How to Be a Smarter Reader in the Age of AI - Ep. 30 with Alex Wieckowski

[00:00] I'm sort of worried about whether or not books are going to be around in 100 years or whatever. Like, how do you feel about it? Books have been around for thousands of years, and that means they'll probably be around for another thousand years. But then on the other flip side, it's like technology is moving so fast. Like, who knows with, like, Neuralink, if you just, like, download a book into your brain, like, do you even need to read it? So I think books will be useful until, like, that point in time happens. [00:30] you [00:33] Alex, welcome to the show. [00:34] Thank you for having me, Dan. [00:36] So for people who don't know, you are the creator of Alex and Books, where you have over a million followers across different social media platforms who come to you for book recommendations, book reviews, reading tips, all that kind of stuff, which I love because I'm like a huge, huge book nerd, and I'm just really excited to have you. Yeah, so it's great to meet people that love reading books, so happy to talk about books and especially how we could use AI. [00:58] Let's do it. So like I got to start with like books like why do you like books so much? [01:04] uh it happened like during college where i first discovered like self-improvement books which was actually the book how to win friends and influence people i'm like wait wait a second you can learn social skills and like communication skills from a book especially one book that's almost 100 years old and that kind of just like blew my mind because i thought there were only textbooks fiction books and like poetry books so once i learned there's like this whole genre that could help you and like anything you want to learn about it's like well there's a lot of things i want to learn about a lot of things i want to improve on so let me read every single book i can out there

[01:34] in love with self-improvement books. I love that. Are you a physical book guy, Kindle book guy? What's your book reading stack? So I definitely use all three. I think each of them have their pros and cons, but I really love the physical books, just being able to disconnect from technology. I'm a content creator, so I'm on my laptop for hours a day. I'm on my phone for hours a day. So I like to just be able to take a book, a pen, and go to the park or go to the beach or something and just disconnect. [01:58] I love that. I'm a huge physical book guy. I just feel like with Kindle, I sometimes read it for things where I'm like doing a lot of research and I need to like page through books like really quick or something like that. But I feel like all the books have the same flavor, like the same taste because it's all just like on the Kindle. Whereas with the physical book, it just feels like it's its own experience because it has like a feel and it's got a cover image and, you know, the paper feels different, all that kind of stuff. And I just I love that. [02:28] of what you read because you kind of remember like oh that chapter was on left side of this page like halfway through the book versus on the kindle book everything's the same so it's hard to remember like oh where was that quote where's that lesson but with the physical book you kind of know where it is so it's easier to find that makes sense how do you feel like you're going to be a little bit [02:43] because i i love books all my friends make fun of me because like there's books like everywhere like all around my house like up up to the walls like in the kitchen like all that kind of stuff and um like how do you feel about the the future of books or like people's relationships relationship to reading like um i'm i'm sort of worried about whether like whether or not books are going to be

[03:08] you know, around in 100 years or whatever? Like, how do you feel about it? I think either they will be around. I mean, it's kind of like a, you know, simple answer. But you have like the Lindy aspect of it, where books have been around for thousands of years. And that means they'll probably be around for another thousand, you know, years. But then on the other, you know, flip side, it's like technology is moving so fast. Like, who knows with like Neuralink, if you just like download a book into your brain, like, do you even need to read it? So I think books will be useful until like that point in time. [03:38] you want to be a reader because there's a lot of pros to it. I feel you. No, I love it. I think they'll be around for a while. I'm just always interested, especially for people who are [03:46] creating content that's not necessarily book content, like how you think about books versus other types of content, all that kind of stuff. So the topic for today [03:56] is using AI to read. Can you give us like a sort of broad overview of like how you're using AI to read in your life? Yeah, so there's a lot of different ways to use it. I think we'll start with some of the simpler ways and then maybe get to the more advanced strategies later on. So one of the simplest ways to use AI is like, let's say there's a book you really enjoyed recently. So maybe name a book that you love in the past month or so. [04:21] I've been reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's series of sci-fi books. The one I'm currently reading is Children of Memory. But each book in the series is sort of like, the first book is about this race of intelligent spiders, and they meet humans, and that's kind of like, what happens when that happens? And the next book is about octopuses, intelligent octopuses, space-faring octopuses, and the third one is about crows.

[04:51] and what I really love about it is he's very good at thinking about okay how would like an alien intelligence work and then how would that layer up into like the society they build and the technology they use and specifically for for by aliens I mean like how would it work for like an actual human not human an actual animal intelligence that's like on earth like if we sort of evolved if they evolved and became like way more intelligent way more advanced so yeah it's a great book okay [05:21] this is a great way to use ai so if we were at a party and you mentioned that book i i don't read a lot of sci-fi books so i don't really know what it's about so i literally just go to bathroom open up chat gpt and be like hey can you summarize this book for me in like [redacted address] i could go back to you and have a conversation about like you know that book or like just you know be able to have you know hold a conversation with you so i think that's one way you can use ai so just use it as a way to summarize you know [05:44] a book that someone mentions so that way you have an understanding of like what they're interested in can we see that like how what would you use for that [05:50] uh, [05:50] So I would just type in the name of that book that you mentioned and ask, you know, for this specific case, I would ask Claude AI or ChatGPT and ask it like, can you summarize this book in 500 words? Let's do it. Let's see what we got. Okay. Go for it. [06:06] What was the name of the book again? Children of Memory. [06:09] Thank you. [06:11] Thank you.

[06:15] Thank you. [06:20] Oh, so this is interesting. So Cloud AI isn't able to summarize it. Let's see if we can use maybe chat GPT to get a summary. [06:31] Oh, and look at that. So chatgpt.com. [06:34] is able to tell you more about the book and Cloud AI. [06:37] Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, ChatGPT has that browse feature. So especially for books that are maybe like, [06:43] less popular or there's less stuff online, so it doesn't necessarily make it into the training data, ChatGPT is going to be a bit better at finding you the answer. [06:52] okay uh so for the prompt i just asked can you summarize children of memory in 500 words and then chat gpt uh gave a summary of the author and says uh it's the third book in this children of time series uh the novel continues the saga of humanity's struggle for survival and their interactions with the uplifted species in a richly imaginative space opera uh so like you mentioned earlier uh it talks about humanity's struggle for survival and this kind of species that's a lot more [07:22] summary and then it gives you a lot more information. [07:24] later down the line and what I really like is you could kind of ask it to maybe summarize the book in two senses or you could ask it to summarize you know the entire book in like two pages so you kind of have that spectrum of options that's really cool yeah what's next like after you do the summary like what do you what do you typically do? [07:39] um so in this case you know you really enjoy this book so let's try to find out uh what books might be similar to it so in this case i may ask uh chad gbt um

[07:50] Let's see, what was the question I'm sure? [07:52] Thank you. [07:56] Okay, so let's use this prompt. You know, I love children of memory. Could you recommend me a few books similar to... [08:10] Thank you. [08:16] Thank you. [08:21] Thank you. [08:24] Okay, so let's see what we get here. [08:27] I definitely so it looks like so we got blindsight the three body problem diaspora [08:32] Perdido. [08:33] or uh the broken earth embassy town that's really interesting so the i've read the three body problem i've never i've never heard a blind sight let's see this novel explores first contact with an alien species and delves into themes of consciousness identity [08:48] And the nature of intelligence that's actually quite interesting. I definitely I'd probably read that [08:54] Let's keep going so diaspora by Greg Egan. So Greg Egan. I happen to know like I've read one of his other books Who's the name is I'm blanking on by really like him as a writer? He's really good at conceptual sci-fi. This is like definitely on point and one of the things that I think is quite interesting about this is um is [09:11] Sometimes when you ask for book recommendations from ChatGPT, off the bat it can recommend pretty sort of cliche or books that are too popular. And so I often have to ask it to do off the beaten path type stuff. But these recommendations are really good. Yeah. When you were talking about the book earlier, the three-body problem came to mind. But that's the limit of my science fiction reading. So it's interesting to see that you agree with a few of the books on the recommendation list. Yeah.

[09:41] as like the you know the ultimate librarian so back in the day if you really enjoyed the book you might ask the librarian to give you a book recommendations because they probably the most well-read person you know yeah but now you have ai that's been able to like read through you know thousands or if not millions of books so you know it's a great way to find like your next book totally one of the things that that that also is kind of interesting for this i don't know if you push it in this direction but if if you before you ask it for recommendations if you type in something like um [10:09] Tell me the vibes of of Children of Memory. [10:13] Like, what is it about, what are the themes, what are the ideas? [10:19] I'm trying to figure out why I like it. [10:22] And... [10:29] Yeah, and if you do that, like chat GPT will often [10:33] say something that just like really puts its finger on like what you like about a [10:37] Book or a topic or whatever or kind of writing once you have that it's sort of like this cheat code where you can be like Okay, I want more of that specific kind of thing. It's really kind of like magic moment. So let's see what it said. So um [10:50] Exploration of post-human civilizations. The novel delves into the lives of post-human species and interactions as remnants of humanity. That's interesting. Memory and identity is another one. [10:59] Central to the story is the theme of memory and its impact on identity. [11:02] Survival and adaptation, blurring of technology and magic, interpersonal and interspecies relationships. I think this is pretty good. Philosophical and ethical questions, cosmic horror and hope. - That's interesting. - I haven't heard that theme before, yeah.

[11:18] Yeah, so it's a sort of powerful thing. Like, I'm kind of curious, like, for you, do you have a couple of, like, books you've read recently that you've liked? Like, maybe we could throw it in there and see if we can pull out your taste, too. [11:29] - Hmm. So I'm reading this Andrew Wilkinson's new book, "Never Enough: From Barista to Billionaire," but it's not out yet. So I don't think-- - Yeah, "Chap Triv" might not have enough about it. - Yeah. [11:44] Um... [11:45] Thank you. [11:46] I'm rereading $100 million offers. [11:50] So maybe we could use that book. Let's do it. Okay. [11:53] So let's ask, what are the themes of-- [11:57] I would say vibes. [11:59] because vibes is a bit broader. For some reason, ChatGPT likes vibes. [12:04] I would never think to use that word. Yeah. Because I'm talking to a robot, not a person. But I'm surprised it's able to understand what we mean by vibes. Yeah. [12:14] Thank you. [12:16] Thank you. [12:25] You want to read it out? [12:27] Yeah, so we have pragmatic and action oriented, which I would totally agree on. If you're reading nonfiction, you're reading because you want to solve a problem you're having. [12:34] So you want it to be useful and action oriented because you want to take action on it. High energy and motivational also would agree on because you don't want to read something dull. There's so many business books that like sure, the information might be great, but if it's portrayed in just like a boring

[12:50] like boring tone it's hard to like you know read it. [12:54] value centric I think that's also a great point like when I read a book I try to think what's the instance per page or wisdom per page and Alex Formozzi is one of those people where it's like every few sentences he drops like a knowledge bomb and it just makes you want to keep reading [13:08] data-driven analytical, [13:10] I would say another great point here because you don't want just anecdotal story where it's like, all right, here's what I did. But like here's, you know, data proving it or backing it up. So it's not just like wild claims. He actually has the data to like prove it. [13:24] Empowering and educational would also agree with that. [13:28] uh nonsense and direct um yeah that's another great point you don't want to read a book with a lot of fluff in it um you kind of want to [13:35] get to like the meat of the book or get to like the insights uh pretty quickly and i think he does a great job of that [13:41] Totally. One thing that I think is really interesting too is like, I actually, I also like, um, like, uh, like Alex Ramosi's business books and like, um, [13:50] I feel like I have a very diverse range of interests where I'm like, okay, like I'm into conceptual sci-fi. I really like poetry and I also really like salesy business books like Alex Hermosi or whatever. Like, what does that even mean? Like, what is my taste? And Chad Gbt is actually quite good at like finding the intersections. So if you say something like, both of these books are my favorite books. Can you help me like, [14:12] uh [14:14] Can you help explain what my taste in books is?

[14:22] That's interesting. So why do we enjoy was cosmic horror and hope and also action oriented nonfiction books? So let's see. [14:31] So this this might be more more of my taste since since you said you don't read a lot of sci-fi But it says complex and thought-provoking content. So I always love when chat GPT compliments me. I love complex thought-provoking content You appreciate books that challenge your thinking which is whether it's through deep philosophical questions and ethical dilemmas or through practical business strategies I like that practical and actionable. We got that. That's really good exploration of human and post human themes high energy and motivational tone That is kind of interesting. I think there's probably some sort of [15:01] energy overlap between Adrian Tchaikovsky and Alex Hermozzi, which I think is a sentence that no one has ever said in the history of the world. But that is true. Blending fiction with real-world relevance. Okay. I think these are actually pretty good. I've definitely done this before with a huge list of all the books I like, and it's... [15:20] it's been like actually sort of life-changing to be like okay now i know what my taste is you know yeah that's interesting yeah so i imagine the more data you input like okay here are the 20 best books i ever read yeah recommend me the next 20 books i could read yeah that's really that's really a useful way to use it it's pretty cool um okay cool so we've so we've talked about sort of like finding finding a next book to read based on based on books that we've uh uh books that i liked what what's your what's what's next [15:45] So let's use AI to help us maybe solve a recent problem we're having or something we want to improve on. So what would come to mind? Maybe like what's an area in your life you want to improve on or maybe a problem that you want to solve?

[16:02] This is an interesting one. [16:05] Let me see if I can find a good problem for us. So basically, one of the things, so I run every, it's a media company. Got it right here. [16:14] And we're growing a lot recently. We've got a newsletter. I've got this podcast. [16:22] We have a paid subscription, so people get access to paid articles that we write. And we have a really good crew of writers who are writing every day. We publish every day. We also recently added an entrepreneur in residence. [16:35] He's helping us start. We have a consulting arm. And then we also have a couple of software incubations, one of which we're launching a software product tomorrow. Basically, we have a couple more in the pipeline. And so there's all these like. [16:47] different things going on, which I think is generally-- well, I think it's one of the good things about me as a, I don't know, company leader. I have a lot of energy and I have a lot of ideas and whatever, but [17:00] It can also feel a little bit all over the place. And so I've been thinking a lot about, okay, how do we frame things so that... [17:08] all the whole company is like rowing in the same direction, even if we have different like we've writers over here and we have engineers building software over here and we have consultants and whatever. Like, how do we make everyone row in the same direction and how do we like get it all to layer up into like one cohesive concept of what the company is? And I've started to think of it actually got this from a like a creator retreat that I went on. [17:29] because I think this is actually sort of similar for a lot of different creators, but I've started to think of it a little bit like a pyramid where

[17:35] And it's not a pyramid, I promise. But, like, at the bottom of the pyramid is... [17:40] It's sort of like all the free content that we have that gets people in the door. And then the layer above that is sort of like our main offer, which is our $20 a month every subscription. [17:52] you get access to all of our articles you get um you get the software you build you get discounts on courses like all that kind of stuff and then above that we do like consulting and training and then above that we do like i'll do like advising or speaking or whatever and each layer each layer up it's uh it will appeal to fewer and fewer people who pay more and more um and that's sort of like this whole pyramid um but the i think the big question with the pyramid is like how do i [18:22] creating a lot of meetings and so it's a very long-winded way of saying like we have like maybe a bit of a bigger organization now than we have had in the past and all the people in the organization are doing different things and i want to figure out a way to keep everybody um aligned toward a similar common goal and yeah okay um so let's try this prompt um [18:45] Let's go to Chad GPT again. [18:48] Okay, so the general prompt that I've been using is, I'm currently struggling with describing your pain point here. And I just gave you an entire, like, monologue of pains. I'm going to try to summarize it in a sentence. Hopefully I can try it. Yeah, so the prompt is, I'm currently struggling with a described pain point here. Could you recommend me three books that will help me solve this problem? Okay, so let me try to...

[19:10] do my best to summarize. We'll see how good your listening skills are. I'm struggling um hmm. [19:16] Okay. [19:17] Thank you. [19:19] Hmm. [19:21] Okay, I'm currently struggling with building media... [19:27] Empire. [19:29] And I'm worried about... [19:32] Um... [19:36] company culture and making sure we are all moving in the [19:43] Same direction. [19:45] Is there anything you would add to that? - I think we have different parts of the business [19:50] and making sure everyone knows what's going on in other parts of business and everyone supports each other rather than like sort of competing is like kind of the [19:58] Way I would I would frame it [20:01] Not even necessarily competing, just like... [20:04] um, [20:05] being aligned. [20:12] Okay, so we got, I'm currently struggling with building a media empire and I'm worried about the company culture and making sure that we are all moving in the same direction and everyone is aligned with the company's mission. Could you recommend me three books that will help solve this problem? [20:25] And let's see what we get from that. [20:28] So it's you should know I'm seeing it's updating its memory. So it's it's remembering things about this conversation. So if you mouse over the memory part of it, [20:39] um it will remember that about you you may want to delete that at some point uh just so it doesn't uh end up giving you okay giving you the wrong recommendations but i do love that feature of chat gbt is like um it starts to build a profile of like who you are and what you like so it gets better over time which is pretty cool um okay but let's see so uh it said uh start with why how great leaders inspire everyone to take action by simone sinek this book emphasizes the importance

[21:09] Sinek argues that great leaders and organizations start with a clear sense of purpose. That makes sense. Leaders eat last. Why some teams pull together and others don't. Okay. So we're also by Simone Sinek. Another insightful book. Delves into the role of leadership in creating a healthy and sustainable company culture. That makes sense. The culture code. The secrets of highly successful groups. I think this makes sense. One little wrinkle, which I'm super curious if a book exists here. [21:35] is that the style of company that I'm building is like, sort of non-traditional and like there's some aspects of it that look like a tech startup but like, it's truly a creator run business and I think there are like, there's a different set of rules for creator run businesses where like, [21:51] Normally, as a business scales, the CEO gets busier and busier and does less and less of the actual on the ground, hands on work. And it's more just like managing teams of people. [22:04] And I think in a creator run business, it's the opposite. Like the creator still does their thing. And the trick is to have teams that can operate while you're doing the content that gets everyone in the door. Can help do all the other stuff, like build the products and all that kind of stuff. [22:21] So. [22:22] I'm kind of curious if there are book recommendations that are about solving this kind of problem, but specifically for like sort of creator run businesses where the CEO is like, yeah, spending some time managing, but it's also spending a lot of time just like doing creative work. Yeah. That's interesting. For that, maybe we could reverse engineer. Maybe we could think about what companies kind of fit that mold and then see if anyone has written books about them. That's cool.

[22:52] a few of these companies. So one company that comes to mind, um, is, um, Bill Simmons has a podcast, a company called the ringer. Um, and you know, Bill Simmons is a huge podcaster, like really big time sports writer too. Um, and he like has one of the top sports podcasts in the world. Um, [23:09] And he ran the ringer and did his podcast like a couple days a week and then sold to Spotify for a couple hundred million dollars. And I think he's like still some sort of like VP or something at Spotify, but he also still runs. [23:21] the ringer. Um, [23:23] uh sorry he he also still does the still does a podcast like multiple times a week so bill simmons is one another one is um uh so sam harris has like he's got a podcast he's got books he's got a newsletter um but then he also has this app called waking up yeah um and um and so like he's like he's involved in that to the extent that like it sort of comes out of his brain and all of the work that he's done in meditation and [23:49] consciousness and all that kind of stuff. But like he has someone else runs the business day to day. Um, who I met and he's very smart. Um, [23:58] I feel like there are definitely some other people, but honestly, like, Mr. Beast is another one. Like, he's got, like, a snack brand now. He's got a bunch of other businesses, but, like, he's still making his videos. Not like he, like, stopped making his videos. So, that's one. [24:15] And the last one is actually someone who I know is, um, his name is Kevin Espiritu and he runs this company called Epic Gardening. Um, and he's like, he's amazing. And, and they have like, I mean, he started with just videos and now they like, I think they like acquired like a seed company and they all, they also do direct, direct to consumer products. So like, if you want to buy like a, like the best trowel, like they have the trowel for you, you know, like that kind of thing. Um, so all those people are, I think people who are sort of in this mold.

[24:41] Okay. [24:41] So I listed all the companies in ChatTubeT, and I'm going to ask you to maybe name some similar ones, just to see if any others come to mind, to see how on target we are. [25:02] Barstool, yeah. So Bleacher Report and Vox, not really. [25:07] So what I think it's doing is it's looking for competitors [25:11] Hmm. [25:12] And like, I think what we should tell it, if you go up and you modify that original prompt, see that pencil? Yeah. [25:20] like I think we want to tell it about the like specific thing that we're looking for, which is like companies that are that are started by someone who's primarily focused on making content in some form. [25:34] And [25:36] Um... [25:38] where that person like leads the company, but is still mostly spending time doing that. [25:44] doing the content creation. [25:49] - How does that sound? - So name similar companies that are started by people making content, which are led by the creator, but [25:57] also manage the business. [26:00] So I would say like name similar companies that are started by people making content. Um, [26:06] Uh... [26:08] Where? [26:09] the creator

[26:12] continues, [26:14] making content and leads the business. [26:18] Um, [26:21] but [26:23] but who has other operational leaders who manage the day-to-day of the business. [26:32] Thank you. [26:34] Thank you. [26:35] And then I would just delete everything up to the ringer. [26:41] Thank you. [26:41] - Yeah. [26:43] Can I put like the rumor? Okay. [26:45] So let's see what you got. Sweet. [26:50] So we got Barstool. Red Ventures, I never heard of that. It's a portfolio of digital companies that includes brands like the PointsGuy, Healthline, and CNET. Huh. [27:00] "While Elias provides strategic vision, the operational leadership team manages the daily business activities." Do you know who Rick Elias is, the co-founder of Red Ventures? No. Okay, interesting. [27:10] Gimlet Media, founded by Alex Bloomberg and Matt Lieber. So Matt is actually an every investor, and I know him quite well. And yeah, Alex for sure, I think fits this. He was a podcaster and was like one of, Alex and Matt both did a podcast together during Gimlet. Buzzfeed. [27:27] I think BuzzFeed's sort of, but, like, Jonah Peretti is, like, not really, like... [27:32] a [27:33] Thank you. [27:34] like, he doesn't necessarily put his name on the stuff they put out. Like, BuzzFeed is like a more anonymous brand. [27:41] Hello Sunshine, so Reese Witherspoon. Patreon, Jack Conte, to some degree, yeah, that's interesting. I love Jack Conte, he's amazing. And then Rooster Teeth.

[27:52] Interesting. [27:53] OK, cool. No, these these are good. I'm kind of curious about Red Ventures. [27:57] But yeah, what would you do next? So maybe we could ask Chad Gpt, like, have any books been written about any of these CEOs or founders of these companies? That's great. [28:11] Thank you. [28:14] Thank you. [28:15] Thank you. [28:16] Thank you. [28:17] Okay, so we're asking, have any books been written about the CEOs or founders of the companies mentioned above? [28:27] Hustle harder, hustle smarter, buy 50 Cent. Which CEO is mentioned above? That's really interesting. So they're like... [28:38] Yeah, I wonder what information is taken from. Maybe scroll up a little bit. [28:42] Okay, scroll down. [28:45] Okay, oh no, no go. I want to see the first I want to see the first one Okay, well not specifically specifically about barstool curtis jackson better known as 50 cent shares his experiences and lessons in business and entertainment honestly like [28:58] I think, I mean, he has a lot of businesses. I think that's actually an interesting comparison. I had not thought of that. He had the whole vitamin water thing. I don't know what else he's done, but he definitely made a lot of money on vitamin water. I think why it's maybe given these answers like, [29:13] the business model you're mentioning is pretty new so it can't really come up with any specific books about it but like you know I guess 50 Cent you could think of him as like one of the original influencers who ended up getting equity in the deal so you kind of

[29:26] It's like an early form of the business model that you're doing now. I think Michael Jordan, too. Like Air Jordans and with Nike, like that's that's another one. [29:35] I think there are some differences because like, in the case of, at least of the case of Nike, like Nike already existed. So he's like co-creating a product, but like, [29:46] So for me, like we're building products from scratch rather than like necessarily partnering, but it's a similar flavor of idea. Yeah. Yeah. Let's keep going. So this is not a T-shirt, a brand, a culture, a community, a life and streetwear by Bobby Hundreds. [30:00] This book by Bobby Hundreds, co-founder of the streetwear brand, The Hundreds, provides insight into building a brand community. That's actually kind of interesting. Like, I think there's a lot of, like, most fashion companies, like, are made by, like, a person whose name is on the company, like Tom Ford or whatever. And they're definitely still, like, very, very deeply involved in all the creative decisions, which is really interesting. I had not thought of that. [30:22] Yeah, I never thought about fashion being like content creator led, but you think of Polo Ralph Lauren, led by Ralph Lauren. Like he is a content creator, he's a designer, he's a business manager. So yeah, you've learned something new. Yeah, I definitely did. So maybe we could find some like, I would love to find books about people who have started fashion businesses, but like... [30:42] books that would sort of like fit my taste. [30:45] Um, [30:46] *sigh* [30:49] Thank you. [30:50] Thank you.

[30:53] Thank you. [30:54] or, um... [30:57] Mixed about. [31:00] Who? [31:01] - Started. - Yeah. People who started, can you find those books about people who started fashion businesses? Yeah. [31:07] Keep going. [31:09] Anything we should say. [31:10] Yeah. So can you find us books about people who started fashion businesses, who were both the primary like sort of creative [31:18] like inspiration... [31:21] and ran the business. [31:24] Let's just start there and we can get more complicated later. [31:28] Thank you. [31:29] Thank you. [31:30] the woman i wanted to be by diane von furstenberg the iconic fashion designer and creator of the rap dress coca chanel the legend in life by justine [31:38] Picardy the biography of Coco Chanel one of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century I actually always wanted to look into Coco Chanel that sounds that sounds like really interesting um the battle of Versailles the night [31:50] "American Fashion Stumbled Into the Spotlight and Made History," "Dior by Dior," the Autobiography of Christian Dior, "The Asylum," the True Tales of Madness, [32:00] "True Tales of Madness from a Life in Fashion," interesting. "House of Versace." I think I've actually read that. - Okay. - Um, because there was a book that came out, there was a movie that came out recently with Lady Gaga about... [32:14] Um... [32:16] Was it Versace? Maybe it was about Gucci. I think it was about Gucci. Yeah. Yeah, she was in that movie about Gucci. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a great book and a great movie. So I've not read The House of Versace, but maybe I should. This is actually quite good.

[32:32] Uh... [32:33] Cool. I noticed you reached your GBT 4.0 limit. If you need [32:39] I can also drive [32:42] the next chats. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. I actually [32:48] I just, this little thing about like fashion people have been building these kinds of businesses for a while is like really... [32:56] fascinating to me because it definitely does have a lot of the same dynamics where yes it's the sort of like creative and business person all in one but also I think that the way that you get to be a like fashion designer like where you have your own house is you have to build your brand first and people sort of start to know your name a little bit yeah and then you like kind of create a product based on that and I think that's very like influencer E2 [33:19] Yeah, I definitely agree. I know Ralph Lauren started with the ties, and then he got into the suits and then he expanded from there. [33:25] That's fascinating. Okay, cool. So what's next? What should we look at next? [33:31] So another way I've been using AI is kind of as your personal, I like to call your personal study buddy, or like, you know, your English professor, English tutor. Because sometimes, like, I've been trying to read more philosophical books, sometimes like more fiction books. But these books can be kind of difficult to understand. So for example, I recently read Siddhartha, which is, you know, it's one of those books you hear a lot about. Everyone says, like, you should read it. It's like a life-changing book. So I'm like, okay, let me pick it up. Let me give it a try.

[34:01] like old English, so it's kind of like a little bit difficult to understand. And as I'm reading it, I know there's like [34:06] just multiple deeper levels of meaning in this book and i'm having a hard time kind of comprehending them so then i'll ask it like hey chat gbt um what does the river in siddhartha symbolize or what's the meaning of it and that will help me like kind of just understand kind of the themes of the book that's really cool so let's let's actually do that now i'm kind of curious so you can see my screen right so let's do that right now so basically i think what we should probably first do is like [34:32] is do a little bit of an overview of Siddhartha. Yes. Just in case people people haven't read it. OK. Can you summarize Siddhartha by Herman Hesse in? I don't know. [34:45] two paragraphs. Let's see. [34:50] Thank you. [34:51] Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is a philosophical novel that follows a spiritual journey of a young man named Siddhartha during the time of the Buddha. The novel begins with Siddhartha, a Brahmin's son who is dissatisfied with the ritualistic and doctrinal life he leads. Along with his close friend Govinda, Siddhartha sets out to explore a different path to enlightenment. [35:08] Siddhartha's quest leads him to a new phase of life where he indulges in sensual pleasures and material wealth guided by the Khorasan Kamala. I feel like this is a little bit more in-depth than I really want. Make it two sentences. Make it three sentences. I think three is enough. Um... [35:23] Siddhartha by Herman Hess follows the journey of a young man named Siddhartha as he seeks spiritual enlightenment. He explores various paths, including asceticism, hedonism, and ultimately finds wisdom through the teaching of a simple ferryman named Vasudeva. By learning to listen to the river, Siddhartha realizes that true enlightenment comes from within and through the direct experience of life rather than through teachings or doctrines. Yeah, so exactly what it says. Listen to the river. Like, what does that even mean? So let's explore. Like, can you explain that? Okay, cool. That's awesome. Okay, so listen to the river. What does that mean?

[35:52] even mean... [35:54] Can you explain? [35:58] In Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, listening to the river symbolizes the practice of deep contemplative observation and understanding of life and its natural flow. [36:06] The river represents the continuous, ever-changing nature of existence, where every moment is interconnected. By learning to listen to the river, Siddhartha attunes himself to the present moment and the cyclical nature of life, gaining insights into the essence of reality and achieving a profound sense of inner peace. This metaphor underscores the importance of experiential wisdom and inner harmony in the quest for enlightenment. [36:25] What do you think? - Okay, that sounds like kind of like a whole lot of nothing. So sometimes when it gives me like answer like this, whether it's Chachipiti or Claude, I'll ask it like, [36:34] Can you explain the paragraph above but use simpler words, just so it's more direct and it can't use fancy words to hide behind what it's saying? Okay, be more direct. [36:45] Okay, cool. So I said, can you explain the paragraph above, but use simple words, be more direct. In Siddhartha, listening to the river means understanding life by paying close attention to its flow and changes. The river represents how life constantly moves and is connected. By focusing on the river, Siddhartha learns to live in the present and see the true nature of things, finding deep peace and wisdom. The idea highlights that real understanding comes from personal experience and being in tune with life itself. [37:07] yeah that's like a major difference and you want to understand that and it's just so much more clear what the river symbolizes versus the paragraph above yeah i i think you're i think you're totally right i definitely feel like um having chat gbt translate books is like such an interesting thing because it's like that book's in english you know like and i think i think one of the things ai sort of reveals to us is that um

[37:29] There are many different Englishes spoken by many different sub-communities and we normally think that like oh, yeah, there's like British English and American English but like no, no, no. It's like there's like the English of Siddhartha. There's like people who write philosophy books. That's a different English like there's scientists that's different English or whatever. There's people in tech. There's a different English than people, you know, I don't know, people who are in like the oil industry or whatever. [37:59] I think that's so important for book reading. Yeah, I find it super useful because... [38:04] Yeah, there's a lot of books like I want to explore but I know they kind of beyond my um like expertise or just knowledge. Um, so I need someone to kind of help me teach me like what the book's about. So you know back in the day you might have gone you know taken like a college course or something here and I just asked chat GPT and it's like your personal tutor. So I think that's uh like a powerful way to kind of use books to you know as your personal study buddy that a lot of people haven't thought about. That's really great. So you read that book recently, you brought [38:34] you got out of it. [38:35] Um... [38:38] I don't know if I would say I liked it. Okay. Maybe you didn't like it. Yes. So, well, I want to see like why so many people found it like valuable or insightful. And it just kind of shared like the common themes of life. So basically the main overview is he goes to be a Buddha. So he kind of gives everything up. Then he lives this like hedonic lifestyle where it's just like pleasure, pleasure. And that's also not a good way to go about life. And then he finds like balance by

[39:02] you know, being in between. So I think that was like kind of the main message I took away from it. [39:06] I also kind of use a kind of... [39:10] you could ask like who are the main characters in this book and what role do they play? Because you know in this book there's probably you know five ten different characters. I'm sure sometimes when you read a science fiction book there's you know a hundred characters. Yeah so you get lost with the so sometimes I might ask a chap GPT like can you explain the relations between these two characters in the book or like can you explain the context behind them? [39:31] so just another way it's like any question that you'd ask your english professor in college now i just ask gpt i i do love that because i i read some books like um i'm i'm reading this book um called pragmatism as anti-authoritarianism right now which is a i can't even i can't really even say the title um and it's by this philosopher richard rory that i really like and i've been reading his books and other like sort of more dense philosophy books for a long time [39:58] And like I majored in philosophy in college, so like I kind of can wade through some of the jargon, but I always felt like there was stuff in those books that I like just was never going to be able to get unless I went back to grad, like went back to school and went to grad school. [40:14] which is always sort of like slightly on my mind, but like going to grad school just like sort of seems like a pain. Like I don't really want to do that. And so... [40:21] I was just sort of like torn because I'm like, I want to get more out of these kinds of books, but like, I don't want to do that. And I just feel like chat GPT just like completely, like, uh, I don't have to go to grad school, which is really great. Like I'm just sitting there like reading a book and I'll just take a picture of it and send a chat GPT and be like, can you explain this to me? Yeah. Are you, how are you doing this? Like, are you, do you have a laptop while you're reading? Do you have, you use it on your phone? Like, what's your kind of like reading with chat GPT? How does that work for you?

[40:51] I'll use it there. [40:54] But yeah, I think personally, when I do my reading session, I just like to have a book and a pen. [40:59] and then maybe on the back, I'll write down a few questions. And then after I'm done with my reading session, then I'll go [41:05] and use chat GPT and that'll be like my study session. - Okay. - Something like that. - And you do a study session for like every book? [41:13] No, I would say most of the books I read are non-fiction, so it's a little bit more direct, it's more actionable. But I will use maybe ChatGPT kind of like, okay, I have this list of lessons from this book. How can I actually go apply it? [41:26] Um, like for example, the Alex Mosey book recently, um, you know, he has that whole grand slam offer, um, how to make like compelling offer. So then I'll ask chat GPT, like, how can I apply this to something I'm trying to sell? [41:39] Let's actually do that because I've I've actually done literally the exact same thing like a parent I think there's there's something about like content creator business people like using Alex from Rosie's book to like create offers So I want to let's let's let's let's do that. So Yeah, tell me about tell me what you did so we can replicate it. So first I would ask I [41:58] Chad Chippatik, can you summarize the main lessons from 100 million dollar offers by Alex Hormozzi? [42:04] Okay. [42:04] Thank you. [42:06] by Alex Hormozzi. Oops, I misspelled Hormozzi, but I think it'll probably get the gist.

[42:20] Love when ChatGPT just... [42:22] completely goes down in the middle. [42:26] um sure here's a summary of the main lessons um so value stacking create an irresistible offer by stacking value understanding customer pain points deeply understand the pain points and desires of your target audience offer creation break down the components of a great offer into four key elements the dream outcome perceived likelihood of achievement time delay effort and sacrifice pricing psychology use pricing strategies that enhance the perceived value of your offer scarcity and urgency risk reversal [42:51] irresistible bonuses, social proof and testimonials, market research and iteration, communicating value. [42:58] Does it seem like a reasonable summary? [43:01] Yeah, so a lot of the key lessons from the book. I would specifically ask it, can you share more about the offer creation, specifically what he meant by creating a Grand Slam offer? Okay, cool. Specifically, can you break down how he constructs a Grand Slam? [43:18] slam offer. [43:21] So tell me about why you're asking this question to chat GPT, because you already know more or less, right? Yeah. So I kind of understand... [43:28] like you know you know reading it um but i think just having the next steps uh to able to be able apply it to my specific uh situation i think is super helpful um and then also you can use chat gpt to kind of [43:41] do the early work of it and then you can maybe you know add the finishing touches or the human touches at the end of it i think that helps just helps you move faster yeah totally yeah like the there's a couple things here like one is um

[43:53] The cool thing about this is like a book is sort of like this static thing where you're doing the work to apply it. And I think that's actually quite valuable, like you don't want to not have to do the work to apply it. But what's really interesting is with ChatGPT, like because it writes out this [44:09] like this summary of the of the framework you can just have it apply the framework to your specific [44:17] situation as if alex was right there like talking to you which is like pretty cool and and i think the the like benefit of having it right out the framework first before you say hey can you help me construct an offer like alex or mosey is it sort of creates a plan for chat gbt right it's like it knows okay this is the first step and it's going to follow its own plan that it writes which is kind of cool yeah um okay cool so we have we've got the offer frameworks we've got the dream outcome the perceived likelihood of achievement time delay effort and sacrifice and um we're [44:47] here's how to do it step by step cool. [44:49] So, yeah. [44:50] Should we apply it? Yeah. So help me build a Grand Slam offer. [44:55] for I guess my specific case, I'm building a course that teaches people how to read smarter, more productively, [45:04] and more efficiently. [45:07] Smarter, more productively. [45:09] and more efficiently. For this chat I am Alex from Alex and Books just so it can get a little bit more about you in there. [45:22] Okay, sure Alex, let's build a Grand Slam offer for your course on reading smarter, more productively, more efficiently. We'll follow the offer creation framework by Alex Formozzi. One, identify the dream outcome.

[45:34] Um, [45:35] So one of the things it's doing here, which is, which I actually don't really like is it's just like doing the whole thing for you. I think what we want to do is like, go step by step. So we're going to modify the prompt and say go step by step and ask me questions to help me. [45:54] I like do the work for each step so we can build our offer and answers together. [46:02] I think that's a little bit better because like chat GPT can make stuff up, but it's not gonna be like exactly like what you think and I think it's better to have it like pull it out of you. [46:12] Okay, so identify the dream outcome. The dream outcome is the ultimate result or transformation your customers desire. What are the main benefits and results your students will achieve by taking your course? What does the ideal outcome look like for them? [46:23] Oh, see? It's-- That's interesting. It gives you options. It's continuing to-- Okay, stop. It's doing too much. Okay. [46:30] Only... [46:31] Only ask one question at a time and only move on. [46:36] Thank you. [46:37] to the next step when I say so. That'll keep it in line. The robots are getting out of hand. [46:45] I wonder what, okay. [46:48] Okay, so step one, identify the dream outcome. First, you need to clearly define the dream outcome for your target audience. This is the ultimate result of transformation they want to achieve by taking your course. Question one, what do you believe is the ultimate result or transformation that your customers desire from learning to read smarter, more productively, more efficiently? [47:03] And they'll be able to get...

[47:07] Let's see, how should we put it? [47:09] Thank you. [47:10] Hmm. [47:12] If you could read more productively... [47:15] you'll get more value from the time you spent reading. [47:18] you'll be able to remember more of what you read. [47:22] and which will help you [47:24] make better decisions and improve your life faster. [47:28] than someone that just reads passively. [47:33] Okay, cool. [47:37] Wow, my memory is full. Crazy. [47:57] Come on, ChatGPT. We're gonna switch to Claude if you don't respond. [48:04] Mm. [48:06] Excellent! Here's how we articulate the dream outcomes based on what you shared. By taking this course you will maximize value from reading, improve memory retention, make better decisions, and enhance your life quality. Okay, so next we need to enhance the perceived likelihood that your customers will achieve this dream outcome. This involves building credibility and trust. What are some testimonials, case studies, or success stories you have from previous students or clients who have taken your course? [48:27] I have testimonials on the landing page. [48:32] I have... [48:33] testimonials from bestselling authors, including. Do you have do you have a landing page where I can just copy paste them? Yeah.

[48:41] It's called the R of Reading. If you just type into Google, hopefully it comes up. [48:46] Is it .com? No, it was like on Kajabi or something. [48:51] No, the second one, yeah. [48:56] We got Tiago Forte, we got Morgan Housel. Wow, they got a lot of you got a lot of good people. Cool. So I'm gonna just paste that in here. Here are some testimonials. [49:06] Cool. [49:08] Great testimonials. These will significantly enhance the perceived likelihood of achievement. Minimize the time delay. We need to minimize the time it takes your customers to start seeing results. What are some quick wins or immediate benefits your customers can expect to see early on in your course? [49:21] All lessons are short, they're between 5 and 10 minutes. [49:26] they're broken up into specific problems, so you could go directly [49:31] to the skill you most want to learn or reading obstacle that's um [49:35] They are your biggest reading obstacle. [49:39] um [49:40] Cool. Let's keep going. [49:43] Thank you. [49:45] Thank you. [49:47] That's fantastic. Immediate benefits and quick wins. [49:51] So it's summarizing what we said. Okay, so now we're on to step four, reduce effort and sacrifice. What resources, tools, or support can you provide to make the learning process as easy and effortless as possible? [50:00] So each lesson has a one page summary PDF. So if you prefer reading over watching, the lesson option, [50:08] and each lesson ends with actionable steps. So you're not just learning,

[50:12] you're actually given steps on how to apply what you've learned. [50:19] Great. [50:20] Done. [50:24] All right, step five. [50:26] construct the Grand Slam offer. Do you have any additional bonuses or special features you'd like to include? [50:32] Yeah, I have a list of the 100 books [50:36] that have the biggest impact of my life and a short summer of each one [50:39] And then I also have a list of 50... [50:43] short non-fiction books and 50 short fiction books that people could choose from if they're looking for a quick read. [51:08] Okay, so now it is going to construct the GrandSlam offer with all the elements combined. [51:13] Um, [51:14] By taking this course, you will maximize your value from reading, you will improve your memory retention, you'll make better decisions. [51:19] Um, [51:20] It's giving us all the testimonials. I think what it's probably doing right now is it's sort of like summarizing each. - Summarizing. - Like, what is your preferred, like, format for, like, outcome of this Grand Slam offer? Should it be more compressed, or like, how does it look when it's done? [51:35] Oh, here we go final offer enroll in the master of the art of reading course today and transform your reading skills with short focus lessons that provide immediate benefits and actionable steps So this feels a little bit too. It's not concrete enough Which is interesting plus get exclusive access to curate a list of impactful books to guide your reading journey learn from the best and make better and more Informed decisions in your personal and professional life. It's actually not bad. Yeah. Well, actually, what do you think?

[51:58] Uh... [52:00] I think it's... [52:01] it's doing a good job it's just a bit too general like if it could use some of the specific um you know responses we used i think that would make a more compelling offer yeah so um one of the things i like to do uh we'll see how it does on this is like [52:17] I'll have it reflect on itself and grade its own work. Interesting. Okay, based on... [52:23] Alex Hormoziz. [52:25] framework. [52:26] above. What do you think of the offer you constructed? How [52:34] What's, is there anything missing? [52:36] Thank you. [52:37] What can be improved? [52:41] to make it more effective. [52:43] Let's see if it's self-aware enough to fix these problems that we're seeing. [52:49] Thank you. [52:52] Thank you. [52:55] Okay, so make the dream outcome more vivid and emotionally engaging. For example, emphasize how mastering your reading can lead to career advancements. I do think that vivid and emotionally engaging is right. I would have framed it as like more concrete. But yeah, I think that's a similar way to say that. [53:11] Potential improvements for the perceived likelihood of achievement include more specific success stories or case studies. Minimize time delay. Highlight specific examples of quick wins. So yes, we're getting more concrete, more specific examples. [53:25] So potential improvements are offer additional support options like dedicated. So it's asking you to just add more Yeah, add more stuff to your to your offer, which is pretty interesting And then it's then it's sort of like suggesting example So for the make the dream outcome more vivid it's saying imagine being able to read any book in half the time and retain twice as much information Giving you a competitive edge in your career enriching your personal life with profound knowledge insights. That's actually not bad Hmm. I don't know if you want to promise that specifically

[53:55] but like it's sort of on the right track. - Yeah, I think it gives you a good idea of like copy you could use. - Yeah. Join thousands of satisfied students who have transformed their reading skills. Watch this video testimonial from a student who doubled their reading speed and comprehension within just two weeks. Start seeing results immediately. [54:10] our students report significant improvements after just the first lesson. So this is actually not bad. [54:18] Like it may be it may be is going too far in in the direction of like over promising. Yeah, but like that's sort of the like the [54:26] Framework that it's using and you can kind of like bring it back to like being more Yeah more concrete and more what you actually want to promise but I think it's like it's pretty helpful. Yeah I think [54:36] the it's pretty much like on par with what you know the information we have uh it did kind of go like above and beyond with some of the claims so that i would just like edit to make it a little bit more realistic i love that um and and did you actually use this for constructing your offer like this exact this process yeah so i asked it to use like the ada framework um and yeah i experimented with different um a bunch of different like copywriting formulas and um yeah i inputted [55:06] out. [55:06] basically the copy for it. Yeah. [55:09] I think it's almost like a new format for nonfiction books. Like any nonfiction book that has a framework, I feel like should have like a custom GPT that it comes with where it just like applies the framework for you. [55:21] Yeah, I think that's super helpful because a lot of these lessons in nonfiction books that are told like through story and the author doesn't really like

[55:27] maybe give you like actionable steps or like kind of summarize what to do but if you kind of ask you know chat gpt in this example and then it'll ask you you know a question for [55:36] each part of the formula and then you input your answer, and that's how you get the specific outcome you're looking for. - Yeah, the other nice thing about this is like, it has memory, which we've already talked about. And one of the things I use it for is, sometimes there's a lesson in a nonfiction book where you're like, oh, [55:54] I just want that just like burned into my memory, you know, and I want to be reminded of it like all the time so like for me This isn't exactly come from a nonfiction book it came from from my therapist But like I think it's like it could have just as well come from a nonfiction book. Maybe he read it in a nonfiction book We'll probably say that so like one of the things that that's like Just like a thing that I have to work on all the time is I have like a lot of people pleaser tendencies and [56:20] And I say yes to too much. And I don't like saying no and all that kind of stuff. And [56:24] If I kind of reduce that down, it's sort of about fear of the guilt or shame that I would feel in saying no. And so my therapist was like, "Okay, I want you to ask yourself the question anytime you're in one of those situations. What would you do if you're not afraid of feeling guilty?" [56:42] And that's the kind of thing where I was like, whoa. That's actually a really good question. Right? But it's really hard to remember. [56:50] especially when you're in a particular situation. And so I just went into ChatGPT and put it into my memory and I was like anytime I'm making a decision that's interpersonal, like please ask me what I would do if I wasn't feeling guilty.

[57:03] And, um, [57:06] and i always use chat to be when i'm making bigger decisions and it always asks me that question and that like little simple thing it's like it's honestly paid so many dividends and i feel like the same thing is true there's like there's probably lots of lots of these things from different non-fiction books really i want to remember that and chat is just very good at like bringing it up when you need to when you need to hear it yeah that'd be interesting if you could have i'm not sure if there's a feature or not but you kind of have saved profiles of like okay you know if i'm working on a new landing page or sales page let me go to the copy ai version of this [57:36] versus like if I'm making a big life decision, let me go to the, you know, [57:40] the AI profile that will ask me that question, and others that will help me make a better decision. Yeah, it doesn't have that specifically, but it will select the correct memory for the correct circumstance. So if you're asking about copy and you have memories related to copy, it will go to that. There are also custom GPTs with their own personalities where you could build an Alex Harmozy bot for yourself or whatever. Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So this is really awesome. So we went through the offer. Are there other things you want to talk about? Yeah, let's see what else we have on the list. [58:11] Oh, so I guess so another great example that I've used AI for is, you know, let's say there's a book I love. So [58:18] That means I'm a big fan of the author. I admire them. I respect them. We probably have a lot in common. But who are, you know, my heroes heroes? So who, you know, who is my favorite author look up to? So maybe if you know, there's book you read recently, let's try to find out. [58:33] who are

[58:34] you know, that author's favorite authors, and you know, who had the biggest impact on their life. - Yeah, I love that. Like, I just love going down the kind of like, intellectual rabbit hole of like, this person influenced this person, and this person influenced this person, 'cause like, often the thing that you like most about someone is like, they learned it from someone else, you know? Okay, so let's do that with, let's just do that with Adrian Tchaikovsky, the guy who wrote "Children of Memory," 'cause I'm actually kind of curious. So, I love Adrian Tchaikovsky's series, "Children of Time." [59:05] Who are his favorite authors? Something like that. I want to figure out who influenced him [59:14] to write this series. [59:18] So it's doing a little bit of a web search. And one of the interesting things is like... [59:23] So having it do a web search, it can be good. [59:27] um if there's like a google result like someone actually went and interviewed him and there's like a thing that's like adrian chadkovs he's like top five favorite books but sometimes like it's just better to like make it not browse and just like do it from from its memory because it'll find like weirder things that are not necessarily like the first thing on google but um let's see what it says so it says gene wolf known for his complex and layered narratives wolf's work often involves intricate world building and deep philosophical themes that sounds good for me um mervyn peak [59:57] series. Peek's gritch gothic style and detailed characterization have left a significant mark on his writing. China, Meville, with his unique blend of fantasy, horror, and speculative fiction, Meville's imaginative and boundary-pushing stories are a clear influence. Interesting. Cool.

[1:00:10] Um, I've never heard of any of these people, but honestly, Gene Wolfe is like pretty cool sounding. Let's see. I want to look at what Gene Wolfe has written. Gene Wolfe, American fiction writer. Uh, where's the Amazon? Here we go. [1:00:23] you [1:00:25] "The Wolf at the Door" is his top book. That's fascinating. [1:00:32] Let's see. [1:00:34] I can't believe that he wrote a book with his own name in the title. Is it a fiction book? [1:00:41] Oh, it's a brand new collection. Okay, so it's like I think it's short stories. Okay. I want to like what's his let's see what's Let's ask like what's the Gene Wolfe book? [1:00:52] that's most similar to Children of Time, because I don't really want his short story collection. I want something that's more sci-fi. [1:01:01] "The Book of the New Sun" series, "The Shadow of the Torturer." Wow, that sounds dark. Okay, "The Shadow of the Torturer." [1:01:09] Where are we? [1:01:13] Deal. [1:01:14] Torturer Gene Wolf. [1:01:17] Thank you. [1:01:18] Okay. [1:01:21] "Shadow and Claw," interesting. So that's actually, it's not called "The Shadow of the Torturer," it sounds like Chad G.P.T. made that up. That's quite interesting. Okay, "The Book of the New Sun is unanimously acclaimed "as Wolf's most remarkable work, hailed as a masterpiece "of science fantasy comparable in importance "to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis." That's interesting, I've never heard of him.

[1:01:42] So it's the tale of young Severian, an apprentice to the guild of torturers on the world called Earth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession and showing mercy towards his victim. Wow. That's interesting. The claw of the conciliator continues the saga of Severian banished from his home as young Shakespeare's mythic quest to discover the awesome power of an ancient relic. [1:02:01] Cool. I'm like sort of tempted to buy this, but I should wait because I just bought a bunch of books. Yeah, what is your rule for that? Like, how are you, when do you buy a new book versus like wait? [1:02:16] That's a good question. [1:02:18] So I have this rule, it's kind of catchy too, so easy to remember. So it's read it when you need it. So you kind of want to identify what's... [1:02:26] the priority in your life, what are you working on? And it could be like, you know, reading for entertainment, or maybe you're planning on writing your own fiction book. So maybe now might be time to write fiction books. For me specifically, you know, working on rewriting the copy for my course, so reading a lot of copywriting books, which, you know, two years ago, I would have would never read a copywriting book because it's just not relevant to me. So it's no longer interesting. But now, because I am working on this project, now, you know, copywriting is super interesting. [1:02:56] and then focus on reading books in that section. But you could also have you know a fun book so I oftentimes you know I'll have like a serious book I'm reading, something I want to learn and improve on, but then I'll also have a fun book just because [1:03:10] I think if you just just read for education it kind of gets a little bit boring. It's kind of like just watching documentaries all the time Sometimes you want to you know watch that movie or watch that TV series same thing for reading sometimes you want to have like a fun read So I would say, you know, if you already have like a long list of sci-fi books that you know, you need to get through maybe hold off on buying this book But maybe if it's like the last book in the series and you know, you're ready for something new that might be the time to get it

[1:03:40] I read one thing at a time and I'm like, I don't start a new one until I finish the last one. Yeah, I try to cap it at three books. Okay. So I like to have, you know, maybe like a serious book, like a more fun book, and then maybe one book on my phone or like an audiobook or something like that. So that way, if I'm on the go, I have something to listen to. Because that way, I think you end up just... [1:04:02] you know starting 10 different books and you never get through like any of them or you just um you know it's just like the shiny new object like just because it's new doesn't mean it's better uh so i think a lot of people fall into that trap where they you know buying books and reading books are two different hobbies so it's so true i love that buying books and reading books are two different hobbies that's great there's a great quote that like when we buy a book we make the mistake of we're also buying the time to read it because you know [1:04:32] to 10 hours to read. So every time you buy a book that's, you know, if you buy three books, that's 30 hours at a time that you're kind of, uh, [1:04:38] you know investing yeah so that's another way to think about it so i would say you know maybe read two books at a time or cap it to like three what's your fun book right now [1:04:46] so I would say it's also a business book but it's like a fun it's kind of like a business thriller almost it's never enough from barista to billionaire by Andrew Wilkinson that's when you mentioned yeah yeah so it's his journey of literally working as a barista making I think it was like six dollars an hour to how he built this company and there's actually a lot of like drama in it like right now I'm up to the part with [1:05:09] One of his business partners is kind of like doing shady stuff, like maxing out the company credit cards, going to buying these expensive dinners and fancy hotels, and he's actually working on spinning out his own company and stealing clients, but Andrew caught him. So it is kind of, although it might seem like a boring business book, it's not. It's kind of like a thriller book. So it's been enjoyable to read, and that's been kind of my fun book. That's great. Andrew's awesome.

[1:05:39] on your nightstand where you keep meaning to read them and you really do wanna read them and you're gonna get to them next, but you never get to them. [1:05:46] Yeah. What are they? Or give me one. Uh... [1:05:50] So, [1:05:51] I started it and I've been enjoying it. So the book Outlive by Peter Atiyah, I think it's just because it's like so long. And I've read a lot of other like health books and it kind of always comes down to the same thing. It's like, you know, get your sleep, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, exercise. [1:06:06] and although I am enjoying it, it is like [1:06:09] you know, it's pretty funny. When I first started like reading a lot of books, I bought the book War and Peace because I heard it's like a classic. So let me go read it. And I bought it and I didn't know how like how long it was. And then it came in the box and it's literally it's a thousand pages long. It's a doorstop. Yeah. And it's funny to think like, you know, I'm a big guy and I'm intimidating by like this book. But yeah, the bigger the book is kind of like more intimidating to start because every time you look at it, it's like, all right, that book's going to take me like 10 hours to finish. Yeah. So that's another like helpful reading tip I tell people is like just [1:06:38] you know, pick up short books. [1:06:39] Cause like they're easier to read, easier to finish and help you like build momentum. Uh, so I'm sure I'm going to get through that book. It's just, you know, it's going to be like one bite at a time. Yeah, totally. That's great. Um, let's keep going. What, um, [1:06:50] What else should we talk about? What else you got on here? [1:06:54] So, you know, we're talking about like buying books. So another way you could use AI is to summarize books. [1:07:02] um to kind of like sample them because you know let's say you're in the bookstore you're not sure if this book has like the lessons you're looking for so you could ask ai's like hey can you write a 500 word summary or what can you share the key lessons from this book um to be able to identify if it has like the lessons you're looking for and if it's worth reading yeah no i i like that like i

[1:07:26] Different pieces of content have different attention spans. [1:07:30] Um, and, um... [1:07:33] like books are obviously like a very long attention span like format and there's something like really valuable and important about like sinking into an idea and a worldview and like a a writer's brain for like 10 hours or something like that but a lot of books are just like no i actually just want the idea give it to me in two seconds you know what i mean um and there are all these companies like blinkist and and and whatever that that do like book summaries and i think like [1:08:03] to some degree, derided. People are like, oh, you got to read the whole thing, blah, blah, blah. But I think it's actually... [1:08:08] a very important service to people to like have your ideas in different formats and mediums for different attention spans and different channels And yeah, obviously like you want to direct people eventually to the book and like have people spend a lot of time with it but like it is just the way our brains work that like That we might not want to spend a lot of time on something we haven't like been convinced to spend time on before and I think it's like really nice that I [1:08:32] ChatGPT can summarize things in a form that works for you like the kind of summary you might like it might be a bit different from the summary that I might like or might work best for me and it's just so good at doing that like I was doing this like like a day or two ago because I'm trying to learn about this um there's this whole new thing in AI called sparse auto encoders and like don't ask me to explain it because like I'm still not like fully there but like the basic gist is like

[1:08:59] It's a method for understanding, or it's used for a lot of different things, but it's used more specifically in like mechanistic interpretive interpretability to like understand what's going on inside of AI models brain when it's like outputting tokens. And so you can like it creates this like literally like cloud of content of concepts and you can see which ones are most active when it's producing different types of text, which is like, [1:09:24] amazing. It's so cool. And I wanted to like write about it because I've been using some of these. Um, there's one specifically for Claude that I've been, I've been using that Anthropic put out. Um, [1:09:33] and uh and i i want to write about it so i need to learn how sparse auto encoders work and like [1:09:39] There's some like technical articles online. There's like literally a single podcast on Spotify that talks about it and it was like too technical for me and but I just like literally I just wanted to chat GPT as like can you explain this to me and Then I went on a walk and I did like the chat GPT voice thing and it's like it's like it's it's its own podcast like created specifically for me to like learn about this topic and like honestly [1:10:03] Think it's I think it's better than any sort of like paper or whatever would have been to just teach me the basics like it's really good Okay, that's interesting. I never thought about that. Yeah, yeah I mean, I just move so quickly. It's hard to like keep up with all this stuff. That's really cool future. Yeah, and it's not even it's like I can't even read a book about it because it's like it's too new, you know so so yeah, so using it for for that kind of like Like that learning where it's like I needed I need this information in a format like that's right for my specific context

[1:10:33] That's super valuable. Yeah. Yeah. What else? Anything else you want to talk about before we close? Yeah. So, [1:10:41] uh, [1:10:41] And this idea to like help build like a course that teaches people how to become better readers came to mind. But I didn't know if like people would be interested in it. So I literally put out a Google form with two questions like what's your email and also what's your biggest like reading obstacle. [1:10:54] And for this simple form, I got over 500 responses. And I want to see how we could use ChatGPT to figure out what are people's biggest problems, or just summarize it. So that way we know what people want or what they're interested in. I like that. Okay, so I just downloaded the CSV. And I'm going to go into my responses. [1:11:16] and [1:11:18] I'm going to upload. Okay, so what should I say? [1:11:22] I asked people what's their biggest reading obstacle. Can you summarize all the answers and give me the top 10 most common questions? [1:11:33] I guess problems. [1:11:38] Give me the top. [1:11:40] 10 most common problems. [1:11:56] So basically what it's doing right now is it's like using Python to like... [1:12:00] read the... [1:12:02] read the CSV file, and then it's like basically doing a...

[1:12:08] um, [1:12:08] like a word count to like find the most common words um and then [1:12:13] printing them out, which I actually don't think we want to do, because it's not going to be like using the sort of like LLM brain. So like I might just actually just copy and paste this into a new chat. [1:12:23] um i think you just copy the c column [1:12:26] The C column? And that'll just give you. Yeah, I'll just do the C column. That's a good idea. [1:12:29] Thank you. [1:12:30] Um... [1:12:33] Cool. [1:12:35] Oops. [1:12:36] Thank you. [1:12:38] Okay. [1:12:41] What is going on here? [1:12:43] Okay. [1:12:47] . [1:12:49] Let's just do a new chat. [1:12:51] Okay. [1:12:52] you [1:12:56] um let's try this one more nope that's not working okay i'm just gonna [1:13:03] did all that. Okay. [1:13:08] you [1:13:10] I surveyed people. [1:13:13] about their biggest pain points when reading for a course I'm running. Can you summarize the top ten? [1:13:22] Thank you. [1:13:26] Here are the top 10 pain points. Time management and scheduling. Difficulty finding or making time to read due to busy schedules. Struggling to fit reading into daily routines. Retention and recall. Difficulty remembering or retaining information. Note taking and annotation. Finding effective methods for taking and organizing notes. Focus and concentration. Maintaining focus while reading. Avoiding distractions. Motivation and consistency. Staying motivated to read regularly. Comprehension and application. Understanding and applying concepts. Reading speed and efficiency. Book selection. Balancing different types of reading and handling overwhelm.

[1:13:56] procrastination. What do you think? [1:13:58] Yeah, that sounds... [1:14:00] about right from what like i was reading the responses i'd be curious [1:14:03] Is it listed in the actual priority? Like is time management the biggest problem? [1:14:10] In order of priority, like is time management the biggest problem? [1:14:19] Thank you. [1:14:25] Thank you. [1:14:28] Thank you. [1:14:30] Okay, the list was not ordered by priority, but rather by common themes observed in the responses. To determine the priority, I would need to analyze the frequency of each pain point mentioned by the survey respondents. Let's see what it does. That's actually kind of interesting. [1:14:42] It might take a little while, so we'll wait for it to... [1:14:47] Thank you. [1:14:48] I wonder if it'll actually work. [1:14:52] Wow. [1:14:56] Thank you. [1:15:03] Thank you. [1:15:06] I didn't know that was a feature where you could show the code as it's working. Yeah, so it says always show details. I think they try to hide it, but like, I really like as it's working to show the code because [1:15:19] you just never know when it's going to make a mistake. And so like having a broad general sense of like, OK, this is kind of what it's doing and this seems reasonable or not, like helps me decide, like, am I going to trust the output or not? And usually it's like pretty good, but like sometimes it does something boneheaded and you're like, that doesn't work at all. You know, this is going to take a while.

[1:15:41] It's being very, very, very slow, which is. [1:15:44] sort of interesting, slower than normal. [1:15:57] I think this is, oh, here we go. [1:16:01] Okay, this is not actually working. So I'm going to -- here's what I'm going to do. Is time management the biggest problem? [1:16:09] Just make your best guess. [1:16:12] based on... [1:16:14] what you see here. Don't write code. I don't want it to write code because [1:16:19] It's gonna take too long and I don't think it's it's gonna the result is gonna be exactly right so based on the frequency and Emphasis of the responses the pain points appear to be listed in order priority with time management scheduling being most common So yeah, it does it does seem like it thinks time management is the most common. Do you think that's that's right? I [1:16:35] Yeah, I hear from a lot of people, like, I would read more if I had the time to do it. What is your general response to that kind of person? [1:16:43] So in the course, I talk about how you either want to focus on a combination or prioritization. So, like, either you want to make time ahead of other activities you're already doing or combine reading with an existing activity. So, for example, you know, if you already work out a lot, just listen to an audiobook. Or if you're spending a lot of time commuting to or from work, you know, put on an audiobook while you listen to that. [1:17:03] or prioritize reading above other activities. So like before you put on Netflix, you know, read for five or ten minutes or, you know, you know, before you go to sleep, read a book instead of, you know, grabbing your phone at the end of the night.

[1:17:16] When you see people go from not being readers to being readers, what is usually the unlock for them? [1:17:23] I think that everyone thinks they're not a reader, but they just haven't found the right book. Because everyone kind of basically enjoys reading books as a kid. Because you have the picture books, they're fun, they're light, they're easy to read. Then they usually get into the science fiction or fantasy books, like the Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events, or Captain Underpants, something like that. So they are enjoying reading. But then what happens is you get to middle school or high school, where you kind of get to this classic English era, where you're kind of forced to read all these boring books, [1:17:53] earlier, it's English. The book is in English, but if you need to translate it or if you need to go to SparkNotes to understand it, it's not really English. So being forced to read all these books kind of just kills your joy for reading. And then either most people don't read books for the rest of their life or hopefully they stumble upon a book that kind of catches their eye. Usually it's like Atomic Habits or How to Win Friends or one of these self-improvement books that kind of [1:18:20] uh make them realize like oh wait there's like so much i could learn from all these books out there you know why why why did i stop reading and it's because like i was forced to read all these books but now i'm free to like read anything and everything i want and i think that's the unlock like once you realize [1:18:34] uh you're like you're done with school no one's gonna assign you these books you're not being tested on these books you know you could read anything you want i think that kind of opens up the world to them that's great i love that and i think that's a perfect place to end love love getting more people to read thank you so much for doing this with me this is a ton of fun yeah it's been a lot of fun thank you for having me dan

[1:18:59] Oh my gosh, folks. You absolutely, positively have to smash that like button and subscribe to AI and I. Why? Because this show is the epitome of awesomeness. It's like finding a treasure chest in your backyard. But instead of gold, it's filled with pure, unadulterated knowledge bombs about chat GPT. [1:19:21] on the edge of your seat. [1:19:23] craving for more. It's not just a show. It's a journey into the future with Dan Shipper as the captain of the spaceship. So do yourself a favor. Hit like, smash subscribe and strap in for the ride of your life. [1:19:36] And now, without any further ado, let me just say, Dan, I'm absolutely hopelessly in love with you.