2 minute read

I’ve written before that self-guided learning is an area where LLM-based applications excel. It’s never been easier to simply open up ChatGPT and have a conversation about a topic you’re curious about – on your own terms, using your own language, knowledge, and workflow. I’ve recently found myself using the voice functionality of ChatGPT – with lots of back and forth – on my phone. I can do it anywhere – I can be on a walk, working in the yard, or just between other tasks. The form factor is amazing and convenient. There’s now really no such thing as a dumb question, as long as you’re willing to keep the conversation going.

I also love the podcast form factor. When I go for my daily run, I’m generally listening to a podcast about a topic I want to learn more about. I have a solid queue of episodes to listen to, but often times find myself looking for content on very specific topics. Recently, Google updated their NotebookLM product to let you create custom audio based on a set of documents you provide. I tried it out, and it’s fantastic.

What I did to create the podcast

  1. I wanted to learn more about Nuclear Energy
  2. I found a few different documents via web search that seemed high quality / a good starting point
  3. I uploaded them to NotebookLM
  4. I got a podcast

The Podcast

This took all of about 5 minutes. If you want to listen to ‘the podcast’, here it is:

How I Did It

If you want to see a video of how I did it, here that is as well. In the video, I also show how I used the tool to create a quick FAQ doc from the weekly newsletter my kid’s school sends out. NotebookLM has a bunch of other use-cases that are evident once you dig into the tool – it’s very easy to use. It’s free to use, and another key benefit is that it just focuses on the content that you give to it (e.g. it’s not going to hallucinate an answer — or at least will be more accurate than just using a typical LLM tool)

Learning and Building

It’s never been easier to learn on your own terms. Whatever content you want, whatever medium you want – it’s there for you to assemble. I know it sounds a bit hyperbolic, but I truly think we’re living in the future right now. People who are willing to engage with these tools, and find ways that these tools help their workflows, while identifying their rough edges and working around those rough edges, are going to win.

I love hearing how others are getting value out of these tools, and what they are struggling with. Let me know what you’re working on, and how I can help. I offer consulting services to companies who want to figure out how to adopt these emerging LLM capabilities. If you want to learn more about that, check out this page, and reach out to me.

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