Deal of the Week
Hey hey, Nik here!
A few weeks ago, my good friend Franz sent me an interesting article called "Interest Rate Risk." It was about the state of financial markets and the economy, outlining what might happen and how investors could best prepare for what's to come. I am an investor. I put my money into the markets, and so I like to be informed, especially in crazy times like these.
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to read it on the spot. After cringing each time I looked at the tab in my browser for the next 3 days, I remembered a tool I had recently discovered: Shortform.* I went to the article, pressed one button on the Shortform AI Chrome extension*, and voilà...
Okay, let's back up for a second. During the daytime, Shortform* is a premium book summary service offering over 1,000 guides to some of the world's best non-fiction books.
Their latest feature, however, moonlights as...BATMAN! Nope, hold on, let me... *checks notes* ...ah! There it is. Sorry, that one always gets me. It is pretty much the Batmanification of a book summary service, however!
Shortform's* latest feature, an AI-powered Chrome extension*, allows you to summarize any resource in just a single click. Instead of just expanding their library, it lets you bring Shortform's* power anywhere — and that's about as badass as it gets. It is insane.
Well, technically, it's pretty rational. In any case, "SANE" is the nickname I gave this incredibly powerful tool in its early version, which was called "Summarize Anything and Everything." Now, it's officially called Shortform AI*.
Here's how it works:
- You're on a page of text or video you'd like to get a brief summary of.
- You click "Get Summary."
- Within seconds, you'll have a concise overview of your resource in a few bullet points.
For my interest rate article, it gave me a concise overview of the topics discussed in the article. It's the perfect middle ground between never reading the interesting pieces that come your way and losing tons of time that's already allocated to other, important things. You see. You one-click-summarize. And you maybe read a few bits before deciding when and where to dive in deeper.
In my case, the line, "Mark Cuban invested in treasury bonds to retire early" grabbed my attention. I read that section of the article, then saved the rest for later. Eventually, I did come back to it and read it in full — but I didn't suffer from 5 days of FOMO while I was busy working on other things. That's pretty cool.
Here's what Shortform AI* generated for another long article I wanted to read but didn't find time for at first:
But wait, it gets better! The AI also generates three more sections for each piece it summarizes:
- Context — A short primer on the big-picture situation around the core issue discussed in the piece.
- Counterarguments — A few points that challenge the content's premise and make sure you think about it critically without just nodding your head in agreement.
- Learn More — Links to Wikipedia articles and other relevant sources and related ideas in case you want to dive deeper into just certain topics or aspects of the piece.
Okay. I've got one more ace up my sleeve. Get this: Shortform AI* also summarizes Youtube videos. That's right. I recently tried it on one of our own Youtube videos, and even for that, it worked like a charm:
In its current iteration, it supposedly only works for shorter videos, but I also tried it on a 3-hour long Tim Ferriss interview, and sure enough...
It's pretty mind-boggling, to be honest. Oh yeah, almost forgot: It also seems to work in other languages. I usually get the summary results in English, but sometimes, it even sticks to the original language(!). Here's the summary for a German article about our new 49-Euro-Germany ticket:
As you can see, the summary is in German. Then, the extension adds context in English.
If this tool is not an amazing way to learn more in less time, then I don't know what is. Want to try it for yourself? Here's how:
- Sign up for a free 5-day trial of Shortform* (includes an exclusive 20% off if you keep your subscription).
- Install the Shortform AI Chrome extension.*
- Log in, and one-click summarize away!
What else is in the membership besides the AI summarizer and 1,000+ incredibly detailed book guides including implementation exercises, reflection moments, and best practices?
- Audio recordings for each book. The one for Deep Work, for example, takes about 30 minutes to listen to, but then you'll know literally everything there is to know from that book.
- Use-on-the-go. Mobile apps, offline listening, they have everything you need to make sure you can learn whenever, wherever.
- Custom book recommendations thanks to Shortform's* smart algorithm.
- Beautifully formatted PDFs of each summary to save, print, and use forever.
- Highlights for your favorite passages, note-taking, and a community for book discussions. These interactive features will help you remember what you learn.
Finally, you can test-drive the full experience for 5 days, free of charge! Use the Shortform AI* to your heart's content, dive deep into the books that most interest you right now, and see how much you can supercharge your learning before you make up your mind.
Also, as a Four Minute Books reader, you'll get an exclusive 20% off your subscription should you decide to keep it. The discount will automatically be applied when you're charged if you join through our link.
Try Shortform.* Try their their AI*. I hope you'll be as impressed as I am, and I remain with the same wish as always...
Happy reading,
-Nik
PS: What's something you've been wanting to read but haven't found the time to? Summarize it with Shortform AI,* then tell me what you think of the result. You can sign up here* and then simply reply to this email :)
Did someone forward you this email? If so, you can sign up here.
Posts
0 Comments