Corporate Misfits and New Productivity Tools

Hello, and happy Sunday! It’s summer blockbuster season, and so far, it seems like no one has noticed. The Memorial Day box office, which officially kicked it off, was down 20 percent from last year, and it’s only been more bad news since then—at the current rate of decline, 2024 ticket sales could be down 6–11.5 percent. We saw Furiosa: A Max Max Saga (epic), Challengers (horny and well done), and The Fall Guy (stupid and fun). Movies are an art form! Go see them in the theater if you want them to endure. 

Now, on to everything we published this week, along with our take on the latest tech and business news.—Kate Lee

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Our stories

"The Misfit Who Built the IBM PC" by Gareth Edwards/The Crazy Ones: In the early 1980s, IBM executive Don Estridge achieved the impossible—he created the IBM PC in just 12 months, seizing 70 percent of the microcomputer market. How did he do it? By breaking all of IBM's rules and assembling a team of quirky underdogs in the corporate backwaters of Florida. Read this to learn about the man who ushered in the era of personal computing, only to be betrayed by the company he loved. 

🔏 "How AI Can Supercharge Your Favorite Productivity Frameworks" by Stella Garber: Garber, the former head of marketing at Trello, walks us through how ChatGPT can level up tried-and-true productivity techniques like the Eisenhower matrix and the Pomodoro method. Read this if you want to learn how to use AI to capture information, categorize your to-do list, manage your calendar, and even be your creative sidekick. 

🎧 "Is NotebookLM—Google's Research Assistant—the Ultimate Tool for Thought?" by Dan Shipper/Chain of Thought: NotebookLM is Google's new AI-powered research tool that allows you to upload sources, ask questions, and generate insights. In this episode, Dan and bestselling author Steven Berlin Johnson use it to find Steven’s next book idea. If you want to see how one of the world’s most successful authors uses AI to write, this is the episode. 🔏 Paid subscribers have access to the episode transcript.

"LLMs Turn Every Question Into an Answer" by Dan Shipper/Chain of Thought: Language models expand any prompt you give them into something new—an answer, a story, an entire world of possibilities. In the second installment of his series on redefining creativity in the age of AI, Dan explores how you can use language models as comprehensive, contextual, and creative expanders to level up your work and imagination. Read this to learn how to harness the power of generative AI for your own creative purposes.