Matt - I can just see Jane not missing a beat and saying “so, what three apps are you going to do?” And you immediately thinking “Damn, I did it again!” 😂😂
Excellent quick uptake on the impact of AI as a tool for you in your personal life, and getting on with it. Only question is, you say, Can your creativity keep up? Now that we're moving toward the other side of scarity and constraint. Actually, learning how to focus our excitment to projects actually aligned with our time here today and each day going forward is quite important. Thanks for sharing these useful products of your creativity.
Very interesting post Matt. Impressive collection of apps. I was curious, you mentioned that you had a "meet up at the farm" ... is that a collection of ex-pats residing in Uruguay?
Matt: Well presented and inspirational. Great examples of using AI tools to forge practical solutions to everyday nook and cranny problems. And thanks for spurring us on.
Hi Matt, thanks for sharing your journey and your progress, I have to say I have not invested any time on learning how to do what you are doing, but you got a point, and whether we like it or not, AI will not stop and as we grow older if we do not self train ourselves on what can be done, what benefits we can get out of it, we will definitely be left behind, so I do appreciate you sharing how you have thought about it and what you are doing, thank you, learnt a lot today. Best wishes. Fernando
Good article and super cool ideas and products you've got here Matt!
I downloaded Better Bookshelf and scanned some books with it already. Some feedback on this is I have a bunch of old/antique books that don't have ISBN codes at all. A feature where we can type in the book's name and author where AI can find as much info as possible still and add it to the book shelf would be handy. I don't see anyway to manually add books at all besides scanning ISBN codes, unless I'm missing it?
Besides that, it looks like HomeTend and BetterBookshelf sites are down. Can't access them for some reason. Really like all that you've been building and love seeing you get into the development/shipping stuff with AI! It's a no brainer to build things for yourself at a minimum. ScreenStash and DoneBox seem super useful to me and I'd use them as well. Interested when those become available too.
I've been using Codex and ChatGPT mostly to build ideas I've had for a long time. For the last 4 month though I was stuck in a loop of using ChatGPT as a high level researcher/PRD/MVP planner and God tier prompt engineer where I would go back and forth with ChatGPT and Codex; copy/pasting messages between both and being a middle man. It works really well for the way I build and plan ideas but drains all energy and still takes too much time. Just yesterday I finally built a custom bridge between Codex and ChatGPT Work that basically does the same thing without me: Codex does the work and provides all status changes and files created/updated, security results, new features, etc. But instead of me copy/pasting it to ChatGPT, ChatGPT just gets it directly and makes the next phased development pormpt for Codex to conitnue. I now just talk with ChatGPT and plan out specifics and ChatGPT manages Codex. Crazy stuff! I mostly build niche directories, job boards, marketplaces that I can monetize. I have SaaS and AI ideas but my current focuses are a lot easier to build quickly and start getting organic traffic within a week with no advertising.
Anyway love to see the progress man! I'm not a dev/coder either and have learned a ton over the last 2 years since I've been doing all sorts of random stuff with AI. I recently even had AI finally track down the correct US and EU archives of my ancestors citizenship, birth, marriage records in order to finally confirm whether or not me/my family qualify for CBD (citizenship by descent) and we do! So we're going to start the process of claiming our EU citizenship soon. Cheers!
For books without barcode - when you’re in the scanning screen there are other options. Type in isbn, search for title, or take a picture of the cover, title and it’ll try to match for you.
Not wishing to be a naysayer here, but does each and every one of these ideas not boil down to ceding more ability and responsibility to Big Tech platforms and smartphones for basic tasks that a human can do - just because it's more "convenient"?
What's a human being supposed to do with themselves when armed with all of these tools brought to their logical conclusion?
John, you raise a good question. However, if you look at the history of mankind, the key pattern of progress was exactly this - ceding more responsibilities/task to tools and automation, including automation provided by others, and freeing your time for more important things.
Does Matt really need to remember where he stored his books, or is it better if he offloads that mental baggage to someone or something else, and uses the freed time/energy to do more phyle meetings or brainstorm a new product? As Matt follower, I would prefer the later.
You need not worry, human needs and problems we try to solve are endless. When, armed with robots and tools, humans will not run out of things to do, just the opposite - they will have more, bolder things to accomplish. This is proven by history itself and now also by Matt with his monthly tech startups.
To be very clear I am thinking of humans in general rather than those operating and creating at Matt's exceptional level.
Personally, if I am outsourcing to tools that are ever growing in remoteness and complexity, I feel the need to balance that cession of autonomy with the alternative purpose that time will be put to, and often struggle with that. It's a different ball game to buying a tool like a calculator, a dishwasher or a basic computer a decade ago. I have no idea what that equation or outcome looks like for the general pop.
But why do you bother about the fate of general pop? Only God knows the fate of humanity. Focus on your problems and preferences and will find a great balance between automation and self direction.
I'm building two apps, atm. One is starting out as a progressive web application (PWA). Upside with a pwa is that it works cross platform and doesn't require dealing with the Bigs. Downside, is that you don't get to leverage their marketplace.
I used to say that AI made me 10x more productive, but now it's more like 100x. It used to take a 12 person staff to accomplish a fraction of what I get done now and with much less bullshit.
I'm running local LLMs, too. I have four lightweight models running on an old iMac for technical and medical reference. You guys might want to checkout Nomic's GPT4All. What I really like is the ability to index local documents.
I took 30 years worth of handwritten notes from one of my hobbies; photographed them; fed them to ChatGPT; and then wrote a book complete with tables and charts. Then, I indexed the book with Llama. Now, I can query the AI to reference my own work!
Matt - I can just see Jane not missing a beat and saying “so, what three apps are you going to do?” And you immediately thinking “Damn, I did it again!” 😂😂
Great start for my day!!
no kidding!
Thank you Matt NoteStream 👍🏻
Excellent quick uptake on the impact of AI as a tool for you in your personal life, and getting on with it. Only question is, you say, Can your creativity keep up? Now that we're moving toward the other side of scarity and constraint. Actually, learning how to focus our excitment to projects actually aligned with our time here today and each day going forward is quite important. Thanks for sharing these useful products of your creativity.
Very interesting post Matt. Impressive collection of apps. I was curious, you mentioned that you had a "meet up at the farm" ... is that a collection of ex-pats residing in Uruguay?
Thanks!
Folks in phyle whether they live here now or happen to be visiting. We do it most months.
Matt: Well presented and inspirational. Great examples of using AI tools to forge practical solutions to everyday nook and cranny problems. And thanks for spurring us on.
Amazing, Matt!
Congratulations!
Thank you for sharing your experience and thought process.
Very inspiring.
Hi Matt, thanks for sharing your journey and your progress, I have to say I have not invested any time on learning how to do what you are doing, but you got a point, and whether we like it or not, AI will not stop and as we grow older if we do not self train ourselves on what can be done, what benefits we can get out of it, we will definitely be left behind, so I do appreciate you sharing how you have thought about it and what you are doing, thank you, learnt a lot today. Best wishes. Fernando
Good article and super cool ideas and products you've got here Matt!
I downloaded Better Bookshelf and scanned some books with it already. Some feedback on this is I have a bunch of old/antique books that don't have ISBN codes at all. A feature where we can type in the book's name and author where AI can find as much info as possible still and add it to the book shelf would be handy. I don't see anyway to manually add books at all besides scanning ISBN codes, unless I'm missing it?
Besides that, it looks like HomeTend and BetterBookshelf sites are down. Can't access them for some reason. Really like all that you've been building and love seeing you get into the development/shipping stuff with AI! It's a no brainer to build things for yourself at a minimum. ScreenStash and DoneBox seem super useful to me and I'd use them as well. Interested when those become available too.
I've been using Codex and ChatGPT mostly to build ideas I've had for a long time. For the last 4 month though I was stuck in a loop of using ChatGPT as a high level researcher/PRD/MVP planner and God tier prompt engineer where I would go back and forth with ChatGPT and Codex; copy/pasting messages between both and being a middle man. It works really well for the way I build and plan ideas but drains all energy and still takes too much time. Just yesterday I finally built a custom bridge between Codex and ChatGPT Work that basically does the same thing without me: Codex does the work and provides all status changes and files created/updated, security results, new features, etc. But instead of me copy/pasting it to ChatGPT, ChatGPT just gets it directly and makes the next phased development pormpt for Codex to conitnue. I now just talk with ChatGPT and plan out specifics and ChatGPT manages Codex. Crazy stuff! I mostly build niche directories, job boards, marketplaces that I can monetize. I have SaaS and AI ideas but my current focuses are a lot easier to build quickly and start getting organic traffic within a week with no advertising.
Anyway love to see the progress man! I'm not a dev/coder either and have learned a ton over the last 2 years since I've been doing all sorts of random stuff with AI. I recently even had AI finally track down the correct US and EU archives of my ancestors citizenship, birth, marriage records in order to finally confirm whether or not me/my family qualify for CBD (citizenship by descent) and we do! So we're going to start the process of claiming our EU citizenship soon. Cheers!
Awesome! Keep it up!
Both sites are live. Just make sure you go to .co not .com. https://www.hometend.co/https://www.betterbookshelf.co/
For books without barcode - when you’re in the scanning screen there are other options. Type in isbn, search for title, or take a picture of the cover, title and it’ll try to match for you.
Well done mate, now you’ve got me thinking thank you.
Awesome! That was my hope.
Not wishing to be a naysayer here, but does each and every one of these ideas not boil down to ceding more ability and responsibility to Big Tech platforms and smartphones for basic tasks that a human can do - just because it's more "convenient"?
What's a human being supposed to do with themselves when armed with all of these tools brought to their logical conclusion?
John, you raise a good question. However, if you look at the history of mankind, the key pattern of progress was exactly this - ceding more responsibilities/task to tools and automation, including automation provided by others, and freeing your time for more important things.
Does Matt really need to remember where he stored his books, or is it better if he offloads that mental baggage to someone or something else, and uses the freed time/energy to do more phyle meetings or brainstorm a new product? As Matt follower, I would prefer the later.
You need not worry, human needs and problems we try to solve are endless. When, armed with robots and tools, humans will not run out of things to do, just the opposite - they will have more, bolder things to accomplish. This is proven by history itself and now also by Matt with his monthly tech startups.
I agree with the principle Aram.
To be very clear I am thinking of humans in general rather than those operating and creating at Matt's exceptional level.
Personally, if I am outsourcing to tools that are ever growing in remoteness and complexity, I feel the need to balance that cession of autonomy with the alternative purpose that time will be put to, and often struggle with that. It's a different ball game to buying a tool like a calculator, a dishwasher or a basic computer a decade ago. I have no idea what that equation or outcome looks like for the general pop.
The true north always worked for me is if I'm building something or creating something then i'm on the right track. it's technologically agnostic
But why do you bother about the fate of general pop? Only God knows the fate of humanity. Focus on your problems and preferences and will find a great balance between automation and self direction.
I'm building two apps, atm. One is starting out as a progressive web application (PWA). Upside with a pwa is that it works cross platform and doesn't require dealing with the Bigs. Downside, is that you don't get to leverage their marketplace.
I used to say that AI made me 10x more productive, but now it's more like 100x. It used to take a 12 person staff to accomplish a fraction of what I get done now and with much less bullshit.
I'm running local LLMs, too. I have four lightweight models running on an old iMac for technical and medical reference. You guys might want to checkout Nomic's GPT4All. What I really like is the ability to index local documents.
I took 30 years worth of handwritten notes from one of my hobbies; photographed them; fed them to ChatGPT; and then wrote a book complete with tables and charts. Then, I indexed the book with Llama. Now, I can query the AI to reference my own work!
Great job, Matt. Very inspiring!
Well, to keep better track of my library for instance. We're not doing the Dewey Decimal system here in the Smith house so this sure helped