Quick reminder that I’m hosting a free workshop tomorrow, Wed., July 16, at 12 pm ET (view in your timezone).
I’m teaching you some of the most powerful business frameworks from our Second Brain Enterprise program.
You'll learn...
- The 4 stages of business evolution — why Stage 1 businesses depend entirely on the owner's time and energy while Stage 4 businesses "run themselves with AI" (and exactly how to identify which stage you're in and how to get to the next one)
- Why process is the secret to AI evolution — the counterintuitive reason you must document everything before you can automate anything (get this wrong and AI becomes your most expensive mistake)
- The 3-part iterative cycle we use to help businesses concretely identify and act on their biggest opportunities for AI augmentation, in a way they can continue pursuing on their own
- Why “DIY AI” keeps you stuck, and how to escape the trap of never-ending learning
- Examples and case studies of transformational pilot programs that our students have achieved after completing our program, to spark your imagination
What Works (And What Doesn’t) with LLM Prompting
This interview with Sander Schulhoff, the original prompt engineer who coined the term, is one of the best interviews on LLM prompting I've seen.
He covers a variety of the most effective prompting techniques today, including few shot prompting, decomposition, and self-criticism.
Even ones I hadn't heard of like "ensemble prompting," which involves asking an LLM to solve the same problem from multiple different angles, using different approaches, and then combining them into one final solution.
He also talks about older methods that no longer work with the latest models, such as giving the LLM a "role" ("You are a world class marketing strategist...")
Sander also ran the largest ever study on prompting techniques, analyzing over 1,500 papers and covering 200+ techniques. You can find it here.
Your AI Usage Isn't Brain Rot
That viral MIT study showing decreased brain activity when using ChatGPT? It's not the bad news everyone thinks it is.
This Substack post by Venkatesh Rao makes an interesting counter-point.
When you use AI, your brain shifts into "supervisory control"—the same neural pattern managers use when overseeing teams. Instead of doing every task yourself, you're delegating, monitoring, and integrating results.
This is exactly what happens when knowledge workers get promoted. Your attention moves from deep task execution to short bursts of oversight, feedback, and quality control.
The real opportunity isn't to use AI less—it's to get better at management skills that most of us never learned:
- Delegation protocols: How to give clear, specific instructions
- Quality gates: Setting standards for acceptable output
- Exception handling: Knowing when to step in vs. let it run
- Fact-checking systems: Verifying AI outputs before using them
The future belongs to people who can effectively supervise both human and artificial intelligence.
Action step: Pick one management skill from the list above and practice it this week with your AI tools. Notice how your "oversight mindset" changes your results.
What management skill are you developing with AI? Reply and let me know what you're discovering.
A Free Learning Guide You’ll Actually Use (From Ed Latimore)
I want to share a free resource with you from someone I really respect—Ed Latimore. If you don’t know Ed yet, he’s a former professional heavyweight boxer, physics graduate, and bestselling author.
His background is as eclectic as it is inspiring: raised in public housing, overcame addiction, earned a physics degree in his 30s, and taught himself Spanish, chess, and writing along the way.
Ed just published a free guide, The 5 Pillars of Learning Mastery.
It’s a short, high-impact manual on how to actually learn difficult things—especially when you don’t feel like the “type” who’s naturally good at them.
In the guide, Ed breaks down:
- Why identifying the real problem is step one of any learning challenge
- How mastering fundamentals in boxing helped him finally conquer college calculus
- Why teaching is one of the most powerful tools for retention and clarity
- The difference between repetition that works and repetition that wastes your time
- How shifting from a fixed to a growth mindset unlocked every breakthrough in his life
Make Time for Big Ideas
I’ve always loved learning from books. But after having kids, finding uninterrupted hours to read just isn’t realistic anymore.
That’s why I turn to Shortform — it delivers thoughtful, in-depth summaries of the best nonfiction books, so you can absorb big ideas without missing the substance.
You’ll find titles like Feel Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal and Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, plus an ever-growing library spanning topics like career, psychology, leadership, and creativity.
Why I recommend Shortform:
- Expert breakdowns and key insights
- Related ideas and counterpoints from other books
- Available in audio and print
- Practical exercises to help you apply what you learn
Thanks to Shortform for sponsoring this newsletter.
