Episode Details

“Filip, so how do you actually use AI?”

I get this question so often that I started keeping a list. It sat in my notes for a long time, and the summer holidays were the perfect excuse to turn it into a special. Here it is.

The starting point

I’ve always been the kind of person who has to be doing X things at once. Sometimes it’s an advantage, sometimes it isn’t, but that would be a different special. My main job is growing Good Sailors, on top of that I run innovation at M2C, I help out at the Innovation Centre of the Ústí Region, I write Zprávy z lesa and 11 Houses, I sit on the municipal council in Doubice, I’m a member of the Bohemian Switzerland National Park Council and a volunteer ranger. Plus mentoring at a couple of startup accelerators, and I’m always happy to sit on the jury of Křišťálová Lupa (the Czech internet awards), Nápad roku (Idea of the Year) or Firma roku (Company of the Year). Sometimes I give talks about entrepreneurship or about life in Greece - schools are probably my favourite audience. Seeing it all in one place does rather raise the question of whether it isn’t a bit much :-). But when you enjoy all of it… (note from my proofreader, also known as my wife: yes, it is too much!)

Today I genuinely can’t imagine doing all of this without using AI every single day. I’d either have to cut things out, or I’d already be as burnt out as the forest around Pravčická Brána (and after the 2022 wildfire here, that isn’t only a metaphor).

Where AI helps me and where it doesn’t

Pretty much everywhere - it sorts and answers email, it helps with strategy, with projects, with client proposals. The list of things where none of the tools gets involved anywhere in the process is very short. But it isn’t empty.

AI doesn’t help me choose the content for Zprávy z lesa, and it doesn’t help me choose the properties for 11 Houses. I’m not saying I haven’t tried. It just isn’t it. Even the presentations I put together I still mostly build by hand in Keynote, because the world is already drowning in decks made by Claude that the person presenting doesn’t actually understand.

It doesn’t help me with personal direction, with planning the important tasks and life priorities. And I think that’s going to matter more and more. AI will help you with the running of things, but you have to be the one holding the rudder. I’ll come back to that at the end.

The tools

Let me just list them so I don’t ramble on about the details. You want a list of tools and a list of use cases anyway…

* Claude - most of how I operate revolves around it. I have a pile of projects in there and I’ve connected it to everything I possibly can. We have the company version, so we share projects with colleagues. Some of them run tenders in it, some of them code in it.

* Perplexity - I use it because I get it free with my Revolut account. Unfortunately Revolut is now switching from Perplexity to ChatGPT, so my free ride is nearly over. I use it for everyday information lookup, basically instead of Google. Perplexity Computer isn’t a bad solution either, worth a try.

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