Get Uncomfortable. Then Get Better. Here’s your uncomfortable truth: the thing holding you back from doing way more with AI isn’t time

Nick’s AI Playbook

🧑‍🏫 Latest AI thoughts, tools, and news from Nick Machol Skip to the end if you want to see a candid pic that my wife will either love or hate 😏

Main Idea

Get Uncomfortable. Then Get Better. Here’s your uncomfortable truth: the thing holding you back from doing way more with AI isn’t time, tools, or talent. It’s comfort. Discomfort is the entry fee for transformation. I’ve got a silly little story that proves it—but first, a real-world wake-up call: I was recently on a 7-hour flight. Internet went down. Totally dead. I had major work to crank out and planned to use every minute. I still worked the entire time—but without my AI team? I was about half as productive. Not a guess. A measurable 50% drop. That’s how powerful these tools have become. You can survive without them. But you’ll be slower. Period. Now for the dumb-but-true analogy: I recently switched from PC to Mac after 25 years of muscle memory. I was a power PC user. But I always wondered if a Mac would be better. When I finally switched, I immediately regretted it. It felt like trying to write an essay with my left hand. But I stuck with it. A few weeks later, I love it. Every part of my workflow is faster and smoother. The same is true with AI. Even if you're already dabbling, there’s a better, more advanced version of you on the other side of a little discomfort.

Here’s the play:

Rip off the bandage. Try new AI tools. Experiment. Let it feel awkward. Because the upside on the other side? It’s 2x productivity. And way more!

PS!

I’ve got a massive AI announcement coming early July. It’s not the next ChatGPT, but it will change the game for small and mid-sized businesses trying to adopt AI. My career moonshot is about to launch. Stay tuned.

📰 AI News Worth Knowing

🧐 AI has more emotional intelligence than you. New studies show GPT-4 and friends outscore humans on 5 major emotional intelligence tests. The bots aren't just smart. They're socially savvy too. → More here 💼 Entry-level jobs are vanishing. AI is wiping out junior roles. New grads are struggling to get hired. Upskilling is no longer optional—it’s survival. → More here 🚫 "Do it or else": AI models like threats. According to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, AI tools like Gemini perform better when you threaten them. As in, literally adding fake aggression to your prompt. Weird, but real. A strange twist in the psychology of prompting. → More here 🚀 OpenAI just made meetings obsolete. ChatGPT can now join your meetings, record them, transcribe, summarize, and assign action items. Plus, new integrations with Drive, Dropbox, and more. Productivity just got a jetpack. → More here ⏱️ AI is moving faster than any tech ever. 800M users in 17 months. That’s ChatGPT. Faster than mobile, faster than social. The AI race is on—and only some players will survive. → More here

🛠️ AI Tools You Need to Try

🔮 Perplexity Labs: Complex tasks? Use Labs. Create dashboards, reports, even full presentations—like having a full analyst team in your browser. → More here 🧰 Tool Vault – Frequently updated archive of every AI tool I’ve recommended, tested, or currently use: 👉 Here

📢 Take Action

Getting uncomfortable is a feature, not a bug, of transformation. Book Nick for a private AI training session or strategy workshop. Get uncomfortable—in the best way. June and July full booked. Available starting in August. 💡 Book me for executive training, team workshops, or 1:1 coaching. 📩 Book a session with me → nick@nocinoc.com 📅 See my services and pricing → Click here[Subscribe

🏝️ Bonus Content: Island time

Here’s a photo of my wife Lauren, looking stunning as always at dinner in Hawaii. We’re here with our kids, friends, their kids, and my parents. It’s one of those moments where I realize: thanks to AI, I can actually be present and enjoy life—even while running a business, launching a second one, managing investments, and chairing a board. That’s the power of working smart. Thanks for reading. View email in browser[update your preferences or unsubscribe