About this video

• Video Title: These ChatGPT Hacks Will Make You SO Productive It Feels Illegal
• Channel: theMITmonk
• Speakers: Not explicitly mentioned, but the transcript is from a single speaker.
• Duration: 16:23

Overview

This video outlines five advanced strategies for using ChatGPT to significantly boost productivity and decision-making. The speaker, drawing from experience in tech and AI, shares techniques that transform ChatGPT from a basic tool into a persistent, intelligent assistant capable of deep research, adversarial thinking, accelerated learning, and providing executive coaching.

Key takeaways

• Strategy 1: The Clone: Create a persistent AI persona by using the ESP framework (Extract, Synthesize, Projects) to give ChatGPT memory and context about your background, thinking style, and specific project needs, eliminating the need to re-explain yourself in new sessions.
• Strategy 2: The Swarm: Leverage ChatGPT's agent mode and visual capabilities to perform tasks in parallel. This includes delegating research, analyzing images, and gathering information efficiently, acting as an "army of powerful interns."
• Strategy 3: Devil's Advocate: Utilize ChatGPT for adversarial thinking by prompting it to critique your ideas, strategies, or plans. This helps identify blind spots and weaknesses that you might overlook due to the IKEA effect (over-valuing what you've created).
• Strategy 4: Neural Link: Accelerate learning by using ChatGPT to translate jargon, explain concepts at different levels of understanding (from a 5-year-old to a college student), and download actionable skills, effectively replacing expensive bootcamps.
• Strategy 5: Executive Coach: Employ ChatGPT as a mirror for decision-making and emotional regulation. This involves ranting to organize thoughts, reframing setbacks using stoic principles, and talking through major decisions to clarify your own reasoning.
• The Human Edge: As AI becomes more commonplace, the speaker emphasizes that our true advantage lies in our humanity—our emotions, compassion, and ability to connect—which AI can help us rediscover by freeing us from rote labor.

The three tricks to make ChatGPT act as an executive coach are:

1. The Vomit Mirror: When overwhelmed, prompt ChatGPT to listen to you rant for a set time without interruption. Afterward, ask it to organize your expressed thoughts into three lists: problems you can solve today, problems to delegate, and noise to ignore.
2. The Stoic Mirror: When facing a setback (like losing a deal or getting fired), ask ChatGPT to reframe the situation using Stoic principles, explaining why it might be an opportunity. Engage in a conversation where both you and the AI push back on the reframing until you gain clarity.
3. The Decision Mirror: Before making a significant decision (like quitting a job or starting a company), discuss it with ChatGPT. Present your plan and logic, and have a conversation. The goal is not to take ChatGPT's advice, but to clarify your own thinking and judgment by talking it through.

Strategy 1: The Clone — Build a Persistent AI That Knows You

This strategy focuses on giving ChatGPT a persistent memory and understanding of your individual context, preferences, and background. The goal is to avoid starting from scratch with each new interaction.

• The Problem: Standard ChatGPT sessions have no memory between chats. You have to re-explain who you are, what you do, and your context every time.
• The Solution: ESP Framework:
  • E - Extract: Use voice mode to "interview" yourself. Instruct ChatGPT to act as your Chief of Staff and ask you detailed questions about your background, tone, strategy, and blind spots for 20-30 minutes. Don't self-edit; this is about raw capture.
  • S - Synthesize: Upload the transcript of this interview to ChatGPT. Ask it to organize this raw data into a concise summary of "who you are and how you think." Then, paste this summary into ChatGPT's "Custom Instructions" settings. This also includes specifying how you want responses formatted (e.g., always use tables, no walls of text) and any behaviors to avoid.
  • P - Projects: Create separate "projects" within ChatGPT (conceptually, by managing context within specific chat threads or using custom instructions per project). For each project (e.g., consulting work, YouTube channel, health), upload relevant files like your resume, PDFs, and data. You can customize instructions further within each project's context. This prevents mixing domains and keeps information organized.
• The Result: ChatGPT acts like a persistent brain, remembering your context, preferences, and project-specific information, allowing for more efficient and personalized interactions.

Strategy 2: The Swarm — Agent Mode, Vision, and Deep Research

This strategy transforms ChatGPT into an army of agents capable of handling multiple complex tasks simultaneously, leveraging its visual input and research capabilities.

• The Problem: Humans are limited to handling one task at a time, making complex projects overwhelming. ChatGPT is often confined to a text-based interface.
• The Solution: Utilize three advanced capabilities:
  • Agent Mode ("Your Hands"): Instead of single-tasking, use ChatGPT's agent capabilities to dispatch multiple requests at once. For example, ask it to find 550 leads in the SaaS space, verify their emails, and rank them by revenue. Let it run tasks in parallel while you focus elsewhere. The limitation is that it cannot directly input data into external systems like CRMs.
  • Visual Analysis ("Your Eyes"): Leverage ChatGPT's ability to analyze images. Upload photos of whiteboards, broken parts, or complex dashboards and ask for analysis, identification of issues, and proposed solutions. This extends its capabilities beyond text, allowing it to "see" and interpret visual information.
  • Deep Research ("Your Research Assistant"): Use ChatGPT to conduct in-depth research that would traditionally require expensive human analysts. An example is given of a CTO using ChatGPT to analyze 300 pages of dense technical information about a data center in an afternoon, a task that would have previously taken weeks.
• The Result: You gain an army of AI assistants that can perform research, data analysis, and task execution concurrently, significantly speeding up project completion and information processing.

Strategy 3: Devil's Advocate — Force Adversarial Thinking

This strategy involves using ChatGPT to challenge your own ideas and reasoning, preventing confirmation bias and the "IKEA effect" where you become overly attached to your own creations.

• The Problem: Humans naturally fall in love with their own ideas and plans, making it difficult to spot flaws in their own thinking (the IKEA effect). We tend to seek validation rather than critical assessment.
• The Solution: Force ChatGPT to act as a critical challenger:
  • Magic Triggers: Instead of asking general questions like "What do you think?", use specific prompts that force critical analysis. Examples include: "Audit this using first principles" or "Act as my fierce competitor and critique this proposal."
  • Shadow Boxing: Simulate challenging scenarios. For instance, ask ChatGPT to simulate a debate between a skeptical Venture Capitalist and a visionary product designer regarding your business idea. This allows you to see how your idea holds up against tough questioning and identify weak points before facing real-world scrutiny.
  • Blind Spot Check: Provide ChatGPT with your strategy or reasoning and ask it specifically, "Based on what you know about me (from Strategy 1), what are the gaps in my reasoning?" This leverages the AI's understanding of your patterns to uncover personal biases.
• The Result: By using ChatGPT for "violation" (challenging your ideas) instead of validation, you uncover potential flaws, strengthen your plans, and avoid costly mistakes driven by ego or confirmation bias.

Strategy 4: Neural Link — Learn Fast Without Fake Fluency

This strategy focuses on using ChatGPT to achieve deep understanding and mastery of subjects quickly, avoiding superficial "fluency without foundation."

• The Problem: Many people use AI to simply copy-paste smart-sounding phrases, creating an illusion of knowledge without true comprehension (like Max Plank's chauffeur). This leads to "fake fluency."
• The Solution: Employ techniques to ensure genuine learning:
  • Jargon Translator: Ask ChatGPT to explain complex concepts using analogies related to things you already understand. For example, explaining an API using a restaurant metaphor (menu=documentation, kitchen=server, waiter=API). This translates new jargon into familiar concepts.
  • Progressive Professor: Use a layered approach to learning. Ask ChatGPT to explain a topic in three progressive stages: first, as if explaining to a 5-year-old (simplest explanation); second, to a 15-year-old (with logic and examples); and third, to a college student (underlying theory). This builds understanding from the ground up.
  • Degree Download: Treat ChatGPT as a tutor you can "download" knowledge from. Specify your target audience (e.g., "I want to build an AI commerce product") and ask for actionable skills, skipping fluff. Then, ask it to test you, forcing you to articulate and retain the information, simulating a boot camp experience.
• The Result: You gain true understanding and practical skills, rather than just memorized phrases, enabling genuine expertise.

Strategy 5: Executive Coach — Use AI as a Mirror Under Pressure

This strategy uses ChatGPT as an unbiased sounding board to help manage emotions, process difficult situations, and make better decisions, particularly under stress or uncertainty.

• The Problem: When facing high-stakes decisions or emotional turmoil, humans often lack an available, objective perspective. Even coaches can be unavailable or emotionally influenced.
• The Solution: Use ChatGPT as an impartial mirror:
  • Vomit Mirror: When overwhelmed, use voice mode to rant freely about everything stressing you out. Instruct ChatGPT not to interrupt, then ask it to organize the chaos into actionable lists: solvable problems, delegable tasks, and noise to ignore. This helps declutter your mind.
  • Stoic Mirror: After a major setback (e.g., a business failure, job loss), ask ChatGPT to reframe the situation using Stoic principles, highlighting opportunities within the challenge. Engage in a dialogue where you both push back on the reframing until you feel a shift in perspective, helping to break emotional spirals.
  • Decision Mirror: Before making a critical decision, discuss your rationale and plan with ChatGPT. Talk through the decision and your logic. The aim isn't to follow ChatGPT's advice, but the act of articulating your thoughts to an objective entity helps clarify your own judgment and reasoning.
• The Result: By externalizing thoughts and decisions, you gain clarity, manage emotional responses, and improve the quality of your decision-making, especially during stressful times.