About Tools for Boosting Personal Efficiency, How venture capital might change with AI powered startups and tricks to Raise Exceptional Kids

Welcome to my inklings—random things that I find in the pursuit of “interestingness”. Grab a coffee and dive in! I'll share them whenever I have ten to send. You received this because you signed up for Henrik Werdelin’s or prehype’s newsletter. I also publish a podcast about AI, make dogs and their people happy, and help 10,000 entrepreneurs launch companies.

Ok, here we go:

1. Creating good prompts is getting easier but still requires experience. Noah Brier’s Prompt Generator is a great tool. Check out this framework to make your GPT write more human-like. Here's a helpful trick from Reddit.

2. I've been using more AI to boost efficiency. Recently, I explored Zapier and ChatGPT integration. Zapier lets you automate tasks without coding, integrating ChatGPT into your mail, calendar, and browsing apps. Here are a few ways I use it:

   • Turn long-form articles into to-dos with summaries.

   • Draft email replies using podcasts and blog posts as resources.

   • Forward emails to a bot to create smart calendar entries. What cool AI apps or hacks have you made?

   • I'm curious about what cool AI apps/hacks you guys have made?

3. Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 true fan model is perfect for entrepreneurs building AI-based niche companies. Focus on cultivating a dedicated group of passionate customers with a specific problem. Leveraging technology and authentic communication builds meaningful relationships. We call it “relationship capital” – defining your business by who you serve, not what you do.

   • Authentic Relationships: Consistent, genuine communication and high-quality work are key. AI tools will scale intimacy.

   • Small but Mighty: You only need a small, dedicated fan base to sustain a living. This could change early-stage venture investing.

   • Why it matters: This shift will disrupt early-stage venture investing while offer a new type of entrepreneurship to a wider group of founders.

4. I use Midjourney to generate most of my images. They finally launched a web version of their service, which includes an excellent ability to train it to produce the kind of images you like.

5. AI and the Paradox of Progress: We might have a future where AI handles all economically valuable work, fusion energy provides free, clean energy, and quantum computing offers new levels computational power. Nick Bostrom's Deep Utopia asks, What will humans do if technology solves everything? (Economist) In the short run, will productivity gains lead to more work or something else?

6. At BARK, we're implementing AI across the organization, using bots for everything from answering HR questions to checking if creative work is on brand. Here are four ways to find areas where AI can help:

   1. Communications between teams. Often, one team likes to get a certain input, but the team they work with doesn’t know how to produce that. It can be because it's a format that is hard to make or just because they don’t think like that. For example, designers like to have good briefs, but most business people don’t know how to write them. However, they can answer ten questions from a bot - and the bot can then draft a good brief.

   2. Calendar mining. Have a look at the team's calendar and identify recurring meetings. Often, these can be reduced or enhanced with AI. (especially if it's a big group meeting).

   3. Write a list of tasks for a summer MBA intern to do - then make a bot instead. Sorry MBA students :)

   4. Most things that live on an intranet can be turned into easier-to-use bots. RIP intranet…

7. As new types of startups are launched on top of AI, it seems apparent that we need to create a new form of investing. At Audos, we are currently experimenting with “Investment Royalties” - offering founders cash to buy ads and product dev in return for a revenue split. Model seems promising - more to come on that.

8. AI video is really starting to take off. Here is a fully AI-generated TV commercial for Volvo made in 24 hours. Insight, besides the power of AI, is that the maker is a car ad photographer; AI needs direction. The better the domain expertise, the better the output. Here are some links: Hollywood-level AI video. HeyGen is a synthetic version of yourself maker. Turns napkin sketch into animation. Sora - OpenAi’s video maker.

9. I have two young sons, so I am reading a lot about how to give them great tools for happy and successful living. Henrik Karlsson did a review of “Childhoods of Exceptional People.” The TLDL is:

   1. Curate an Intellectual Environment: Surround your children with intellectually stimulating people and activities. Invite knowledgeable friends, engage in deep conversations, and expose your kids to various intellectual fields to foster a rich learning environment.

   2. Encourage Self-Directed Learning: Allow your children time to explore their interests independently. Provide access to books, tools, and resources that enable them to pursue their passions without constant supervision. The concept of "10,000 hours" of deliberate practice is crucial for achieving mastery.

   3. Be Involved in Their Learning Process: Integrate your children into your work and intellectual pursuits. Let them observe and participate in your professional activities, discuss your work with them, and encourage them to ask questions and contribute ideas.

   4. Provide One-on-One Tutoring: Dedicate time to personally tutor your children or arrange for them to receive personalized instruction from experts. Tailored teaching can significantly enhance their understanding and interest in various subjects.

   5. I am trying to figure out how to make them more bored. Hoping it will teach them to come up with things to do. So, we started a no-screen Sunday rule (and a weekday limit). It's a small step, but a bright spot is that my ten-year-old has gotten interested in Chess… (The downside is that I would like him to be bored without me… and no screens on Sundays seems even harder for us parents :)
      

10. We just dropped a new episode of our podcast Beyond the Prompt - this one with Shir, who leads AI for Notion. She talks about all their initiatives, how professional dancing has given her a way to think about failing - and she shares fantastic tips on using AI in your organization. My favorite is to do activities that are not really core skills, but it is also sort of your job - like writing performance reviews for your team.

This is my third newsletter. Tell me what works and what doesn’t - or just drop me a line. You can reply to this, start a chat on the Substack app, or catch me on Linkedin.

I hope you find any of the inklings useful. If you did, kindly share the newsletter with this link. Good vibes.

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