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Productivity Pros,
The best way to get more from AI is to improve your prompts. The quality of your outputs depends on the quality of your inputs.
I just published eight key ingredients of an effective prompt. They employ sophisticated strategies and the latest best practices to harness the full power of AI and foster useful, insightful responses:
If you're eager to try the viral Dia web browser, I may have an invitation for you:
- Like and comment on the video within the next 48 hours.
- Reply here to confirm.
- I'll have Claude randomly pick three lucky recipients.
And below, recent AI news you can't miss (including a challenger to Dia). As always, if you find it helpful, thank me with a share. 🦾
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Onward 🦾,
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xAI
Grok is equally powerful and controversial. A roundup of xAI's recent whirlwind:
- July 8 — Grok began producing blatantly antisemitic outputs—praising Hitler, calling itself "MechaHitler," and repeating stereotypes—prompting xAI to delete the posts, apologize, and tighten system prompts to prevent recurrence.
- July 10 — xAI released Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy, with owner Elon Musk claiming it's "smarter than almost all graduate students, in all disciplines, simultaneously" and outperforms rival models in benchmark tests.
- July 12 — Tesla began rolling out Grok AI via an over-the-air update, allowing occupants to communicate with the chatbot by voice.
- July 14 — xAI introduced AI "Companions" for SuperGrok subscribers, featuring the 3D animated personas Ani, a flirtatious anime-style character, and Rudy, a rebellious red panda. A "NSFW" mode unlocks sexual content.
Nutt's Notes
As concerns mount over the social impact of AI, especially on the mental health of children, most AI labs are carefully balancing guardrails with authenticity. But xAI is all-in on unfiltered "truth-seeking." While that's beneficial in theory, in reality, Grok's X (formerly Twitter)-heavy training data is a far cry from the truth. For that reason, I'd mostly exclude Grok from my chatbot rotation—but in a rapidly evolving AI landscape, the sophistication of Grok 4 is too compelling to ignore.
Perplexity
Perplexity is rolling out the agentic browser that may upend our interaction with the web.
- Perplexity threatened Google Search by ditching blue links in favor of insightful syntheses. With Comet, it's now putting the heat on Google Chrome.
- Comet is a web browser with built-in AI agents, readily available in your search bar and sidebar.
- When you prompt them as you would a chatbot, they can reference your open tabs and all the information you manage in web apps—email, calendar, cloud drives, docs and spreadsheets, and productivity apps like Notion.
- And they can take action, like replying to emails, comparing and purchasing products, and booking reservations.
- Comet is available now to Perplexity Max subscribers and rolling out incrementally to members of the waitlist.
Nutt's Notes
- AI-native browsers mark a significant milestone in this AI revolution. They'll transform how we engage with the web and leverage AI.
- I've been using Dia, and it seems that OpenAI will launch its own soon.
- They're nascent, but it's already clear how wildly beneficial it is to have an AI chatbot or agent infused into your browser vs. accessing them in dedicated apps.
- Some experts say these browsers are shortsighted, however, as conversational agents will ultimately do our browsing for us, with no need for websites.
Need-to-Know in AI
- ChatGPT's Record Mode is now available to Plus subscribers. The feature transcribes and summarizes meetings or voice notes (currently on the macOS app only).
- The
AI() function is now available to "100% of Sheets users." It's a powerful feature that lets you create an "AI column" that prompts Gemini for each row of the Sheet. The core use case is generating personalized messaging for a mail merge or social media.
- Anthropic (finally) published a directory of tools you can connect, including new additions Notion and Coda.
- Anthropic also debuted Claude for Financial Services.
- Google's popular learning app NotebookLM, which converts any content to podcast-style audio, launched featured notebooks curated by topic experts.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed his top uses of AI. (Spoiler: They're research and tutoring.)
- Shortcut, a new add-in for Excel, analyzes and makes updates to your spreadsheets from natural-language prompts. It's more capable than the native Copilot and scored a sky-high 80% at the Excel World Championship.
- For Google Workspace users, Gems are now accessible from the side panel of Docs, Sheets, Gmail and other apps. (Like custom GPTs, Gems are custom versions of Gemini tailored for specific tasks, with your knowledge sources and preferences preconfigured. They're among my top recommendations for leveraging AI.)
- OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft are among partners on the National Academy for AI Instruction, which aims to train 400,000 K–12 teachers to integrate AI ethically into their classrooms.
Red-Hot Resources
The Bulletproof Framework for Notion
The Bulletproof framework is my flagship contribution to the Notion universe, helping millions of users maximize the app. With the debut of Version 4, it reset the standard for Notion Workspaces. If you're not using it or learning from it, take the tour, then join Notion A-to-Z for full access to Bulletproof and all other templates and resources from Notion VIP.
There's a version for Coda, too, if that's you preference.
Create Your Team of Personalized AI Assistants
The #1 way to harness AI is to create a team of specialized, personalized assistants. Here's how to do it in a snap.
Notion Flowchart Generator
Easily generate Mermaid code for rendering useful and beautiful flowcharts in Notion's Code blocks.
10 Crucial Roles of AI in Your Workflow
Ten ways everyone should use AI reflexively throughout their day to boost eficiency and productivity.
Your 10-Minute Jumpstart to Formulas 2.0
I'm actively creating tutorials on the essential formulas and functions used in the Notion Wealth Tracker. This jumpstart is an essential prerequisite.
The WWWH Prompting Framework
The quality of your responses from AI is a function of the quality of your prompts. My WWWH framework ensures you provide the information the AI needs, in a format it will understand.
The 12 Golden Rules of Notion
I've developed countless workspaces and worked intensively with the Notion team, top experts, and users of all stripes. Along the way, I established a set of core principles for maximizing Notion. They underpin every strategy I hone and resource I craft. Skip years of learning the hard way, and let them guide your own approach to Notion.
Next-Generation Wealth Tracker for Google Sheets
This sophisticated wealth tracker leverages the latest features of Google Sheets to create a simple, powerful tool for managing your entire net worth in one familiar place. And it's an extraordinary way to master Google Sheets.
Notion vs. Coda: 30 Key Differences
You've seen Notion inspire a whole new app category that’s redefining productivity. But it’s not doing it alone: Coda is just as instrumental in the rise of “all-in-one” apps.
They’re built on the same foundational concept, but Notion and Coda have distinct differences that suit them for particular users. The best one for you depends on your priorities.
To make it easy to find your match, I conducted a methodical comparison that revealed the most consequential differences between Notion and Coda.
Animated Page Covers
You can make your Notion pages look stunning with animated covers. But choose them carefully: Stick to gradients and subtle patterns to avoid distractions, and use SVGs over GIFs, which are grainy and bulky. To make that easy, I aggregated my best animated covers for you to preview and download instantly. Six are available for free. Members of Notion A-to-Z get more than 40.
Create Stunning Card Previews
One of the best ways to enrich a Notion workspace is the Gallery database layout with robust card previews. That's partly what makes the Bulletproof Framework such an exceptional Notion experience. So I created a tool for generating
similar cards for your own workspaces.
Tools of the Modern Professional
Tried and true tools that fuel the Nutt Labs machine.
- Fillout — One of my top-5 productivity principals is collecting information through forms, never freeform docs or especially email. Fillout is the best tool for it—and much more.
- Tally — Another incredible form tool—simpler than Fillout if you don't need the bells and whistles.
- Cal.com — The booming Calendly alternative with robust integrations and automations.
- Wispr — Another top-5 productivity principal: Speak, don't type. Wispr transcribes and polishes your spoken word in any app—desktop or mobile.
- Voicenotes — And Voicenotes captures your rambling ideas, then tidies and formats however you need them.
- Otter — My go-to for transcribing, summarizing, and organizing meetings. I love Otter for its versatility and rich UI.
- Notion — The all-in-one app that stole my heart and ignited my success when I launched Notion VIP. It's the operating system of my business and life.
- Coda — An all-in-one app like Notion, but with more horsepower.
- Lindy — The AI-first automated workflow builder. (And cheaper than Zapier.)
- Make — The most affordable, yet dependable, automated workflow builder.
- Screen Studio — Ever wonder how I capture those silky smooth zooms in my screen recordings? They're automated with Screen Studio—an indispensable tool in my production workflow.
- Ideogram — The top AI image generator, with exceptional ability to generate text and an elegant interface.
- Descript — My indispensable video production app with innovative script-based editing. It also converts my cruddy audio to studio sound.
- ElevenLabs — The top AI voice generator. It's just a few updates from allowing me to ditch recording and use text-to-speech exclusively. Can't. Wait.
- Softr — The easiest way to build powerful web apps that integrate seamlessly with Notion, Airtable, Google Sheets, et al.
- Super — Hands-down, the best way to publish Notion as a website, with a custom design and domain. The Super team upholds incredibly high standards.
- Lovable — The #1 way to create sophisticated, gorgeous web apps through natural-language AI—AKA "vibe coding."
- Robinhood — The app that democratized investing is becoming a full-fledged financial services company. I love everything Robinhood does—and you can't beat its unlimited 3%-back credit card. With this link, you'll get a gift stock when you join.
- Mercury — Banking services exceedingly well tailored for modern professionals. Truly among the best experiences across categories.
- Wealthfront — My indispensable destination for earning interest on cash and automated investing. Wealthfront consistently offers the highest APY and simplest UX.
Let's supercharge your workflow.
I help ambitious professionals leverage next-generation tools to achieve profound efficiency and productivity. If you're serious about modernizing your workflow to maximize your performance 👇
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