ChatGPT Everywhere

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About a week ago I published a post talking about ChatGPT and what it might eventually bring. If you aren’t familiar with what ChatGPT is, I encourage you to check out that post first and then come back here.

In the week since then, usage of ChatGPT has continued to skyrocket, but now we’re also starting to see a handful of great applications taking advantage of that technology. Here are a few of my favorites so far, all of which are simple browser extensions for Chrome.

ChatGPT for Google

One of the big thoughts around ChatGPT is wondering how it will affect Google in the future. Why dig into a list of links from Google when you can just get the full answer from ChatGPT? It’s not there yet, but it’s not too far off either. For now, you can just do both at the same time with this extension! Once loaded, every time you run a search on Google, it’ll run the same query through ChatGPT and give you those results as well.

ChatGPT Chrome Extension

This one is a bit simpler. Rather than going to the ChatGPT site to run your queries, it just puts a little icon in your toolbar that will pop up a small window for quick searches.

Ellie AI

This is based on the core GPT-3 model (not on ChatGPT specifically), but it’s a neat integration with your email. As you reply to people, it will learn your style and you can have it write replies for you. I’m not sure I want to use that yet, but it could be helpful depending on your role. Also, while the above ChatGPT extensions are free (at least for now), Ellie only gives you two emails per day before you have to pay $20-30/mo for it.

Have you found any related extensions that are particularly useful?

Building in anticipation of new technology

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As I’ve been migrating my notes over to Tana, I’ve noticed that I’m doing some things that Tana doesn’t support yet, but I’m hoping they will. For those that are curious, Tana doesn’t yet let you filter backlinks in a note, but I’m tagging all of my items with things like “#meeting” and “#call” in anticipation of being able to filter those out at some point in the future.

That feature may or may not ever arrive, but I’m preparing for it nonetheless.

AI video

I’ve also been having discussions with people about what the world will look like when you can create realistic AI-generated videos in seconds. The technology and the power isn’t quite there yet, but it’s coming.

When I talk with folks about this, we’re literally discussing a technology that doesn’t really exist yet and the implications it will have.

Electric Cars

Getting closer to home for some of you, I think electric cars kind of fit this view. While they’re a perfect fit for some people, for most they’re having to manage some workarounds for now (often involving range and charge times), in anticipation of advancing technologies in the coming years.

With electric cars, it’s like my post last year comparing them to early digital cameras. The cars are still imperfect, but the technology is improving rapidly and those that are using them now are helping to pave the future for the rest of us.

I don’t know if Tana will build the feature I need or not, nor do I know for sure what the implications of AI-generated video will be. For now, though, I enjoy speculating about them and trying to prepare for the possibility of each and we’ll see how things change in the next couple of years.

Did I write this?

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AI technologies continue to improve, as I shared a few months ago with my post about AI-generated art.

Along with art, AI-generated text has been improving rapidly as well, and the new (currently free) ChatGPT has taken things to a whole new level.

In short, it’s a chatbot that can create unbelievably solid text about any subject you want. For example, I just typed: “give me 5 blog post ideas about SEO” and it returned:

“5 common SEO mistakes to avoid”
“The top 10 SEO tools for improving your search engine rankings”
“How to conduct keyword research for your SEO strategy”
“A beginner’s guide to on-page SEO”
“The role of backlinks in SEO and how to get them”

That’s pretty good! Let’s turn one of them into a post. I next said “write a 500 word blog post about 5 common SEO mistakes to avoid” and here is the first part of what it returned:

Optimizing your website for search engines is a crucial part of any online marketing strategy. While there are many factors that can affect your search engine rankings, one of the most important is your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). Unfortunately, many people make common mistakes when it comes to SEO, which can harm their website’s performance in the search results. Here are five common SEO mistakes to avoid:

1. Not conducting keyword research. Keyword research is an essential part of any SEO strategy, as it helps you identify the words and phrases that people are using to search for the products or services that you offer. Without conducting keyword research, you may end up targeting the wrong keywords, which can prevent your website from ranking highly in the search results.

(I’m not going to list all five, but it was really solid)

Next, I said “summarize that in a tweet“, and I got:

5 common #SEO mistakes to avoid: not conducting keyword research, ignoring on-page SEO, overusing keywords, neglecting backlinks, and not tracking results. Follow best practices to improve your website’s performance and drive relevant traffic. #onlinesuccess

It even included some relevant hashtags!

Any format you want

I’ve done a lot of other tests, and it’s remarkable. You can say “write a podcast script about x” and it will create a full conversation. You can say “write an email to steve to thank him for the sweater” and you’ll get a great email for Steve.

More troubling, you could say “write a 1000 word report on the life of Abraham Lincoln” and it will do just that. This is clearly going to be troublesome for schools, and I don’t know how you stop it. The text is all unique, so no plagiarism checker will find it. Perhaps schools will need more tests and fewer essays, if all essays are now suspect.

As another test, I just said “summarize the book “building a storybrand” in 250 words” and got this:

“Building a Storybrand” is a book by Donald Miller that offers a framework for businesses to create compelling marketing messages that connect with their customers. According to Miller, many businesses make the mistake of promoting themselves in their marketing materials, rather than focusing on the needs and desires of their customers. This can lead to confusion and inaction on the part of the customer.

Miller’s Storybrand framework offers a solution to this problem by helping businesses clarify their message and create a clear, compelling story that resonates with their audience. The framework consists of seven elements: the hero (the customer), the guide (the business), the plan (the solution offered by the business), the villain (the problem or pain point), the mentor (a trusted source of advice), the confrontation (the moment when the hero must choose between the plan and the villain), and the resolution (the outcome of the hero’s decision).

By using the Storybrand framework, businesses can create marketing materials that clearly communicate the value they offer to their customers and show how their products or services can help solve their customers’ problems. This can help increase customer engagement and drive more sales.

In addition to the Storybrand framework, the book also includes practical advice and real-world examples of companies that have successfully used the framework to improve their marketing efforts. Overall, “Building a Storybrand” is a valuable resource for businesses looking to create more effective marketing messages and connect with their customers on a deeper level.

It’s imperfect, but quite good. Scary good.

I don’t like it

As a writer, I don’t like it. I also know that my opinion doesn’t matter. It’s coming, and can’t be stopped. There will be a huge variety of these tools very soon, and there is no turning back.

Schools will hate it, Google will hate it, and that’s just the way it is.

I don’t have any solid answers, but I’m very curious to follow conversations about it in the coming months. Even though this is the best tool we’ve seen so far, it’s just the tip of the iceberg, as these tools will only get better from here.

For this site, it doesn’t matter much. I’m writing primarily for my own benefit here, so getting AI to help defeats my goals. What you see on here will all be coming out of my brain.

For most blogs, though, this could be huge. If you’re writing for the benefit of SEO, tools like this could be amazing to help you generate tons of content. Ethics will be a big part of future discussions around that, but things will be getting very interesting.

Try it out for yourself here and let me know what you think this will lead to in the coming years.

The Kindle Scribe is great if you love the Kindle

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I alluded to this in my post about the Kindle Scribe a few days ago, but after a few more days of using it I think it’s even more accurate. The title may sound a little silly, but I’m finding it to be absolutely true.

If you are a fan of the Kindle, and can appreciate the size of the Kindle Scribe, you will love it. As a Kindle, with a super-sharp front lit E Ink screen, it’s absolutely fantastic. Hands-down, it’s the best Kindle I’ve ever owned.

However, if your main goal is a note-taking tablet and you won’t really use the Kindle features, you’d be much better off with a reMarkable. reMarkable has more pen options, better file organization, and far superior file syncing with your other devices.

To be honest, I’ve been kind of surprised at how poor the file syncing for notes is on the Kindle Scribe. While I don’t sync them often, the reMarkable had a great desktop and mobile app that would sync all of your notes. For example, if I just had a quick PDF to fill out, I could drop it into the Windows app, open it and fill it out on the reMarkable, and then grab it back from the Windows app again.

With the Kindle, it’s essentially email. You email it to the Kindle (or you can use a one-way upload tool), and then you need to email it back out when you’re done. It’s not awful, but it’s much more clumsy than the apps that reMarkable has.

I’m confident that Amazon will catch up in the coming months, but you never know for sure.

At the end of the day, though, the Kindle Scribe is amazing for Kindle users. For me, that’s fantastic.

Innovation is defined by the market

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Bell Labs was a research and scientific development company that Bell (later known as AT&T) founded in 1925. It largely closed in 2007, though bits of it still exist today. Over the years, that group arguably produced more widespread innovations than any other group in the world.

Among other things, they developed:

  • The transistor
  • Early mobile phone networks.
  • UNIX

Just those three things would have been world-changing enough, but they produced thousands of other ideas — some worked out well, some didn’t.

In his book about Bell Labs (“The Idea Factory“), author Jon Gertner shares this excellent quote that helps to distinguish “great ideas” from true innovations:

“if you haven’t found a market to sell the product, you have not innovated.”

If you invent something that you believe to be incredibly innovative, you should be able to get others interested. If people don’t care, it’s likely that what you invented isn’t as special as you thought.

That said, I disagree with the quote a bit. A good example was the Picturephone that Bell Labs developed in the 1960’s, which was essentially a way to do video calls — 60 years ago!

The Picturephone failed miserably, as it was too expensive for home use, and not practical for business. Was it innovative? There’s no doubt that it was a technological marvel, but failure in the marketplace doomed it quickly.

Innovation doesn’t always have to lead to big sales, but it usually does. If something comes along claiming to be wildly innovative but it fails to attract consumers, then the real innovation likely isn’t done yet.

The Kindle Scribe versus the reMarkable 2

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I’ve been a big fan of the reMarkable tablet over the past few years, as I find it an excellent way to take notes in various settings.

Similarly, I’ve been a big fan of the Amazon Kindle for quite a few years now. I still read a good number of printed books, but most of my reading is on the Kindle.

With the Kindle Scribe, Amazon tried to merge the reMarkable with a Kindle. Did it work?

The Kindle Scribe

In a word, yes. In looking at the two main functions of the Scribe:

  • It’s an amazing Kindle. Super crisp, responsive, and it awesome for reading on.
  • As a writing tablet, it’s good. It’s not as great as the reMarkable yet (particularly when it comes to sharing and exporting your notes), but it does a fine job.

The beauty is in the combination of the two. I can take notes on books while I read them, I can write on it in dimly lit rooms (the reMarkable has no backlight and is tough to read in the evening without great lights), and it’s a fantastic way to combine those two features.

Plus, it comes in a bit cheaper than the reMarkable:

  • Kindle Scribe with pen = $339
  • reMarkable ($299) + pen ($79) = $378

To understand more about the Kindle Scribe, this review (with a video) is a great overview of it.

Good luck, reMarkable

I wish the folks behind the reMarkable well, as I worry that this may kill their business. The reMarkable is an incredibly well-built product, and I’ve enjoyed using it, so I hope they’re able to keep a solid chunk of market share. That said, the convenience of the Kindle Scribe wins easily for many folks.

If you are big into writing tablets and you notice all of the nuances they have, and you don’t need your Kindle library of books on the device, you’ll likely be happier with the reMarkable.

For me, and likely for most of you, the Kindle Scribe is the way to go.

From Twitter to Mastodon?

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While the Elon Musk + Twitter situation seems to get stranger by the day, many people are moving over to Mastodon instead. Whether it sticks or not remains to be seen, but it has potential to be a great solution.

At it’s core, Mastodon is a decentralized social network that feels a lot like Twitter. Really, though, it works somewhat like email where there is no single owner of the service. With email, you don’t sign up with “the email service” — you sign up with Gmail or Yahoo or whatever provider that you’d like, and they can all talk to one another.

With Mastodon, there are a ton of companies (and individuals) that have set up Mastodon servers, so you need to sign up with one of them. Once you’re on that server, they control your account but you’re able to chat with anyone on the service.

More work?

Ultimately, this means its a bit more work than just signing up for Twitter. Similar to my thoughts on POSSE, the extra work really can lead to more power and freedom for you.

Personally, I’m using the service at c.im. I’m not sure it’s perfect, but it’s a solid platform and seems like a good place to set up shop. You can find and connect with me here: https://c.im/@mickmel

Similar to email, your username is really username + server (like [email protected] for email). Others that I follow can be on different servers, such as:

Kyle Van Deusen – https://wpbuilds.social/@Kyle
Lee Jackson – https://trailblazer.social/@lee
Seth Godin – https://c.im/@thisissethsblog

Your name?

If you follow me online much at all, you see that I’m “mickmel” in most places. With Mastodon, it’s not that simple because every single service could have a different “mickmel”. The good side of that is if your desired username is taken on one server, you could try another.

Wild west

The biggest concern is that this kind of the wild west, where anyone can set up a server. That’s a great thing, but also means that your server (and therefore your account) could disappear at any time if you choose an unreliable server. This is similar to email in the 90’s when tons of email services set up, and then a lot of them went under. It’s a risk.

Time will tell if Mastodon really takes off or not, but I encourage you to at least check it out, understand how it works, and play with it a bit. If you do, feel free to add me and then share your profile link below so we can connect.

The power of Supertags in Tana

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I briefly mentioned Tana last month, which is a new note-taking app that I’m playing with. I’m finding it to be a very powerful tool, but their “Supertags” feature might be the best part.

Rather than try to explain it to you, here is a short video that I created to show how it works:

It’s really making me rethink how I organize my notes. It’s a great tool, and you can visit the Tana website to learn more.

Social Networking versus Social Media

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In conversations that I have, I tend to mix the terms “social networking” and “social media”. According to Ian Bogost of The Atlantic, I probably shouldn’t.

With all of the recent chaos on Twitter, Bogost spent some time in a recent article to unpack those two words, and how our shift from Social Networking –> Social Media has become so problematic. Here is the crux of his argument:

That changed when social networking became social media around 2009, between the introduction of the smartphone and the launch of Instagram. Instead of connection—forging latent ties to people and organizations we would mostly ignore—social media offered platforms through which people could publish content as widely as possible, well beyond their networks of immediate contacts. Social media turned you, me, and everyone into broadcasters (if aspirational ones). The results have been disastrous but also highly pleasurable, not to mention massively profitable—a catastrophic combination.

Early social platforms had a heavy focus on the “network”. Connect with your friends, but live your life. Few remember, but the first two years of Facebook had no news feed. If you wanted to see what your friends were up to, you needed to visit their each of their profiles individually. When they rolled out the news feed in 2006, people weren’t ready for it (it caused huge backlash and threats of boycott), but users learned to get used to it, and now can’t live without it.

The ability in the last 15 years for us to all become publishers is indeed a great thing, but it’s also the cause of many of our issues today.

So what’s the solution? There’s not an easy one. Now that people are used to being publishers to the world, undoing that will be very slow and difficult, if not impossible. As Bogost says near the end of his article, “It’s seemingly as hard to give up on social media as it was to give up smoking en masse, like Americans did in the 20th century.“

I encourage you to check out his full article to learn more.

We’re at peak USB-C; is the next adaptor simply nothing?

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Seven years ago, I wrote a post saying that you were going to love USB-C ports, and I think it’s held up well. I’m at the point now where literally every device that I own can be charged with a USB-C cable:

  • Pixel Phone
  • iPad
  • Chromebook
  • reMarkable tablet
  • Kindle
  • Verizon hotspot

There’s probably more that I’m not thinking of, but it’s fantastic! Being able to use the same cord to charge all of those devices was something we could only dream about a decade ago.

The only major outstanding device is the iPhone, which still uses their proprietary Lightning connection. However, the EU recently passed a law that will essentially force Apple to switch to USB-C, which is great news for everyone. There are downsides to it, but I think the upside is worth it.

What’s next?

That leads to the inevitable question of what comes next? The way the EU law is written, it will be difficult to ever replace USB-C with a different kind of connection, but perhaps that’s ok. I think we’ll see USB-C dominate for a couple of years, but then fairly quickly be replaced by wireless charging.

We actually saw a phone come out in 2019 that had no ports on it at all and required wireless charging, though it was a bit too early to the game. Wireless charging is gaining acceptance, so I think the next phone that tries to go portless in a couple of years might succeed. The fact that we already have a widely accepted wireless standard (you may have noticed that Android phones and iPhones use the game technology for that) will help it gain acceptance more quickly.

It’ll be at least a few more years after that until laptops and tablets go full wireless, but it’s coming.

In the meantime, enjoy USB-C on every single device that comes out in the next few years and we’ll see what the future brings us.