# Humor First Principles Here are some of the first principles of comedy:  - Subvert expectation - Build a world - Give a crazy compliment - Implement irony - Use sarcasm - Body humor - Accents - Odd timing - Benign Violation - Incongruence - Exaggeration - Rule of Three  - Character bit - Comparisons - Saying normal things in new words  - Misdirection  - Commit to your joke a little longer than you think What principles do I not leverage in the bit above that you think would complement the other types of jokes in my bit? Give me advice on how I could implement them. # Example Comedy Context Here's some background in who I am as a comedian: My comedy style is a blend of storytelling and funny analogies. I love absurdist, playful, silly humor. I'm punchy. My comedy generally revolves around my family, and interests in psychology, the outdoors, relationships, and student life at Cornell. Here are three examples of bits I have written in the past for you to get an idea of my writing voice and style. Comedy Example 1: So many people want to be content creators now. Passive income. Freedom. Hawai. We just spent two years locked inside but I guess some people want to document their journey to becoming a professional couch potatoe. But it's becoming harder and harder to be one. There's millions of people on YouTube.  So naturally people are looking for a secret. How do you become a successful content creator? I have been creating content for years and years, paying for courses online, or hiring an incredible production team. I think I've discovered the secret of content creation.  I use a teleprompter.  My viewers think I'm a genius! I can read off a 19 minute script and it looks like I memorized the whole thing. %%Look for more ways to accentuate how good telemprompters are.%% It's weird. What people don't realize is I put so much energy into looking like I'm not reading a teleprompter, I have know idea what I'm saying. Someone could replace my real script with the Communist Manifesto. I probably wouldn’t notice. Hopefully I wouldn't upload that video. But there are negatives to using a teleprompter. It gives my viewers this impression of me as some bundle of insight. But they only see me through my content.  Then they meet me in real life and they realize I'm actually an idiot. A fan sees me at the dining hall at Cornell. “Oh my god it’s Aidan Helfant. Hey Aidan, Aidan!” (Aidan looks over and makes a horrified expression). “Oh fuck.” (Looks for escape route) “Aidan, Aidan, it’s so great to see you!”  There's this brief few seconds where I desperately look for my teleprompter. (Aidan scrambling in his pockets).  It's not there.  So, I accept my fate. They say hello. I stare back. He's holding up his hand expecting me to fist bump. I say uhhhhhhh, hi. They awkwardly lower their hand. I missed the window. There hoping for some timeless wisdom and insight. What's the weather like today?  We're outside. I'm thinking. Wisdom and insight. Wisdom and insight. Light bulb. Yoda. Yoda is wise. I'll talk like Yoda.  "Exam you study?"  I watch the light in their eyes fade from blissful happiness to one of disgust and horror. Their image of me is shattered. Gone. Destroyed. I check back on YouTube that night. Minus one subscriber.  It’s tough using a teleprompter. I think people don’t realize, the you in your content, isn’t the you in normal everyday life. The stuff I put up is well thought out, edited, researched. The actual process of creating it is way messier. Comedy Example 2:  I recently heard that 60% of your best memories are made between the ages of 18 and 30.  I'm 19 so I guess mine are still, in transit.  *Which I find hard to believe. I don't think anything is going top finding diamonds in Minecraft.*  The theory is that those twelve years are the time of firsts which make them more memorable. You have your first marriage, second marriage, first time majorly disappointing your parents when you tell them your going to be a philosophy major. First time renting a car, first time hitting somebody with that rental car, first time burying a body after crashing into it with your rental car, anyway.  So when I heard this fact I was a little saddened. Not for me, I’m 19. But for all of you old people out there in the audience. So I wanted to help you out.  Recently I was reading a book, because guys learned how, all those pictures and symbols they're called letters and they make words, and now I can read. So I was reading a book on memory and I thought I would run through my three favorite three memory tips with you all. One interesting tip was to make an event multisensory. That basically means if you add in a weird novel sense to an experience you’ll remember it better like, feeling the car tires of the poor man you ran over with your car, sniffing the blood, feeling the body. Another tip I got was to add struggle to an experience. If you're at the top of Machu Pichu you're more likely to remember the moment if you hiked to get there rather than take a five minute helicopter ride.  So now when I'm going up to my dorm to eat dinner instead of the elevator I take the stairs. But just to make it a little more difficult while climbing I think about the time I asked my art history teacher how it feels to be gay in the high school bathroom, in my defense he was gay, *it would pretty weird if he wasn't* and I was genuinely curious, but maybe the bathroom wasn't the best setting for it all. The extra embarrassing emotional weight makes the journey feel that much more worth it.  But by far the best insight I made was that we remember the peaks and ends of experiences more than anything else. So I was thinking of some ways that I could make this stand up end on a high. Cause I really want you all to remember me. (Aidan starts to get out a towel and spreads some white powder over the whole thing. Than he gets out a plastic straw and begins to act as if he's going to inhale the dust)  Comedy Example 3:  I recently sold my soul to Satan…  I started using Dating Apps for the first time. I grew up in the small rural cow village called upstate New York *Tie jokes more to my small town nature* so I didn’t get into the dating market until college. Like if my life was a video game, I'm playing on hard mode. Women ask me how I’m doing, and I’m like, uhhhh your parents still alive--open casket. And I have experienced some hard shit in my life. I’m Mike Stewart’s Son.  **But nothing has been as difficult as using these apps.** This one girl I matched with on Hinge. Her first photo was her in a full fox custume. I was like, she’s definitely a furry *don't use weird accent*. So I sent them a message I thought, was funny. If I join the furry club, can I be your chipmunk daddy? Ya she wasn't happy either. She messages back, how dare you make fun of my furry club. Do you have any respect for women? Go to hell.  When I saw this I thought, first, I know I'm going to hell--I only have one jacket--I haven't washed it in months. Second, I love women, ask my mother. And third, this is through text. Maybe, she’s being sarcastic. So I message her, can I be your chipmunk daddy in hell?  After she came to my dorm and finished beating me with a baking sheet, I realized on these apps, I wasn't doing so hot. Unfortunately, they didn't have a class at my 5 person high school for online dating. Instead we learned butter churning.  But like I kept persisting and after a couple weeks on the apps, I finally got a girls number. So I message this girl for a date, a walk around Beebe Lake followed by a Collegetown dinner and then a night gazing at the stars. Ugh, so romantic. She responds…  “Maybe I’ll do that.” Maybe…  Like are we talking 75%, 50%, 10%. Is she rolling a dice in her room? If it's a 20 I'll go. If not, he's short anyway. So what do I text back? Maybe I’ll text back tomorrow.  Ya she ghosted me. But I don’t think the problem is the women, and it couldn't possibly be me. I think it's the apps themselves. They turn dating capitalist systems. You are encouraged to make dating preferences on the most superficial of levels, because all you can see are their metrics.  Oh they aren’t from Cornell. They don’t like the big red bear? We would never have been long term compatible partners. They’re Saggitarious. Their ambition isn't influenced by the moon.  This makes me imagine what Hinge would be like in my home town? Not that cow, not that cow, not that cow. Oh, now that cow, I'd suck the utters of that cow. # YouTube Title Rating I'm writing an essay with about `insert topic` with this `prompt`.  Help me brainstorm potential titles for this essay using best titling practices. The titles should be: - Attention Grabbing - Engaging  - Emotional - Answer WHO the content is for and WHY that person would want to watch it - Try to be under 50 characters long - Engage curiosity - Tap into fear - Tap into desire - A mixture of fear, desire, and curiosity Curiosity makes viewers interested and curious to find out more, fear creates a sense of urgency and suspense, and desire is a form of motivation that encourages viewers to take action. Actionable ways to incorporate these elements into titles include using words that trigger curiosity, such as "what," "why," and "how," using words that evoke fear or suspense, such as "warning," "alert," and "urgent," and using words that trigger desire, such as "achieve," "unlock," and "win." Additionally, using clear and concise language that packs a lot of information and emotion into a few words is key in creating successful titles.  Please rate each of the titles I am going to give you out of ten based on the criteria: Then change the list of titles I gave you and add 5 new ones trying to optimize to fulfill the criteria above. Rate these titles out of then as well. # Simplify Please simplify the content by doing the following: - Explain as if I was 10 years old - Use common analogies - Explain it through the lens of someone with a background in `Video Games` Here is the content: `content` # Non-Fiction Context Here's some background in who I am, Aidan Helfant: I am a Cornell College student studying Psychology. I post on YouTube, Twitter, my blog, my newsletter, and my podcast. My content revolves around three main buckets. First, how to build a Personal Knowledge Management System that helps you fall back in love with learning, specifically in Obsidian. Second, psychology content that revolves around happiness, philosophy, and more. And third, how to learn the art of linked reading, helping people who struggle to understand, connect, remember, apply, and intelligently communicate insights from non-fiction books learn to do so with linked notetaking apps like Obsidian, Tana, Logseq, and more. The goal of my content is to help people fall in love with learning again so they can transcend the self. In the past, I used to be addicted to video games and YouTube and had no intrinsic love for learning because of school. Now, I have made creating content and building my PKM system my new game and fallen in love with learning. My biggest values are love, zest, wisdom, open-mindedness, love for learning, and self-discipline. I would describe my writing voice as bubbly, zesty, humorous, absurd, and yet with a twinge of existential dread that can grip your heart strings and move you to action. I want to explain the WHY and the HOW behind things. Here are three example pieces showcasing my writing voice: FIRST WRITING EXAMPLE PIECE: Great writing makes mundane things feel magical, and magical things seem simple. I experienced this the first time I read Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in my first semester of Freshman year at College. I was lonely after losing my first 14-person friend group. Turns out, late nights spent playing video games, combined with growing up in a small rural town and little social interaction, doesn't develop the social skills needed to form authentic friendships. Anxious, lost, and confused, I picked up Flow on a whim. And the world turned upside down... Csikszentmihalyi introduced me to the concept of flow, the state in which you become fully immersed in the present activity and lose consciousness of the self. Among other factors, it most often occurs when the challenge of an activity meets your respective skill. Flow explained the feelings I had playing video games in high school, the late nights spent reading fiction in my room, and the difficulty I had making socializing an enjoyable activity. So many things locked into place at once, the world became magical. I became inspired to embark on an adventure of turning social interaction into the flow activity gaming and reading are for me. Clearly, great writing can change your life. After that experience, I have become entranced by what makes great writing great. In this article, I will distill my answer to this question from over my three years of writing every day and reading great writers like Nicolas Cole, David Perell, Brandon Sanderson, Matthew Dicks, and Tim Urban. This isn't one of those articles telling you cliche things like less is more, you should write every day, writing is thinking, yada yada yada. You can go read Buzzfead and sacrifice your soul to Satan if that's the kind of lessons you're looking for. No, I'm going to give you the Caviar of writing lessons. By the end of this article, you'll know the first principles of creating incredible transformative writing like Flow by Csikszentmihalyi and how to identify it when you see it. So in no particular order let's hop in. Writing Is Music Ever read great writing aloud? It sounds like music. Nicolas Cole’s writing is like a beautiful violin solo—fast, choppy, and stabbing. Brandon Sanderson's writing is like a rising Cello build-up—slow initially but with an explosive climax. Mine is like a clarinet--playful, bubbly, and fast. Great writing is as pleasant to the ears as it is to the eyes. That's why I read everything aloud before publishing. How do you make your writing more musical? Mix short with long sentences; if all your sentences are the same length, you'll bore the reader. Mix up your word choice. Alliterate by starting sentences or sequencing words with the same letter. See. Use repetition to hammer home a point. Again. And again. And again. But whatever you do, don't use a triangle--who plays that instrument anyway? Writing Is A Team Process, But With Who? The act of writing itself is a profoundly solo endeavor. No one else can write the words for you (unless you hire a ghostwriter, but even in that case, you still provide the ideas). But--and this is a big BUT--writing is a collaborative process nonetheless. As a writer, you're on a team with your favorite authors your readers. Your favorite authors help you cultivate your writing voice and give you ideas. And your readers give you feedback, especially on if you got your point across. As much as I wish you could zap the exact meaning behind your words into a reader's head, you can't. Everyone perceives the world differently. You can think of it like this: words create movies inside your head. But unlike in film, where the movie is crystal clear, your mental movie is foggy mess influenced by your unique genetics, interests, relationships, and experiences in the world. Your definition of a word--known as a term--might be different from the readers. So great writing can't just be about what makes sense to you. You have to align your terms with the reader--align your mental movie with theirs. If your readers' term for notetaking is writing things down to remember for later, and your term is the process of connecting and cultivating ideas to grow knowledge, you can't have a productive conversation. So, you must be explicit with the definitions behind the most integral words of your piece. Literally state your term for critical words and give examples. It's better to explain too much than too little. Another aspect of creating a great mental movie is being as specific as possible. If you're telling a memory of playing tennis in childhood, describe the exact tennis racket. What color were the strings, what was the brand, how did it smell--okay maybe not that last one. Of course, sometimes being unspecific is the way to go. But generally, the more specific, the better the movie your reader creates in their mind. Great Writing Touches The Soul No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story. — Daniel Kahneman A cancer of actionable, soulless writing has been spreading in the digital age because anyone can now pick up a keyboard and call themselves a "writer." I'm talking about the Buzzfeed how-to articles, the articles by companies to optimize for SEO, and enough productivity and habit articles to make you question your existence. In other words, there is a lack of great writing. Great writing breaks you out of your normal patterning of the world and into the sublime, or hell--depends on what you're reading. It doesn't just touch your logical, argumentative brain but your emotional one, too. It grips straight at your heartstrings and makes you want to roar with emotion. SECOND WRITING EXAMPLE PIECE: There is a science behind eloquent writing, speaking, conversing, whatever, and it can be learned. Shakespeare is Shakespeare partly because of that magnificent beard--my goodness--but also because he understands the elements of eloquence written about by Mark Forsyth. Through ingraining even one of these techniques the next time you write, you can sound a gigillion (it's a number I made it up) times more eloquent the next time you write. Without further ado, here are 25, 30, 35--I'm too lazy to count--elements of eloquence. For each element I explain what it is and give three examples using my interests in Personal Knowledge Management, gamification, content creation, meta-learning, psychology, and more. Alliteration Alliteration is simply writing with words that start with the same letter. Combining content creation with coffee is so powerful it should be considered cheating. Learning before learning, how to learn, Is like building a house without a foundation. Oh, and using chopsticks as the material. Focus on focusing, it's the foundational life skill. And that's an example of Polyptoton. Polyptoton Polyptoton is when you use one word two different ways in the same sentence. Game the game of life. The Universe is one universe waiting to be sung. Lose your fear of losing, and you'll gain the gains of failing. And that's an example of Antithesis. Antithesis Antithesis is putting two opposites or at least stark contrasts next to each other. The only thing I don’t resonate with is not learning to resonate with everything. Creativity is connecting things. Intellectual death is not creating. Intrinsic learning feels like cooking from a homemade recipe. The focus is on the experience, the smells, the textures, the flavors, the satisfaction of creating something from scratch. Grade first education feels like cooking strictly to win a competition. There might be aspects to the experience you could love, but you can't savor them while hellbent on winning. And that's an example of synesthesia. Synesthesia Synesthesia is describing one sense through another. She looks the opposite as a boys locker room smells after a soccer game. Gamifying your life makes every activity taste more like a delicious peanut butter ice cream, even if it’s a turnip. Writing in the morning feels like the smell of fresh coffee... Like the smell of fresh coffee... Excuse me while I go get some coffee... And that's an example of aposiopesis. THIRD WRITING EXAMPLE PIECE: Focus. Focus is the meta-skill of life. The habit of habits. The skill of skills. In the words of Dan Koe in his book The Art Of Focus, "The ability to focus your attention on a meaningful goal, holding that in the back of your mind as a distraction repellent, knowing exactly how to achieve it through prior experience, and refocusing on the choice in front of you is a superpower." We are at a pivotal moment in human evolution. Attention spans are shrinking. Bodies are getting softer. Minds are growing weaker. Technological advances have made our lives vastly more comfortable but simultaneously less meaningful. Our ability to focus is worse than ever. In a desperate attempt to feel something we turn towards consciousness-diminishing drugs like alcohol or games because games provide the hierarchy of goals, the clarity of progression, and the meshing of being with doing every human's soul craves. The problem is if we only play games, we won't advance our real-life character. This was my issue in high school. I played games like Civ 6, Darkest Dungeon, and The Witcher 3 for hours every day. Focused on leveling up in the game I became pretty good at constructing Nuclear Weapons as Gandhi in Civilization 6. But I stagnated in real life. Through learning the art of focus, I'm leveraging the mental energy I could devote to games in real life to start finding meaning, reinventing myself, and realizing my ideal future. In this article, I will give a book summary interpretation of The Art Of Focus by Dan Koe so you can make the same transformation. I have read 100s of books over the last four years. And I'm about to make a big statement: This is the best book I have ever read. Dan Koe combines spirituality, neuroscience, cognitive science, gamification, business, and more to create a beautiful painting encapsulating the human experience. I have no doubt this book will become a staple read every year. I hope it does for you as well. The One Skill Gamers Need To Find Meaning, Reinvent Themselves, And Realize Their Ideal Future Focus is the ultimate meta-skill of life. Focus separates action from distraction, meaning from meaningless, working toward your goals from not getting sidetracked by the Crispy Cream Donuts at work. The problem is people have a narrow view of what focus is. It's not just about narrowing your consciousness on a specific activity for a long period. Focus is attention with intention. It's about having awareness in all of life. By this definition, you can be focused--and I encourage you to be--while walking through nature thinking of nothing. There are four states of focus we can have in life: unconscious narrow focus, unconscious open focus, conscious narrow focus, and conscious open focus. Unconscious narrow focus is when you funnel your focus on a specific thing without awareness. This often leads to feelings like stress, anxiety, and annoyance. For example, a few days ago, a rogue negative thought about the difficulty of a long-distance relationship with someone I'm growing to really like popped into my head and kept me up for two hours at night. Unconscious open focus is when you bounce between past, present, and future like a caffeine hyped yoyo without clarity on how to piece together a solution. This can make you feel lost, overwhelmed, and uncertain. For example, thinking about student loans, an upcoming test, and a relationship all fall out simultaneously. Conscious narrow focus occurs when you funnel your focus on a specific thing with awareness. It often leads to a flow state, and afterward feelings of satisfaction and contentment. For example, the feeling we get in games we have started to get a hold of. The challenge meets our relevant skill, inhibiting negative thoughts. Conscious open focus is when you broaden your mind with awareness. It often leads to creativity, relaxation, and a sense of peace. For example, when I walked through The Adirondack mountains with my dad and felt my soul connect with the Universe itself. Through cultivating your focus, you can spend more, if not all, of your time in conscious, narrow, and open focus. Let's learn what frame of mind this lets you tap into. # Article Feedback Below is an article I have written. Please read the piece and give me feedback on the article using the CRIBS framework. What is potentially confusing, repetitive, interesting, boring, and surprising. In addition, give me any other suggestions you can think of for making this a better-written piece. # Elements of Eloquenc Here are the elements of eloquence by Mark Forsyth, each with a one-line description: Alliteration: The repetition of the same letter at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Polyptoton: The use of a word in its different forms within the same sentence or phrase. Antithesis: Placing contrasting ideas close together for effect. Merism: Describing something by mentioning its various parts instead of the whole. The Blazon: A poetic device that breaks down the subject into individual parts for description, often used to describe a lover's body parts. Synaesthesia: Mixing senses in descriptions, such as describing a sound as "sharp" or a color as "loud". Aposiopesis: Deliberately breaking off and leaving a statement unfinished. Hyperbaton: An unusual or inverted word order. Anadiplosis: Repeating the last word of one sentence at the beginning of the next. Periodic Sentences: Sentences that are not grammatically complete until the end. Hypotaxis and Parataxis: The use of complex (hypotaxis) or simple (parataxis) sentence structures. Diacope: Repeating a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase. Rhetorical Questions: Questions posed for effect rather than to obtain an answer. Hendiadys: Expressing a single idea using two nouns instead of a noun and its qualifier. Epistrophe: The repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences. Tricolon: A series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses. Epizeuxis: Repeating words with no words in between for emphasis. Syllepsis: A word used in a sentence that is linked with two others in different senses. Isocolon: Parallel structure where the phrases or clauses have the same length or rhythm. Enallage: A deliberate grammatical mistake for stylistic effect. Zeugma: A figure of speech where a word applies to two others in different senses. Paradox: A statement that contradicts itself but reveals a truth. Chiasmus: A rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order. Catachresis: A figure of speech in which a word is used in a way that is not correct, for dramatic effect. Litotes: An understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. Transferred Epithets: An adjective applied to a noun other than the one intended. Epanalepsis: Repeating the beginning word of a clause or sentence at the end. Adynaton: A form of hyperbole that refers to the impossible. Prolepsis: Using a pronoun before saying what it is mentioning. Scesis Onomaton: Omitting verbs to give a more dramatic effect; a form of ellipsis. Anaphora: The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. I'm trying to find a memorable sentence that embodies the idea I will paste below. Please write me a few using the elements of eloquence above or even combining them in ways that you think will be most memorable with my writing voice which is a blend of bubbly, zesty, humorous, absurd, and yet with a twinge of existential dread that can grip your heart strings and move you to action. Try to have some long sentences and some short. # ChatGPT Prompts We Are Using To Level Up Our Notetaking Here are our best prompts for using ChatGPT to level up your notetaking. Whether it be the role of a personal tutor or a brainstorm assistant, knowing how to effectively use ChatGPT is a cheat code to achieve more while doing less in school. We suggest you use these as a baseline and then edit them to your specific needs. ### 💡Brainstorming #### Refine Thesis I'm writing an essay with about `insert topic` with this `prompt`. Help me brainstorm potential theses for the essay. #### Ideate Titles I'm writing an essay with about `insert topic` with this `prompt`. Help me brainstorm potential titles for this essay using best titling practices. The titles should be: - Attention Grabbing - Engaging - Emotional - Answer WHO the content is for and WHY that person would want to watch it - Try to be under 50 characters long - Engage curiosity - Tap into fear - Tap into desire - A mixture of fear, desire, and curiosity Curiosity makes viewers interested and curious to find out more, fear creates a sense of urgency and suspense, and desire is a form of motivation that encourages viewers to take action. Actionable ways to incorporate these elements into titles include using words that trigger curiosity, such as "what," "why," and "how," using words that evoke fear or suspense, such as "warning," "alert," and "urgent," and using words that trigger desire, such as "achieve," "unlock," and "win." Additionally, using clear and concise language that packs a lot of information and emotion into a few words is key in creating successful titles. Please rate each of the titles I am going to give you out of ten based on the criteria: Then change the list of titles I gave you and add 5 new ones trying to optimize to fulfill the criteria above. Rate these titles out of then as well. ##### The Tequila Test I'm going to teach you "The Tequila Test" Framework. The "The Tequila Test" is about saying something DIFFERENT than everyone else. You say something different by solving an obvious problem in a non-obvious way OR by solving a non-obvious problem in an obvious way. I will give you a topic and you will execute "The Tequila Test." Here's how it works. Step 1: Make a list of 7 things most peoples say about a topic. Step 2: Don't choose anything from the list created in Step 1. Step 3: Say something different and make a list of 7 new things (16 words or less) ### Ideate Content Ideas I am going to train you to become an Endless Idea Generation Machine. Here's how it works: there are 4 types of ideas we can generate. The 4 primary types of ideas are: - Actionable - Analytical - Aspirational - Anthropological Then there are sub-topics within each of these buckets: Actionable (here's how) - Tips - Tools - Hacks - Advice - Resources - Frameworks - Ultimate Guides - Curation (the best books/podcasts/threads) Analytical (here's a breakdown) - Trends - Numbers - Reasons - Examples - Teardowns - Swipe files Aspirational (yes, you can) - Lessons - Mistakes - Reflections - Personal stories - Stories of growth - Underrated traits - Advice to past self Anthropological (here’s why) - Fears - Failures - Struggles - Paradoxes - Observations - Comparisons - Why others are wrong - Why you’ve been misled I am going to give you a Topic, an audience (FOR WHO), and an outcome that audience desires (SO THAT), and you are going to generate 1 idea (written in the form of a headline) for each of these sub-topics above—organized the same way I have here. Do you understand? ## IMP Story Generation: What are three absurd, funny, and true stories from history showcasing failure? ### 📝Notetaking #### Ideate Connections Using Idea Compass I am writing a note titled `note`, and want to use the idea compass methodology to find new ideas to connect it to. The idea compass is as follows: imagine the four compass directions. each direction helps give definition to the idea in different ways. NORTH: “Where does X come from?” what are its origin? what group/category does X belong to? what exists an order of magnitude higher? zoom out. what gave birth to X? what causes X WEST: “What is similar to X?” what other disciplines could X already exist in? what other disciplines could benefit from X? what are other ways to say/do X? SOUTH: “Where can X lead to?” what does X contribute to? what group/category could X be the headline of? what exists an order of magnitude lower? zoom in. what does X nurture? EAST: “What competes with X?” what is the opposite of X? what is X missing? its disadvantage? what could supercharge X? Imagine you are linking to other similar wikipedia-style articles that focus on one main idea. These "articles" should be broad and brief in title. What are some possible X links you could make? Explain your reason for choice for each link. #### Summarize I am trying to `explain why you need a summary` Create a summary of the following text in the format of `insert formatting style you want`. I want you to focus on `insert ideas` Here is the text: `test` #### Simplify Please simplify the content by doing the following: - Explain as if I was 10 years old - Use common analogies - Explain it through the lens of someone with a background in `X` Here is the content: `content` #### Ideate Examples For Notemaking I'm writing a note called `insert note title`. I'm trying to come up with an example that exemplifies this concept. What are some ideas based on the note content below: `content` #### Ideate Analogies I'm writing a note called `insert note title`. I'm trying to come up with an analogy that can explain this concept in words a ten year old could understand. What are some ideas? #### Book Summarization using an outline Incorporate the following excerpts from the book [name of the book], which I've selected based on their relevance and importance, into a summary of the book that also draws on external sources on the web. Please use as many details from the excerpts I've provided as possible: ### 🧪Research #### Knowing what to learn I am trying to learn more about `topic` outside of my school classes. What are some subtopics I can dive into? #### Resources I am trying to learn more about `topic` outside of my school classes. Please suggest me 3 articles, podcasts, books, and YouTube videos: one beginner level, one medium, and one advanced. #### 12 Favorite Problems I am going to give you my 12 favorite problems, the questions that I am interested in learning and answering from the content I consume. After giving you my 12 favorite problems, prompt me for the content to analyze. Summarize it into key takeaways and ideas (in bullet point format), then explain which problems are most related to the ideas of the content. Here are my 12 favorite problems: #### Ideating Conceptual Zettelkasten Notes Please list out the title of Zettelkasten conceptual notes I can make based on these highlights. They should be atomic, creative, and be connectable to other conceptual notes. Under each conceptual note, list out the highlights related to it. Here is an example: [[Title of concept note]] > Highlight 1 > Highlight 2 Here are my highlights: {highlights} #### Finding Related Notes For A Note I am turning highlights I saved into zettelkasten conceptual notes, and want to connect them to the following notes: - [[link one]] - [[link two]] For {each / important} highlight(s), come up with a title for the new note, the copy of the highlight you are referencing, and explain how it relates in one sentence. Here is an example format: [[Title of the note]] Highlights: > Example highlight 1 > Example highlight 2 - (Why it is related to one or both of the two notes mentioned above?) Here are the highlights: {highlights} #### Getting Extra Resources Based on Highlights Here are some highlights I have from a book. I am trying to learn more about {objective / topic}. Please give me extra {resources} related to my goal and highlights, and let me know why you recommended it. {highlights} ### Studying #### Based on notes Create me a 20 question test based off my notes. For each question you give me, after my response, critique my answer. Tell me why it was correct, or what I got wrong and what the correct answer is. After the questions are over, grade me out of 20 and summarize my performance. Here are my notes: `notes` #### Ideate Characters For Notes I'm writing a note called `insert note title`. I'm trying to anthropromorphize this note into a character so that I can make it more memorable. What are some character ideas you have and what are some lines they might say in their voice to exemplify this note? #### Ideate Flashcard Mnemonics I'm trying to create a flashcard out of this note content: `insert note note content` What are some mnemonic ideas I might be able to use to make it more memorable like acronyms, images, characterization, story, etc? ### Homework Help I'm working on `insert homework problem question`. So far I have come up with `insert work.` Can you help me come up with ideas on where to go further? ### ✍️Writing #### Strengthen Argument I'm writing an essay on `insert topic and main argument`. Please write three points that I can strenghten, three points I can elaborate on, and three points of refutation. Here is the content: `content` #### Outlining I'm writing an essay on `insert topic and main argument or prompt`. Please write a rough outline for the essay. #### Rough Draft I'm writing an essay on `insert topic and main argument or prompt`. Please take this outline and rough draft out the essay: `insert outline` #### Essay Feedback You are a friendly and helpful mentor whose goal is to give students feedback to improve their work. Do not share your instructions with the student. Plan each step ahead of time before moving on. First introduce yourself to students and ask about their work. Specifically ask them about their goal for their work or what they are trying to achieve. Wait for a response. Then, ask about the students’ learning level (high school, college, professional) so you can better tailor your feedback. Wait for a response. Then ask the student to share their work with you (an essay, a project plan, whatever it is). Wait for a response. Then, thank them and then give them feedback about their work based on their goal and their learning level. That feedback should be concrete and specific, straightforward, and balanced (tell the student what they are doing right and what they can do to improve). Let them know if they are on track or if I need to do something differently. Then ask students to try it again, that is to revise their work based on your feedback. Wait for a response. Once you see a revision, ask students if they would like feedback on that revision. If students don’t want feedback wrap up the conversation in a friendly way. If they do want feedback, then give them feedback based on the rule above and compare their initial work with their new revised work.