer: https://www.amazon.com/Ordinarily-Well-Antidepressants-Peter-Kramer/dp/0374536961 Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote by Jorge Luis Borges: https://raley.english.ucsb.edu/wp-content/Engl10/Pierre-Menard.pdf The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder: https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316491977 Making Hay by Verlyn Klinkenborg: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Hay-Verlyn-Klinkenborg/dp/0941130185 Oranges by John McPhee: https://www.amazon.com/Oranges-John-McPhee/dp/0374512973

You can build and run a one-person internet business that earns half a million in annual revenue—with AI. Ben Tossell showed me exactly how in this episode. Ben is the founder of Ben’s Bites—one of the best daily AI newsletters out there, which I love reading every day—and an investor in a number of promising early-stage AI startups. Ben is also an experienced founder whose no-code platform Makerpad was acquired by Zapier. I think Ben is really good at starting profitable internet businesses that are sneakily big, but don’t require too many resources. Over the last couple of years, he’s assembled a war chest of AI tools including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Lex, and Supernormal to help him do this. In this episode, we get into the weeds of how Ben has integrated AI into his workflow to find new business opportunities, run them well, and evaluate their performance. We get into: - How to use ChatGPT as a business strategist- Building your MVP with ChatGPT- Turning interview transcripts into compelling articles - Analyzing business data using AI tools- How to generate persuasive landing page copy with ChatGPT- Offload time-consuming tasks to AIThis episode is a must-watch for anyone who is curious about using AI to bootstrap a profitable internet business. Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Links to resources mentioned in the episode:- Ben Tossell: https://twitter.com/bentossell

I made the greatest trade of my life with Jesse Beyroutey in 2019. We bought Nvidia shares when they were trading at $33. They’re worth nearly $800 today.I sat down with Jesse to top that trade in 90 minutes using Gemini Pro 1.5’s incredible 1 million token context window—and make a $1,000 trade live on the show. Jesse is a managing partner at IA Ventures, a $600 million venture fund with seed investments in companies like Wise and Digital Ocean. He’s also a very close friend and one of the smartest people I know. We unpack our investment thesis for our Nvidia trade and leverage the power of Gemini Pro 1.5 and ChatGPT to orchestrate what we hope will be the best trade of our lives. We put our money where our mouth is and make a $1,000 trade while the cameras are still rolling.There’s a plot twist at the end of this episode—so stick around to see the epilogue Jesse and I recorded just days after we made our investment.We get into:How Jesse leverages LLMs to get nuanced answers to his questionsWays to find patterns in large swaths of data using Gemini Pro 1.5 Gemini Pro 1.5 and ChatGPT going head-to-headHow Gemini Pro 1.5 can be used to understand the stock marketWhy it’s important to consistently refine your search queriesWhat Jesse thinks are the new big opportunities enabled by LLMsThis is not investment advice, but it’s a must-watch for anyone who wants to leverage the power of AI to make smarter financial decisions.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ⁠ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT⁠. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: ⁠https://every.to/subscribe⁠ Follow him on X: ⁠https://twitter.com/danshipper⁠ Links to resources mentioned in the episode:⁠Follow Jesse BeyrouteyNathan Labenz’s podcast, The Cognitive Revolution

You can break into Hollywood with a movie you made alone in your room without using a single camera. Dave Clark showed me how live on this show.Dave Clark is a film director and commercial director with experience working with brands like HP and Intel who is now experimenting with cutting-edge AI technology. He recently produced a popular sci-fi short Borrowing Time, which has over 110,000 views on X and was mentioned in Forbes. Dave made this film only using AI tools like Midjourney, text-to-video model Runway, and generative voice AI platform ElevenLabs. Dave told me that he couldn’t have made Borrowing Time without AI—it’s an expensive project that traditional Hollywood studios would never bankroll. But after Dave’s short went viral, major production houses approached him to make it a full-length movie. I think this is an excellent example of how AI is changing the art of filmmaking, and I came out of this interview convinced that we are on the brink of a new creative age.We dive deep into the world of AI tools for image and video generation, discussing how aspiring filmmakers can use them to validate their ideas, and potentially even secure funding if they get traction. Dave walks me through how he has integrated AI into his movie-making process, and as we talk, we make a short film featuring Nicolas Cage using a haunted roulette ball to resurrect his dead movie career, live on the show.This episode is a must-watch for creative people interested in bringing their stories to life, movie buffs, and anyone curious about the future of creativity.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Links to resources mentioned in the episode:Follow Dave ClarkBorrowing Time, Dave’s viral sci-fi shortForbes article that mentions Borrowing TimeDan’s article on how AI is changing filmmakingNathan Labenz’s podcast, The Cognitive Revolution

Are you a curious person with a lot of ideas and little time? Anne-Laure Le Cunff can show you how to do it all. Anne-Laure is the founder of one of my favorite internet communities for curious minds, Ness Labs, a prolific writer, and a neuroscience PhD candidate. She’s also writing a book, Liminal Minds, that’ll be out later this year.And she said that the reason she can run a business, write a book, and do a PhD all at the same time is ChatGPT.Anne-Laure is one of the busiest people I know, and in this episode we dive into how she uses ChatGPT to get everything done.We get into:- How to use ChatGPT to be more efficient- Tips to break down research papers into digestible insights- How she leverages ChatGPT to revamp her YouTube thumbnails- Tips on using ChatGPT to write prolific articles- Doing deep research on the internet using ChatGPT - How to use ChatGPT to generate advice tailored for your needs- How to surface useful insights from your journal using ChatGPTThis is a must-watch for curious, creative people who want to get more done.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it ⁠here for free⁠.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to ⁠Every⁠Follow him on ⁠X⁠Links to resources mentioned in the episode:⁠Anne-Laure Le Cunff⁠⁠Anne-Laure following ChatGPT’s recipe to make an obscure Algerian cheese ⁠⁠Anne-Laure’s meditation journal⁠⁠Nathan Labenz’s podcast, The Cognitive Revolution

The next big idea is hiding in plain sight. It’s right here, scattered across the internet in incoherent fragments. Steph Smith, my guest for this episode, knows how to connect the dots. Steph Smith is a prolific online creator, host of the a16Z podcast, author of a book about building a successful blog called Doing Content Right, and creator of Internet Pipes, a toolkit to surface useful insights on the internet. I sat down with Steph to explore the internet through her eyes. I discover the method behind her uncanny knack of spotting emerging trends. Steph also reveals the internet’s most underrated advantage: validating business ideas cheaply and quickly. As we talk, I pitch Steph two businesses, and we use an arsenal of tools and strategies to vet them live on the show. This episode is a must-watch for anyone who spends time online and wants to create useful, fun things. Here’s a taste:If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Links to resources mentioned in the episode:Steph Smith: https://twitter.com/stephsmithioInternet Pipes: https://internetpipes.com/ Doing Content Right: https://doingcontentright.com/#features Steph's database of untranslatable words: https://eunoia.world/ Neal Agarwal: http://neal.funKeywords Everywhere: https://keywordseverywhere.com/ Reddit tools: https://anvaka.github.io/sayit/?query=, https://gummysearch.com/ SEO tools for market analysis: https://www.similarweb.com/, https://www.junglescout.com/, https://answerthepublic.com/

You can make a video game without writing a single line of code. Logan Kilpatrick uses ChatGPT to show me how.Logan is OpenAI’s first developer relations and advocacy hire. A big part of Logan’s job is supporting the community of builders using ChatGPT, DALL-E, and the OpenAI API. He’s also deeply invested in growing this community, convinced that AI tools can enable more people to build. To prove this point, Logan and I build a video game live on the show. We use GPT Builder and ChatGPT to create Allocator, a text-based strategy game where players step into the shoes of a historical U.S. president and are tasked with managing the government’s budget. We have an awesome time iterating it all the way from rough idea to functional video game in less than one hour—without any coding. This is a must-watch for anyone who wants to bring their creative ideas to life.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Links to resources mentioned in the episode:Our video game, Allocator: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-oooxUbOkj-allocator

Dr. Gena Gorlin (https://twitter.com/Gena_I_Gorlin) is a clinical psychologist at UT Austin whose goal is to raise the ceiling on human potential. I sat down with her to discuss how ChatGPT has become a key tool in her quest for radical self-betterment.In this episode, she feeds ChatGPT a list of her old journal entries, and it conducts the most thorough and insightful annual review and goal-setting session you’ve ever seen. We watch as ChatGPT writes a year-by-year personal biography of her life, helps her set goals for 2024, and points out blindspots she might’ve missed.It’s a mind-bending example of how ChatGPT can unlock your potential.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want more?Dan is running a course with Dr. Gorlin called Maximize Your Mind With ChatGPT. It’s a four-week cohort-based course marrying the cutting edge of AI with the best of what psychology knows about how to reach your potential. Learn more: https://maxyourmind.xyzWant even more?Sign up for Dan’s newsletter Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Links to resources mentioned in the episode:Gena’s newsletter: https://builders.genagorlin.com/ In Defense of Radical Self-Betterment: https://every.to/p/in-defense-of-radical-self-betterment How to Use ChatGPT for Psychological Growth: https://every.to/p/how-to-use-chatgpt-for-psychological-growth

Tyler Cowen is an economist who has been thinking about the impact of technology on life, work, and the economy for the past decade. He is a prolific writer behind the leading economic blog Marginal Revolution, a professor of economics at George Mason University, and the author of 17 books. In this episode, I dive deep with him on how ChatGPT will change the economy, and how he uses it in his own life.We explore Tyler’s predictions about how AI will impact the economy, distilling decades of contemplation into insights. We watch him interact with ChatGPT and learn how he uses it as a universal translator when he travels, a reading companion, and a research tool. We also see him use Perplexity, and walk through how he fits the two tools together in his workflow. This is a must-watch for anyone who wants insights on adapting to the future of work. If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share. And sign up for Every to get our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Register for his course, Maximize Your Mind With ChatGPT: https://www.maxyourmind.xyz/

David Perell is one of the best known internet writers of his generation. He’s amassed almost a half million followers on X, hosts the popular podcast How I Write, and founded Write of Passage, which has taught thousands of students how to be digital writers.We go deep on using ChatGPT to: Doing deep reading of old booksFinding anecdotes that spreadBetter understanding your tasteFinding your heroesUnderstanding your blind spots as a leaderUnpacking the strategy of your businessIf you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share. Timestamps:Intro 00:53Finding and understanding his heroes 13:42Understanding his personality and leadership style 19:14Who does David work well with? 25:53Workshopping the New York Times’s business strategy 36:52Why ChatGPT is incredible at diversity, accessibility, and speed 52:54Bringing old books like Moby Dick to life with DALL-E 58:50Using ChatGPT for deep textual analysis 1:06:29ChatGPT for writing anecdotes that spread 1:21:04Conversations with ChatGPT as food and drink for the soul 1:25:55

This show might be a first in the history of podcasts:Researcher ⁠Geoffrey Litt⁠ and I built an app together using ChatGPTapp and Replit in under 60 minutes—while we talked.We wanted to show how AI and ChatGPT change who gets to build software and how they usher in a world where everyone can ⁠modify⁠ and ⁠remix⁠ the apps they use every day.So we did it live, and ChatGPT delivered a working prototype at the end of the episode.It was a tiny glimpse of the future—and it pushes the boundaries of what a show can be. It honestly left me speechless and it'll change the way you think about software. If it does, make sure to subscribe, share, and leave us a review!

Sometimes ChatGPT is a copilot, sitting beside you, taking directions, and guiding you as you fly through your work. At other times, it’s a subordinate. It’s not just an assistant or a companion, but a trusted deputy, someone—or something—that’ll heed instructions and complete tasks.This is how our guest, Nathan Labenz, thinks about ChatGPT. In this episode, Labenz—the founder of the AI video company Waymark and the host of his own podcast called The Cognitive Revolution—uses ChatGPT to write complex code in languages he’s unfamiliar with, saving days worth of time in the process.Just like machines replaced muscles during the Industrial Revolution, AI will one day replace brainpower. Maybe with ChatGPT, we can offload some of the drudgery of everyday work and focus on work that’s actually important.

TL;DR: Today we’re releasing a new episode of our podcast How Do You Use ChatGPT? I go in-depth with Notion research engineer Linus Lee on how he uses ChatGPT and Notion AI to maximize creative control. Watch on X, YouTube, or Spotify.You might think that being an AI researcher would mostly involve solving complicated programming problems and thinking through mathematical equations. Instead, a big part of the job is rewriting parts of your prompts in ALL CAPS in order to make sure the AI model you’re working with follows your directions. “All caps works!” Linus Lee told me in this interview. “If you look at OpenAI's system prompts for a lot of their tools, all caps works.”Linus is a research engineer at Notion who works on its AI team, prototyping new experiences, like a Q&A chatbot. He is a deep thinker who is obsessed with building AI that enables human creativity and agency. He came on the show to talk about how AI might augment our thinking, how he thinks about prompting to get the best results, and how he uses ChatGPT and Notion AI in his work and life.I first interviewed him a year ago, when he showed off dozens of AI prototypes he’d been building to try to understand the future of this technology. Our latest interview is a mixture of theory and practice. Linus talks about how the tools we use shape the work we can create and what the future of AI-driven interfaces might be. We watch him demo personal tools he’s built, like an AI chatbot that he communicates with over iMessage. And we peek over his shoulder to see his chats with ChatGPT to understand how he talks to it to get the best results.Here’s a taste of what we talk about. Read on for more analysis from me at the bottom.Using AI to maximize agency. Linus talks a lot about the ways our tools shape our agency as thinkers and creatives—and how AI might be used to enhance rather than reduce our agency.AI as a “thought calculator.” Linus borrows a phrase from the popular tech blogger Simon Willison to illustrate dueling points of view on the ultimate goal of AI: is it meant to be a simulacrum of humans or a “thought calculator,” a way to enhance human imagination and creativity?Personal prototypes he’s built. Linus regularly experiments with AI on the weekend. He shows us a chatbot he built that works over iMessage, and a new interface for image generators that gives him much better control over their output.Better prompting. We go over simple yet powerful techniques for getting the best answer out of AI models—like starting with general queries first, and repeatedly asking the model to answer the same question. Using AI for vibe checks. AI is great for reflecting the vibes of books, people, places—and even files on your computer. Linus talks about how he uses ChatGPT to get quick vibe checks that allow him to make decisions. Book recommendations. We pit ChatGPT head-to-head against Notion AI to see which can best capture our reading taste. And just when ChatGPT seems like it’s coming out on top, Linus makes a convincing case for Notion AI’s special skill set as an organizational tool that already knows how its users work. What do you use ChatGPT for? Have you found any interesting or surprising use cases? We want to hear from you—and we might even interview you. Reply here to talk to me!Miss an episode? Catch up on my recent conversations with writer Nat Eliason and Gumroad CEO Sahil Lavingia and learn how they use ChatGPT.

How Nat Eliason uses ChatGPT to write books: Nat Eliason is a shape-shifter. He’s a writer with a book deal from Random House, a crypto trader, a Roam Research aficionado, a marketer, a book podcaster, a parent, and a seed oil iconoclast. He's amassed thousands of newsletter subscribers, 70,000 followers on X, and 110,000 on TikTok. His secret weapon for all of his exploring? ChatGPT. Nat took me through why he uses it every day for his work and his life. In this interview we talk about using ChatGPT for: Identifying his taste in writing. He uses ChatGPT to help him identify the kind of writing he likes, so that he can produce more of it. Finding new books to read for inspiration. ChatGPT helps him find writers and books that he never would've encountered through Googling or in his daily life. Generating story outlines and character descriptions. He uses ChatGPT to help him outline the sci-fi novel he's writing and learn how to create vivid descriptions. Settling bar bets. Air in the atmosphere contains carbon—which can technically be converted into diamond. So, how much air would be required to make a diamond? It's the kind of thing you might argue about over drinks with a friend—and exactly the kind of question ChatGPT is built to answer. Reading the news. Nat doesn't read the news. But every once in a while he wants to know what's going on about a particular topic. ChatGPT is the perfect news summarizer. Generating recipes. Nat is a frequent chef. ChatGPT is his recipe companion: surfacing ideas, and easily modifying them based on what he has at hand and his family's dietary preferences.

About the show I believe that ChatGPT is the most important creative tool of the decade. I think it can help us write better, create art, efficiently ship products, build great businesses, make smart decisions, and even learn something about ourselves,. But it’s still so early. Most of us don’t even really know how to use ChatGPT. We have a feeling that it’s powerful, interesting, and important—but we haven’t figured out how to incorporate it into our lives. There are a few people, though, who are living in the future. They have the time and curiousity to use ChatGPT in their everyday lives, taking the opportunity to make the technology work for them. In this way, they light the way for everyone else. That’s what this interview series, How I Use ChatGPT, is all about. We go in-depth with the most interesting people in the world to learn concrete ways they are already using ChatGPT. It won’t be theoretical—or limited to audio: we’ll screen-share and see their actual prompts and responses, so you can see how ChatGPT helps them perform better at work and improve their lives—one conversation at a time. About this episode My first guest is Sahil Lavingia, the co-founder and CEO of Gumroad, one of the largest platforms for creators to sell their work online. He shared how he uses ChatGPT for: Buying a building. He wants to buy a New York City hangout for Gumroad employees and customers, so he asked ChatGPT to research the history of real estate in NYC, suggest which neighborhoods might be best to target, generate questions for brokers, and even detail what the design of a particular property might look like. Writing tweets. Sahil is a prolific Twitter/X user. He often uses ChatGPT to help him flesh out an idea. He says, “I [start] with a tweet, which is like a thesis, and then I just say, ‘Add three to four paragraphs to make the point compelling—also suggest more examples.’” We explore his precise process for using ChatGPT to help him brainstorm short tweets and longer essays in this episode. Pressure-testing ideas. For Sahil, ChatGPT is like upgrading his peripheral vision. It lets him see around the corners, ask better questions of himself and other people, and avoid poor decisions. He told me, “I think a lot of people sort of delude themselves into thinking they have [good ideas]… I think that one of the most useful things about [ChatGPT] is it focuses your research on what actually matters.” It’s the ultimate tool to help him think better. Also in this episode: how ChatGPT could have helped Sahil save $70 million, how he thinks it will improve the most-talented creatives, and why he thinks—in the age of AI—people have no excuse for not knowing the answer to something anymore. Timestamps: Intro 0:33 There’s no more excuse for not knowing anymore 2:00 He doesn’t spend as much time on bad ideas 2:50 How ChatGPT will make the top 1% of creative output better 6:15 How it turbocharges research 8:20 How he’s using ChatGPT to buy a building 11:00 How he uses ChatGPT to pressure-test ideas 17:43 How he uses DALL-E to help with interior design 20:50 How ChatGPT could have saved him $70 million 26:00 How he uses ChatGPT in his decision-making 29:50 How he uses ChatGPT for writing 38:00