The Neuron, an AI zeitgest newsletter shared the following:
Hampton, a private community for startup founders, polled 100+ founders on how they’re using AI within their businesses.
The results were…entirely unsurprising.
Most founders (74%) are using AI and note super-duper average productivity boosts for low-hanging fruit like grammar rewording, meeting transcription, and image generation.
A handful have discovered those 1-2 use cases where AI has a dramatic impact. For example, one founder created an in-house version of Intuit in a weekend using AI. #weekendgoals.
Our favorite part: the AI tools founders are using.
Specifically, the off-the-shelf AI tools that those of us with limited budgets—employees & SMBs—should invest in to get a taste of Fortune 500-esque productivity gains.
Here’s what they said:
Audio & Video: Descript, Screen.studio, Riverside, Synthesia, Opus Clips, MeetSteno.
Sales & Marketing: Factors.ai, Jasper, Clay, PowerIn.
Writing & Editing: Grammarly, Hemingway, Superhuman, HoppyCoppy, Read.ai.
Code & Development: GitHub Copilot, Cursor.sh, Crew.ai, Tavily, Pypestream.
Customer Support: SupportAgent.ai, Intercom, Siena CX.
Design: Adobe Generative Fill, Beautiful.ai, Gamma, Canva.
When the innovation curve has kicked into high gear, there is a crush of alternatives created. Then, the dust begins to settle and the first generation of winners emerge. That’s what happening here, these are the first winners — those products that enough people trust and disseminate to others that they become an early version of standard. It is important to note, that very rarely are the names on this list the names that win the market share monopoly game. Those are 2-5 generations of product development away and will largely, I think, simply be feature sets inside of the LLMs we know today, also in their infancy.
Having said all of that, if you want tools that work, this is a list as good as any other.
“It’s always good when followers believe in their leaders, but it’s even better when leaders believe in their followers.”
Mardy Grothe
Psychedelics are having a moment. In the 1960s, the hippie culture of the day used to use psychedelic drugs to “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” They were seen as a vehicle to gain personal understanding and navigate the rapidly shifting times. As the hippies grew up, got jobs, and acquired responsibilities that wouldn’t permit long pscyhonautical journeys, the drugs fell from favor as they weren’t considered beneficial against modern problems any longer.
In the past 10 years, though, psychedelics have undergone a transformation in the minds of clinical researchers. There are hundreds of clinical research trials now underway examining how psychedelic drugs like psilocybin (magic mushrooms), MDMA (ecstasy), LSD (acid), and ketamine, in combination or used separately, might alter brain chemistry to give much-needed relief to sufferers of PTSD, Eating Disorders, anxiety, depression, OCD, and a host of other psychiatric conditions.
Of most interest are the effects of psychedelics seen though three different lenses. The first, is often characterized as “ego death,’ where the ego, or inner critic in one’s mind is quieted while the other, more creative, less obstructionist parts of the mind are allowed to be heard loud and clear. Said by some researchers differently, the logical and linear side of the brain and the other, creative and ideational side of the brain synch up and work in unison instead of in transitive fashion. Said by me: the two halves of the brain stop wrestling for power with one another and start cooperating on a common goal against a common enemy, at least for a time.
For the predator conditions — those where the self is at war with some part of itself, like in PTSD— breaking down the hemispheric barriers and having the brain work in concert towards a solution is monumental. In some of the research studies, veterans returning from the battlefield and dealing with the horrific aftermath of war that the conscious brain struggles to contextualize, are able to use psychedelic compounds to achieve a level of understanding, compassion, and control over their own emotions and reactions, previously unattainable.
Alongside this function of ego death, psychedelics have another more familiar but less valued benefit: time compression. In essence, as the psychedelic compounds flood the brain, it loses the ability to isolate the passing of time as an independent environmental variable. This phenomena is helpful therapeutically in several ways. First, if I can’t tell that time is passing, I’m not rushed to do any one thing, think any one thought, or move from topic to another without the benefit of insight. In other words, I can sit with my thoughts and work them out in a timeless state. Secondly, in some cases, psychedelics give a patient the ability to cycle to and fro on a timeline, moving forward and backwards in time to examine a memory, or fantasize about a future. This happens instantly and in multiple instances, and allows a patient under the influence of the compounds to work on various problems at various times in a controlled manner. Most people treated with psychedelic meidcines report that a 3-5 hour session achieved the resuluts of multiple years of talk therapy and provided an even greater clarity on issues and responses.
Lastly, people struggling with predator conditions, ultimately are struggling with acceptance and love of self and others. There are many psychedelics that address this lack at the root of the brain’s ability to generate and process the chemicals that support the love emotions. Psychedelics can give the brain heightened abilities to produce more, recognize more, and utlimately feel more love. Any therapist will tell you that the work is easier if the patient has love in his life.
One can have differnt opinions on the casual use of recreational drugs. Societies throughout history have drawn a line on what was acceptable and unacceptable use of substances, especially the psychoactive ones. Using these drugs in a truly therapeutic and clinical way, though, to help a human heal his psyche shouldn’t be up for debate as an absolute. Quality regulations concerning the sourcing, administration, and management of these substances are the subject of proper discussion, but making them more available in a safe manner should be the goal of anyone who cares about helping suffering people.
“You cannot use butterfly language to communicate with caterpillars.”
Timothy Leary
Many years ago I took the girl I was dating to Paris and Rome for a trip. We were in love and there aren’t any better places to be in love. It was a joy to show her my favorite places in the cities I knew so well. After cafe au lait on the Right Bank one afternoon, we wandered over to Shakespeare & Company to grab some reading material for the trainride to Rome. One book peaked out from behind a corner at ankle level, a traveler’s guide to Rome, first printed in the 1960s and packaged as walking tours, something quite novel then. I bought for a few euros and tucked it away for the train.
When I cracked it open, I was dumbfounded. The author had lived in Rome for decades and had walked and seemingly gathered information on the historical happenings at every single urban address. “Take a right here and notice the large windowsill at #6. That’s where Mussolini’s mistress lived,” and things like that. It made the City come alive in ways that no regular tour guide could. When we reached Rome, we walked a tour every day and enjoyed gaining a familiarity with the City that I just didn’t have before.
Life happens and the relationship faltered, and it was all my fault. She was hurt and hurt people hurt people so she stole my book. It doesn’t seem like a lot but she knew how much I loved that book, that experience and she didn’t want me sharing it with anyone else. I didn’t have the title, the author, the ISBN, nothing. Over the years, I would reach out and ask for it. I’d have friends do the same thing … to no avail. I researched, googled, emailed Shakespeare & Company, nothing.
This past weekend I was telling the story to a friend who suggested I describe the book to AI and see what it could do. I rolled my eyes, gave it a shot and had the answer in 1.2 seconds. I found out that the book had been in print through the 1970s but fell into disfavor until someone found a copy and spent 10 years updating the references, which is now done annually. The walks remain the same, but the descriptions have been updated for what you actually see today.
My copy arrives today and I’m planning a trip to Rome, asap!