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Chatbot Essentials

I don't know if I have the best habits in the world, but these ones really changed my research and my life.

Some very basic advice before you dive in

Get a paid subscription to Claude or ChatGPT (or both). Always use the strongest model available — the quality gap is large. Give the AI context about who you are and what you need before diving into a request. The Chatbots Done Right page covers the fundamentals; the Prompt Engineering page formalizes the full framework.

What's Here

  • Chatbots Done Right

    The techniques that separate casual chatbot use from genuinely useful work. Models, context, prompts, conversations.

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  • Prompt Engineering

    Prompt writing as a structured skill. The bridge between casual use and building real workflows.

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  • AI Project Folders

    Build a reusable planning system for any recurring task — vacations, shopping, health, professional workflows.

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  • Stress-Test Any Plan

    Paste a plan into a fresh AI chat with an adversarial prompt and get structured critique. One prompt, 10 minutes, any tool.

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  • Voice Dictation

    Dictation across iPhone, Mac, and every app. The landscape is changing fast — here's what I use and how to evaluate your options.

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  • Transcribe Every Meeting

    Turn Zoom calls, phone calls, and in-person meetings into searchable transcripts and structured records. My current tool and alternatives.

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  • NotebookLM

    Turn collections of PDFs, transcripts, and documents into searchable, citable research libraries. How I do literature reviews across 300 papers.

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  • Teaching AI Your Voice

    AI has a house style. The fix is a voice file: one document that captures how you actually write. Load it once; every conversation starts with your patterns, not the AI's defaults.

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  • ChatGPT vs Claude: Chatbot Comparison

    An honest comparison from someone who pays for and uses both daily. When each one wins.

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  • The Cost Reality

    What this actually costs. ROI analysis at different budget levels. What's worth it and what isn't.

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The Stack

My current daily toolkit, for reference:

Tool What It Does Cost Essential?
Claude (Pro or Max) Primary chatbot + Claude Code $20-100/mo Yes
ChatGPT (Plus or Pro) Deep research, web search, image generation $20-200/mo Recommended
Wispr Flow Dictation everywhere $10/mo Highly recommended
Granola Meeting transcription $10/mo Recommended if you have meetings
NotebookLM Document-corpus AI research Free-$20/mo Recommended for researchers

You don't need all of these. Start with one chatbot subscription and add tools as you see the value. The Cost Reality page breaks this down in detail.

Different platform or tools? Ask AI to help you adapt

This site documents a Mac + Zoom + WhatsApp + Gmail workflow — that's what I use. If you're on Windows, or your team uses Slack or Teams instead of WhatsApp, the concepts and skills still transfer but some setup steps will differ. Try asking Claude or ChatGPT: "I use [your platform and tools]. How would I adapt this system for my setup?" That's more useful than reading around steps that don't apply. And for any tool recommendation on this site, AI chatbots can help you find the right alternative for your workflow — just verify pricing and availability on the tool's own website.