No matter what model/app I play with, I always come back to ChatGPT. Not necessarily because its got the best AI model. Rather, because I’ve created the most efficient workflows for solving problems.

Ben Thomson at Stratechery said it well:

ChatGPT has the most complete suite of features of any of the model providers and that counts for a lot. But only if you actually use those features to solve problems.

Summary Table

NOTE: You also need the following prerequisites to get the most value out of ChatGPT - (1) ChatGPT Plus subscription (just do it) (2) Native app (3) Desktop app.

Detailed Breakdown

1. Voice Mode - The single biggest unlock for ChatGPT - but you need to invest time to get comfortable. One thing I found recently is that you can just leave the desktop apps voice mode on in the background while you work and as things pop up it will catch them but otherwise leave you alone. See more discussion of voice here.

   

2. ChatGPT App with hotkeys - Bring down the barriers to accessing ChatGPT by assigning hotkeys for the desktop app that instantly invoke the chat. The default is Option + Space, but I did it as Option + Command + C so that I could do Option + Command + P for perplexity.

3. InPainting (Change parts of image) - Best illustrated with an example: Recently I asked ChatGPT to generate an image of a Lllama celebrating Hanukkah and got the wrong number of candles in the menorah:

   

   So I clicked the select button at the top, highlighted the area that needs fixing and said: “4 candles on each side of the menorah and one in the middle” and it fixed it without changing the rest of the image

   

4. Extract prompt from image: When you ask for and refine an image throughout a conversation, ChatGPT is actually building an image prompt for you. You can extract that prompt to edit it or reuse it in the future by clicking on the image and clicking the “i”:

   

5. Memory: As you go through your day-to-day you will probably see ChatGPT update its memory. This can be useful and creepy. I would recommend managing your memory closely or even consider turning it off as bad things can happen if you don’t manage it. I get a lot of value out of it, but also audit it alot

   

6. Custom Instructions: Whereas memory is the day-to-day collection of what ChatGPT learns about you, you should also use system instruction to set rules and guidelines of how you want ChatGPT to behave. Lots of good templates out there to use as starting points

   

7. Code Interpreter (Advanced Data Analysis) - ChatGPT is really good at data analysis. Try uploading a spreadsheet, connecting to a google sheet, pasting in a picture of a table from a book and it can extract data, manipulate it, add columns, calculate, create graphs and make all the data easily exportable. Below is my prompt for making the table above. After executing this prompt, I asked it to come up with a category for each and brainstorm additional features I wasn’t thinking of to add as rows.

   

8. CustomGPTs: Think of these as reusable prompts on steroids. If there are categories of tasks you often complete, it will behoove you to create a customGPT for that category of tasks. Below is the customGPT I use for this blog. Rather than trying to get each image I generate to look similar, I have a base prompt in the instructions. When I have it do outlining or drafting, I have it do it based on the writing samples doc I uploaded:

   

   There is a whole marketplace of GPTs but most of them are useless. Oddly enough, the only public one I use consistently is a Youtube Video Summarizer.

9. Search History: The last two are about managing your conversations. I find myself often searching for old conversations and wanting to grab topics from multiple related conversations. The first one is searching your conversation history and if you aren’t already aware of this you are welcome. If you want to find something from a previous conversation you simply have to do CMD+K on mac (or ctrl+K on PC) and you get a really quick and easy interface for finding past conversations:

   

10. Projects (Newly announced): Last but certainly not least is the newly announced Projects feature. Now you can easily group conversations, files and custom instructions for specific projects in folders. I am going to be using this heavily, see launch video for some great demos.

Well, thats all ten. Hope this is helpful. Curious if I missed any and if this sort of app tear down is helpful. Drop me a note.