I watched a Matt Wolf video the other day and almost immediately thought, “Holy shit. That's exactly what I need.”
He built one dashboard for all his work: industry news, brand mentions, reminders, audience analytics, newsletters, and recurring tasks. It connects to Gmail, tracks social growth across YouTube, X, Instagram, and more, and can optionally use OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Grok, or local models to rank and summarize what matters.
I know. Frickin genius, right?!
I've pretty much spent my whole life being interested in a ridiculous number of things. Business. Technology. History. Psychology. Writing. Health. AI. Video. God knows what else.
And I actually love that about myself.
It’s helped me to see a lot of patterns because of it. The problem is, I've mostly had to keep all that shit in my own head.
So when I saw what Matt built, I got it. Immediately.
The Workshop isn't a second brain even though that’s where the hype seems to be these days. It's a place that helps me organize my actual brain and that’ll also integrate and organize my second brain as I continue to build it out more too.
I have my Thought Bank now too. All I need to do is hit my action button on my iPhone and talk into my phone. The thought gets stored, categorized, enriched by AI and, most importantly, not lost anymore. Then The Workshop gives me a way to see them and connect more dots.
And it's already helped. I pulled a few projects just because seeing everything visually made me realize I was starting to get off track.
And it lowers my stress big time too. When too much is floating around in my head, I keep replaying it because I don't want to lose it. Now I can see it. I know where it is. That feels a shit ton better.
And right there is why I think AI could be a really good thing for people like me. It gives us a better way to catch what catches our attention and see what might go together.
I think this really is the golden era of the jack of all trades.
Huge props to Matt for building his version and then putting the repo out in public so somebody like me could make it his own. That's a hell of a gift to give people.
From the Workbench
The Thought Bank is working. I can catch a thought before it disappears now. I hit the Action Button, talk for a minute, and it's there. No more trusting myself to remember it later. Because yeah…no. I won't.
The Workshop is keeping me in check. I still haven't recorded the video I wanted to make this weekend because family stuff mattered more, and I'm not going to cram it in just so I can check a box. I will still hit record. In the meantime though, The Workshop’s already helped me rein in a few projects that were starting to pull me off course.
What's Got My Attention
The Algorithm, by Jon McNeill. I'm almost done listening to it and it's been a great listen. Some of it probably sounds harsh as hell to most people. Maybe even a little Machiavellian. But I can also see why it works. There’s some really great insights in there even if you're not trying to turn yourself into Elon Musk.
Ted Lasso, season 4. Beth and I got to Ted Lasso late and binge-watched the first three seasons last year. We were pumped when we found out there was another season, and it hasn't disappointed.
Ted Lasso is one of those rare characters who makes people feel like they can do anything and I absolutely aspire to be more like him. Beth calls me a positivity enema, which I take as a compliment. But, I also have too much asshole in me to be genuinely Ted Lasso-like. So yeah, still working on it.
Hit reply and tell me this. What are you trying to keep in your own head right now that needs a place to live?