This is a live document that will evolve over time.

Notice here that the thing that takes up a great mindshare (AI) is also heavily used in creating my posts. But I will always highlight what is AI-generated in the post itself (hopefully not much)

Determining if long content is worth your time

Stick it into an AI and ask for a summary. The summaries aren't great and they often skim over the details that I actually find useful, but they often surface enough and/or highlight the conclusion or thesis that will help determine if I want to dive deeper into the post.

I fully comprehend that its actually engaging with the content (ie. reading and thinking deeply about what you read) that is of any value. But this is hard work, so let AI be the first-pass filter to decide if its worth that energy.

Engaging with interesting content

When I have decided some content is worth my time for a deep dive, I first read or watch the thing. I may highlight or take notes, but most often I just consume it. Then I take the article or transcript[1] and pop it into an AI. I then get its summary, which reminds me of the different topics. I can then ask for direct quotes and deeper explanations/reminders of key points that stuck out to me[2].

To write, I have my writing tool and the AI summary in a split-screen mode, so I can engage with the content I am "interrogating" as I write.

I acknowledge its easy for the AI to "shape" how I remember the content if I don't "fact-check" myself. So I still go back to the primary source to read around the quotes to ensure the sentiment and nuance is maintained.

Footnotes

1. You can find any number of free video-to-text transcription services out there. They mash all of the text together (don't separate by speaker) but its usually good enough to interrogate with an AI.
2. This is quite revolutionary for me, because I don't know if I ever "learned" how to properly read (ie. successfully engage with the content). This feels like a better version of "highlighting" the important bits you read, or certainly has the potential to be.