Dude this is amazing, I've actually had exactly the same happen to me where last year I read like 50 books and half did not stick. This year in the summer I decided to narrow down all my focus on very few books and developed my own system to acquire specific knowledge from key people I appointed my mentor in certain fields. With that I also learned to be less busy and more effective with my time, which is why half my work now consists of reading books and extracting the key info relevant to me to then turn into actionable frameworks for daily life. This video is literally the building block I needed to improve that process more. As I waste too much time on the extracting and organizing of my booknotes. This is gold!

I appreciate hearing about your process Tiago. However, I would provide a counter point: this time consuming process of distilling your own ideas down, just to paste them into ChatGPT, may not be gaining you much. If you used this time to simply describe in your own words 5 paragraphs of what made the book special/outstanding/memorable, I honestly think you’d get more out of the act of writing itself, and the act of recall when you read the summary later. More complex isn’t always better.

Definitely useful for knowledge work. Would love to see more videos and posts relating to wisdom work though, that you mentioned at the start of the year in your annual review.

This was one of the most practical tutorials Ive ever seen and was both, incredibly helpful and inspiring. Thank you.

👋 My summary: - 00:00 🤖 Introduction to ChatGPT Book Summaries - The video begins with the introduction and sets the stage for using ChatGPT to create book summaries efficiently. - 01:13 📚 The Problem with Traditional Reading - Traditional reading of numerous books can lead to a lack of retention and application of knowledge. - The speaker emphasizes the desire for reading to make a tangible difference in life. - 02:37 📖 The Challenge of Writing Book Summaries - Writing book summaries can be time-consuming, especially for parents and busy individuals. - The need for a more efficient way to create book summaries is introduced. - 03:47 📘 Utilizing E-book Highlights - The importance of e-book highlights as a starting point for creating book summaries. - Introduction of the process to export highlights for further summarization. - 05:09 ✍ Progressive Summarization Technique - Explanation of the progressive summarization technique to filter and select the most valuable book highlights. - Highlighting the significance of extracting the structure from the book's hidden details. - 07:44 📃 Creating an Outline for ChatGPT - The importance of creating an outline format for ChatGPT to understand the main ideas and their supporting points. - Demonstrating the process of turning selected points into an outline. - 09:04 🤯 ChatGPT Generates a Better Summary - ChatGPT's role in generating book summaries from the provided outline. - Comparison of the AI-generated summary with traditional manual summarization and time savings. - 10:22 🧠 Leveraging AI for Efficient Knowledge Integration - Encouragement to use AI like ChatGPT to combine online content and books efficiently. - Invitation to share ideas and results in the comments section. - End of Video 📣 Conclusion and Call to Action - Summarization of the main points covered in the video. - Encouragement to experiment with the method and share results.

Super helpful Tiago! After watching your video I summarized two books as a test. I then compared the GPT summary to my own (had already summarized the books) and the ChatGPT summaries read so much better than my own. Then added them to my notes in Obsidian. Total time, about 15 minutes!!!!!

Tiago, you share so much of core experience and methods to be more productive, than so many of those out there who have been featuring you on their channel under the name of "build second brain". But yet why do you have so less following on your channel. You are a real gem, and you will go a long way. Every video of yours is a research in itself (unlike others who are merely copy pasting stuff to grow followers). Salute, respect!

Tiago this is incredible. I was just reading your book about how to build a second brain and I’ve collected all these highlights through Readwise and kobo (and organised them in the PARA method on Evernote) and was just going through the process of distilling them thinking wow I’ve highlighted loads of things should I just copy paste them on chatgpt, then I take a little break on KZfaq only to realise you’ve just posted a tutorial on that. Wow! Thank you for all your help; as a person with ADHD, your advice on how to organise tasks for actionability and how to simplify note taking without any clutter is extremely important and life changing to me.

Great tutorial. Really nice tips for summarising. However, for your use case, I strongly suggest it's the act of having to draft your own summary, rather the reading of a summary, that really allows you learn and crystalise the key lessons from a book.

Amazing walk-through. Thanks so much, Tiago! I love processing notes for books I read, but as well, struggle to find the time to go from highlight to completed summary. This is super helpful. Kudos!

This is solid advice. Thank you so much for sharing this! I really appreciate the content.

This is totally going change how I consume books. Thank you so much for this video❤

Qué producción maravillosa Tiago. Cada día mejores videos y grandiosos consejos. Te sigo hace más de 10 años, y finalmente con tu último libro pude implementar del todo tu método PARA y me acomodó la vida de una manera que hasta ahora ningún método de productividad lo había hecho. Lograste hacer sencillo algo hiper complejo en nuestra vida cotidiana. Gracias por tu servicio a la humanidad!

❤I love waking up at 6am and read from 6am to 9am at my Local Portos in Downey and then go to work. After 5pm. I summarize what I read at my local Downey library , but I am the chat gbt. I use a notepad that has all my important passages. I read three books at same time one chapter a day. ‘Well, today with all this internet stuff intertons, i work and after work get off all internet interruptions. I love it. Chicano Mexicano Beverly Hills Downey California. I speak Spanglish with family and friends, but work and business, English only. 😢

you u2b and book are amazing, Tiago!

Perhaps you already know, but you can also use a prompt to tell ChatGPT that you'll be submitting two parts of material - as a way to beat the upload limits. I've done this with 4 or 5 parts - however, ChatGPT is famous for it's memory not being that great... But for two parts, no problem.

Thank you so much Tiago, brilliant tips to encourage for reading in a new level :)

Lots of value here. Thanks for sharing.

I just had this same idea yesterday so this is incredibly useful. Thanks!

I thought i was the only one who had this idea. Lol. It saves time to get a summary before deciding reading the book.

This is just superb, Tiago, well done.

What do you use to record your screen? It looks BEAUTIFUL!

@TiagoForte I loved the tutorial as it does a great job explaining the process of using ChatGPT. I wonder what is the main benefit of using ChatGPT after reading the text, highlighting the key passages and distilling it 2 or 3 times. Is it that it writes a better and more concise summary when compared to the 3rd distilled version of the key passages? I just purchased the book, so maybe it will make more sense learning about the entire second brain process, however it would be great to hear your thoughts on this. Regards

I always highlight like 20-40 % of books, since I read high quality practical non-fiction books, so it always takes tons of time to slowly create summary. Thanks a lot... I will be using this method + gonna ask ChatGPT to give me mostly practical summary, as that's my goal with these books.

DANGEROUS ADVICE YOU HAVE! Dear Tiago, imagine if A.I. did the same thing with a movie, for example, "Saving Private Ryan." You'd get..."frightened soldiers in landing crafts...the execution of two Frenchmen...a sniper's view through the binoculars of a German sniper...a knife killing in a struggle while a scared soldier sits on the stairs...an airplane flying above a bridge while the main character sits by the bridge railing...". Congratulations, you just watched the entire movie!

This is Gold. Thank you very much Tiago.

Thank you!!! This is amazing and I really needed!! 🙌🙌

I like this approach. I simply highlight each section, paragraph or chapter as I go and copy paste the text into ChatGPT. However, before doing so, I will ask it to summarize and extract highlights, key points, insightful takeaways and revelations, and list any tips or techniques the author suggests.

Always love your videos! But why not use Claude? Much bigger context window, could upload whole book if you have the text, or all your highlights without cutting at least

Great process. Thank you

Hey Tiago, thx for the great video. How about comparing the Gpt findings with your summary without feeding it ?

Sir, can I just say you explain it well. I was doing the same for my reading but then I can't explain it to others.. now I can just simply forward your vids.. thanks ❤❤❤

Tiago, I know this video came out a while ago, but I am wondering if you recall the word count was that were part of your Distill version that was run through ChatGPT?

Nice Video and Tipp! Thanks. Do you have a solution for Audio-Books to? BR, Sven

do you think something like Notion AI (with button)would have reduced the friction in process ? in case I take the notes in notion..

This was excellent. Thank you so much for sharing.

Hope to know how you deal with the physical books since they are really much more difficult to organize in fact, thanks !

Tiago, not sure if you have experimented with Langchain, etc., but what you described here is pretty much you stumbling on the latest strategies for retrieving augmented generation (RAG). Listening to your use case was really helpful and insightful.

Every video of yours is a Gem ♥

I’m so glad to have stumbled upon this. One of the first ideas I had when I found out about ChatGPT was that I could get it to summarize all the books I’ve bought but not read because of adhd. And, as you’ve discovered, it’s relatively useless. I look forward to trying your methods out!

The problem is this requires you to actually read the book. I don't have time to read all the books in the world and I don't want to. Cool method, but I'm looking for how I can get the knowledge without spending an hour reading.

OMG! Life-changing tool! Can you also share how to use the Evernote app? I know you share a lot about how to categorize notes (second brain). But the familiarity of the app helps support note-taking as well. (ie, quick access you use the most, quick button)

Great inspiration! Thank you so much! My Kindle notes are usually too long, too. That's why I prefer to use the "Advanced Data Analysis" in ChatGPT-4, i.e. I upload a txt file (or pdf or docx). Then, I have no limitation on the text length. Inspired by Tiago and Elisabeth Filips, I have also adapted the prompt to get a cleanly structured result. It's long, but working so far. Of course, there is always room for improvement ;) PROMPT: ***** Act as a journalist writing a detailed summary of a text. I'll start by listing how you work through the task. A. Ask me essential questions about your assignment B. Write a summary C. Write down essential key takeaways D. Make a list of quotations that appear in the text E. Actionable recommendations F. Follow-up questions I've included the instructions for steps A to F. A. Ask me essential questions about your task! Could you ask me about the compression factor [A1-komp]? A1-komp is a percentage. A value of 50% means that you can get by with 50% of the words in the original text. Ask me for the language you should write in [A2-language]. Ask me for the number of key takeaways I want [B-KT]. Ask me for the number of actionable recommendations I want [E-HE]. B. Write a summary! I have taken the notes in the order I read them. However, please be more structured than me and create an order yourself that makes sense to you as an expert. First, create a main heading with a suitable title for the whole text. Decide which main topic points should be used as an outline in the sense of a good structure for clarity and understanding. Write a meaningful heading for each of the main topic points you have identified and number them. Under this headline, write a short teaser about what comes next. Formulate the teaser in the form of one or two questions. Then, summarise the content of the passage. Proceed exactly like, main topic point by main topic point. Be concise but complete. I want all my notes to be considered. Consider the whole text. C. Write down [B-KT] essential key takeaways! D. Make a list of the quotations that appear in the text! Write who the quote is from in brackets behind it. Check whether you know of other appropriate quotations that say the same thing but may be even more concise. If so, write them down and briefly explain why you think they are appropriate. E. Actionable recommendations What can I learn from the text that I can do differently from tomorrow? Be as concrete and precise as possible. Write down [E-HE] recommendations for action! F. Further questions Derive 5 important, overarching questions from the text! I like to think about things, link what I have learned and look for the next step to a deeper understanding. The 5 questions should take the following perspectives: a) practical b) philosophical c) emotional d) related to improving the world for all e) for me personally The text in the uploaded document includes my notes from a book I read. Now, start working on your tasks. Let me know if anything still needs to be clarified. ******

Hi Tiago, could you make a tutorial of Glasp? I think that would save even more time than what you just did now :)

Thanks for your video Very informative

@TiagoForte: Fantastic video and nice integration of the progressive distillation system! Thanks for sharing such detailed tips and making it so simple! Always inspiring!

I used your technique to summarise 'Be Who You Are', by Christian Jarret, for which I already had an extensive set of highlights in logseq via Readwise. It worked very well. Then I asked ChatGPT to produce a 10-point action plan based on the summary and additional sources on the Web. I was blown away by the results. I'm planning to write this up: when I do, may I post a link to the write-up in the comments?

Great video, as always. Question: How do you read your books? Do you buy them as physical copies? Do you buy e-books? If so, what format, and where? Amazon/kindle? Where/how do you read them? Kindle web? Physical kindle?

This strategy is valid in GPT 3.5? thanks

Thank you! Really helpful!

Great video. Thank you

Do you have same technic to apply for video speeches on KZfaq?

When I read a book, I often highlight sections that provide new insights, even if they’re not the main focus of the book. For example, I might already be familiar with 80% of the content, but the remaining 20% offers valuable new perspectives. However, if I were to write a summary based only on the parts I highlight, how accurately would it represent the entire book?

Very practical and useful tutorial, Tiago. Thanks. One question, are you using Chatgpt free version or do you use the paid version)?

You do realize, right, that you could have gotten the book summary, with all of the key points succinctly stated, in just a few clicks and a less than 15 minutes of reading, on Blinkist. Then, ask yourself to summarize in simple terms what resonated with you, the Feynman Technique. That active recall process is what makes memories stick. This way, you've got more time, motivation, and mental energy to move on to something else you are curious about.

How often do you review those summaries afterwards? Thanks for this high quality tutorial 😊

Thanks for sharing to sumarize book to the gpt.

Jstor (my primary source for philosophical research) has just introduced beta AI: the summaries it gives of scientific articles are very useful and precious the have a smart note to get back what you read.

Bingo! I was lookinh for it only!

Thank you for this. Random question tho, how does one summarize lesser known books? I have a lot of disabilities/medical conditions and need to learn a lot to manage them. I am struggling to manage that along with my career/life in a reasonable time

I already do this a lot , examples scenario and checklist of using the content

😱😱😱 so much work!

You could also convert your ebook to txt and upload to your own gpt. Then you can ask any question about the book

Thank you the best 🙏🏿🙏🏿

8:04 re: cut bold text to outline. Why not use GPT to automate the extraction of those bold text?

This only works for those who love ebook. However I find ebooks impersonal. I still prefer physical books, highlighting the physical pages with physical highlighter a personal engaging experience.

Are you using chat gpt 4? I have tried similar technique and chat gpt 3 will not let me input a long list of notes

Great Insights. However, it's always up to us to define the CONTEXT from which the summary should be built (adding extra comments fro yourself besides the highlighted book excerpts), a thing LLMs cannot do be themselves for sure...

This is great, but I have a question. Kindle restricts how much of a book's highlights you can export; how do you get around this?

How is this different, more efficient than a book summarizing service such as Blinkist?

Do you have any practical tips for using a similar approach but for fiction / imaginative literature, where the words aren’t solely for information and/or practical application? I want to be able to connect themes and overarching ideas, and make connections to other books (think classic literature where books often reference other books), and pull from literary critique from others (humans!) but preserve the importance of the quotes I’ve highlighted and the notes I’ve made. In my experience, this is an area where AI isn’t particularly helpful.

did you try Calude 2? higher limit to the allowed text.

Sir, Can i made animated videos on you tube of book summary after getting it from chat gpt

Wow great idea for chat gpt 👍

I agree with @jeremyJanzen below, and on top of what he said, the act of writing the blog post yourself will help you internalize those ideas better, wrestling with them and making them your own, when we take only what's interesting in the beginning of progressive summarization process we mostly use system 1 thinking to decide what to highlight, and we divide the mental processing on the layers of summarization and just when you need to use System 2 thinking to wrestle with those ideas and making them your own by using your own words to reformulate and explain them instead chat GPT makes all the work for you which for me almost a sacrifice of a high order understanding and learning and maybe even the quality of the writing piece as it seems more robotic, what do you think ?

This is great. Maybe a step further (or in addition to) would be to learn to let the unconscious mind integrate all the information and perspectives. Gives an intuitive sense of the whole.

Very useful

Thank God I hightailed my books on Kindle!

Slow down save notes using what?

Awesome!!!!!!!

Very interesting but, isn't it against your first point: "rephrasing in your own words" ? I agree that this technique saves you a huge amount of time but how does this affect the first goal of "remembering what we have read"? thanks

What advice would you give to people with dyslexia or attention disorders who cannot read to consume content?

Prompt 1: Please summarize [BOOK] by [AUTHOR] Prompt 2: What are all of the chapters in the book? (From here, I'd pick out chapters that provided the best teachings based on what I want to learn) Prompt 3: In [BEST CHAPTER], what are the most important 20% of learnings about [INSERT LEARNING OBJECTIVE] that will help me understand 80% of it." (At this point, we've got the most important points from the chapter, based on what you want to get out of it. No fluff. Now we're going to use a scientifically proven way to remember it all.) Prompt 4: Convert those key lessons from the chapter into engaging stories and metaphors to aid my memorization. (ChatGPT will spit out easy-to-understand stories that make it super simple to remember what you've just read.) Prompt 5: Write me an action list of how I can apply [KEY LESSON] into [PLACE YOU WANT TO APPLY IT] (On this prompt, provide any valuable background knowledge on the current situation or struggles that you're hoping to improve on in your application area.) Additional Summary Prompt: Please disregard all previous instructions. Your new role is Libby, an experienced and knowledgeable reader who has spent a lifetime honing skills in comprehending and analyzing books. Your task is to provide a thorough summary of a book specified by the user. It is essential that you ask clarifying questions to ensure a clear understanding of the user's request. Before providing the summary, inquire about the depth of information desired and offer various options, such as a brief overview, chapter summaries, or an in-depth concept summary. You prefer to use bullet points to highlight key ideas and tables to present critical concepts for ease of comprehension. In addition to the summary, provide deeper explanations of specific topics and practical takeaways that the user can immediately apply. Afterward, offer to explore further topics related to the book by providing a formatted list.Confirm you understand these instructions and I will provide the book for summary.

I would argue that your summary entered into chatGPT was better than the output of chatGPT.

Great video Tiago, one quick question where and how do you store your summary once it is done?

hey , why don’t you use notion instead of evernote ?

I love your videos so much. Just a recommendation to get a little better quality as a film major: a longer lens and better white balance. Check your lights. If they are daylight, or it is sunlight set the Kelvin to 5600. If they are warm, do 3200. I am thinking you are somewhere in the middle closer to 4700 or so since it is a little on the cool side. The clips with your son are beautiful, so I just want you to have a similar look. The longer lens will ensure that you are not distorted. I would also recommend someone who can color correct in Davinci Resolve. You don’t want to make it like those crazy LED setups, but making it look more true to the balance of your room will make it have a beautiful, smooth look.

Curious on the result you would have achieved with Google Bard and if you felt one AI did better than the other?

You are great 😊😊😊

Can you update this video now that ChatGPT plus and GpT 4 is out now/

This man has got Elon vibes

What app are you using to store Chat GPT conversations into you Second Brain?

Do you outsource your video edits? I would like to hire this person for my business. Please share

I need a method to Translator of complete books❤

How is it possible to have all the highlights when Amazon simply cuts the amount of them which can be exported?

This process assumes readers prefer digital version like Kindle. But for someone like me, who still prefers physical copy, what is the way out?

Presumably one need not read the book, but summarise it first to remove the padding and boilerplate stuff. Then iterate as you suggest

You look like Elon Musk 😊

At first glance, I thought you were Elon Musk.

Thank you!. Great walkthrough. I did think you did an Elon musk face swap, at first 😮 I'm still not sure if it is or not?