highsignal AI Reading Assistant: How To Create a Customized Reading and Retention Tool in 10 minutes
Maximizing Your Learning Potential: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Slack, ChatGPT, Zapier, and Google Sheets to Transform Your Reading and Retention Skills
Google vs. ChatGPT: Which Is the Better Tool for Answering Questions While Reading?
Step aside Google. ChatGPT is better to use while reading than Google because it is specifically designed to generate human-like text based on the input it receives. This means that it can provide more context and detail in its responses, making it a more helpful and accurate resource for understanding and retaining information.
Meanwhile, Google often provides users with a wide range of search results when they look up information, many of which may not be directly relevant to the topic at hand or may not be presented in a concise and easily understandable format. This can make it difficult for readers to quickly find the information they need and can also lead to confusion or misunderstandings.
Using ChatGPT as your Reading Assistant
While you’re reading you can ask ChatGPT your questions as if it were your own personal tutor rather than Google and sifting through links.
Right now, you can log into ChatGPT, answer the captcha, and ask your questions.
Here’s the problem:
If you switch devices or start a new session you will have to log back in and your answers may not be saved/easily searchable in the interface. Also, what happens if you switch accounts or OpenAI decides to monetize ChatGPT at a fee you are unwilling to pay?
Here’s the solution:
The Process:
It’s as easy as 123…it’s fast and works just the same on mobile and desktop.
Be curious while reading
Ask a question in Slack
Press Push to Zapier
Your question prompts ChatGPT for an answer which is automatically logged to the specified spreadsheet as displayed above.
Now that we have a general understanding of the problem and solution, let's get into the tutorial where I walk you through the steps of building and implementing the reading assistant.
Creating a Customized Reading and Retention Tool: Prerequisites
You will need the following accounts/services for this set up:
Zapier
OpenAI Account
Google Sheets
Slack
This tool involves multi-step zap which requires a premium plan ($20/mo), however, you can test out premium features with a 1-week free trial.
Creating a Customized Reading and Retention Tool: Putting it All Together
Step 1: Configure Slack
Create a dedicated slack channel to use to “talk” to your assistant.
I have a personal slack workspace and added a channel called #askchatgpt for this specific tool.
Step 2: Create the Zap
This step allows Zapier to use the message in the slack channel you created to trigger OpenAI.
Triggering OpenAI requires an API key. To get the API Key you will need to:
Log in to your OpenAI account:
Click the Icon in the upper right corner, in this case “G Personal”
Click “View API Keys” and then copy paste the secret key in the “Choose Account” field in the Zapier prompt.
In the below steps you are specifying which sheet Zapier will copy paste the Slack question and ChatGPT response to. I created a sheet for this specific book, however, you can get more creative with it. For example, you could create a spreadsheet for a specific genre and a worksheet for different books within that same genre.
Privacy Protip: Zapier requires access to all of your Drive information. I have a dedicated Google account/browser profile for services and extensions that request such broad permissions. I highly recommend using a non-primary Gmail to reduce the potential of leaks of sensitive information.
Now that the Zap is set up correctly you are ready to go full gigabrain on your reading list with your AI reading assistant.
We hope that this guide has been helpful and that you have learned something new about creating your very own highsignal AI reading assistant. If you found this guide useful, please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues who might also be interested in augmenting their learning. Additionally, if you want to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in tech and investing be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.