Use it until it breaks (or you become pro)

In his appearance in the Ezra Klein Show podcast, professor and AI expert Ethan Mollick (author of the thought-provoking Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI book), gave an important tip to everyone who wants to truly grasp the power of AI and use it effectively in their work - dedicate at least 10 hours to working with it.

Use it for everything, Mollick recommends, and you will find its limits and abilities.

AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude 3 are unlike HubSpot or Photoshop, where all you need is a YouTube tutorial. They are complex tools whose effectiveness depends much more on the user’s aim and skill, rather than learning a set of keyboard shortcuts.

Mollick’s advice applies to much more than AI - hobbies, jobs, relationships, expensive dishwashers - when you spend the time with something and test its limits, you will understand it much better. Don’t just "play around with it” for an evening, but find how far you can push its limits.

Just be careful not to break that dishwasher.

🔎 Your LinkedIn Questions - Answered! 🙋

🤯 Get ready for the humungous Algorithm Insights report by Just Connecting Hub - a beautiful, comprehensive snapshot of LinkedIn in 2024. They have crunched the numbers (diving into over 1.5 Million posts) to distil how the algorithm treats different content.

Learn all about posting formats, personal and company pages, ads, collaborative articles, AI, hashtags, and much, much more!

Here are some of my key takeaways:

1. 48% of LinkedIn’s posts are text with a single image.

   • This is the most common posting format.

2. The most effective text length ranges from 900 to 1,200 characters.

   • Short sentences are also beneficial. More words can reduce reach.

3. Text-only posts are effective for external CTAs.

   • Prompting downloads or event sign-ups on text-only posts has an average 25% higher click-through rate.

4. Photos featuring you can have up to 60% higher reach and a 50% engagement boost.

   • Photos of people lead to an increase in reach.

5. A Carousel Post performs best with around 12 slides.

   • Include 25-50 words per slide.

6. Video posts should be between 1-2 minutes.

   • Prioritise the vertical format and upload natively.

There is tons more value to see. Get the full report here!

📚 Shelf Shocks 💥

1. Red Flags, Green Flags: Modern psychology for everyday drama by Dr Ali Fenwick

We are all surrounded by personal drama and behaviours we are not always ok with. Emotional intelligence is how we deal with situations like these, and as people put an increased value on their mental health, the work of psychologists and behavioural experts like Dr Fenwich will increase in relevancy.

The book is an accessible resource on applied psychology, which covers everyday topics like family and friends, dating, and work. It will provide useful tips and explanations for understanding the behaviour of others and how you respond to it.

🎧 Summary

2. Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr

You can’t become a billion-dollar company without doing something right. Colin and Bill are long-serving, high-level Amazon executives who have been to hell and back with the company and are now pulling back the curtains on the tech giant.

Since its beginning, Amazon has been guided by four cultural touchstones, which evolved into 14 leadership principles. The authors reveal what they are, how they paved the way for its success, and how you can apply their principles and guidelines to your company.

🎧 Summary

3. Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination by Hugh MacLeod

Is it so difficult to do what we love all day? According to the fascinating and outspoken visual artist Hugh MacLeod - no, it isn’t. You just need an evil plan.

MacLeod is an unusual and disruptive thinker, who gives actionable advice, spiced up with loads of humour. This book will help you to finally decide what is important to you, make a plan and DECIDE you will go through with it. You can do it!

You can also get MacLeod’s 40 tips on creativity in his Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity and follow him on Instagram.

🎧 Summary

Fun Links ⏰ ❗️

1. 𝕎𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕖 𝕗𝕦𝕟 𝕥𝕖𝕩𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤!

You’ve seen how some people have text in different fonts and boldness on sites like LinkedIn. What gives? Aren't we all limited to the same font the site's designers have chosen?

Well yes, but there is a little trick to add some flair to your text and make it stand out: use this website.

1. Plant a tree online. 🌴

If you’ve always wanted to plant a tree, but are unsure how to do it properly, this website allows you to support farmers who will plant a tree and take care of it for you. It gives you lots of options to choose from, detailed info about specific trees and allows you to track their progress.

Start planting here.

You've reached the end of my newsletter. Hooray! If you’d like to see more of my work, you can GET MY BOOK Write Better: A Simple Guide to Better Business Writing or connect with me on LinkedIn for more fun and educational content.

If you have any comments or would like to share what you enjoyed the most, feel free to get in touch! See you in two weeks!