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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Ive recently written about free, private AI tools and the best AI mobile apps. To build on that AI series, Im sharing a new guest post today on how to make the most of AI by Frank Andrade, The PyCoach. Hes an AI & Python instructor who has helped thousands of people on YouTube and Substack master AI with beginner-friendly guides and in-depth tutorials. As he starts a new journey on Instagram, hes offering his ChatGPT course free to anyone who follows & DMs him. Ive been using ChatGPT since the day it was released. Back then, there were no fancy features, model picker, or alternative AI tools to choose from. Things have changed in 2025 and Id like to share with you some things Ive learned so far: A couple of times per year, youll see headlines about a new worlds most powerful model. Ignore the hype. Stick to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or whatever tool you use. Give it a couple of months, and the headlines will be about your tool. ChatGPT can make you more productive or dumber. An MIT study found that while AI can significantly boost productivity, it may also weaken your critical thinking. Use it as an assistant, not a substitute for your brain. If youre a student, use study mode in ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. When this feature is enabled, the chatbots will guide you through problems rather than just giving full answers, so youll be doing the critical thinking. ChatGPT and other chatbots can confidently make stuff up (aka AI hallucinations). If you suspect something isnt right, double-check its answers. NotebookLM hallucinates less than most AI tools, but it requires you to upload sources (PDFs, audio, video) and wont answer questions beyond those materials. That said, its great for students and anyone with materials to upload.Share Probably the most underrated AI feature is deep research. It automates web searching for you and returns a fully cited report with minimal hallucinations in five to 30 minutes. Its available in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, so give it a try. ChatGPT and other chatbots have a short-term memory limit. In long threads, they may lose earlier details. Ive learned to periodically restate key points from the initial instructions or start a new chat when necessary. ChatGPT may occasionally misclassify a legitimate question as policy-violating. When it does, I reword the prompt or explain why Im asking. Free < Plus < Pro. Paid tiers are worth it for the extra intelligence and features. Pro tiers go further and can give you an edge, though not everyone needs it. If you handle high-stakes tasks, try Pro at least for 1 month. You shouldnt stick to the default ChatGPT mode. Go to the model picker and try instant, thinking mini, and thinking (here I explain each mode). If you have a pro subscription, use pro mode more often. The next big thing in AI is AI agents. An example is ChatGPT agentthink of it as ChatGPT that can take extra steps beyond a text response. It doesnt just respond to prompts. It can take actions on the web (visit sites, click buttons, scroll) and work toward a goal with minimal human input. Em dashes were around long before tools like ChatGPT ever existed, so dont hesitate to use them if that is part of your writing style. It doesnt hurt to learn the technical stuff behind AI tools. In fact, it can clarify some key concepts and make you more confident when you talk or use AI. ChatGPT cant browse the web by default, but if you turn on Web Search, it can even become a good replacement for Google Search (another good AI alternative is Perplexity). Its not wrong to use ChatGPT like Google Search sometimes. Youll often get immediate answers and move faster. Just dont forget to use temporary chats and projects to keep your chats tidy. Prompt crafting (or prompt engineering) is a skill you need to build if you want to make the most out of AI tools. AI moves fast, so you need to adapt. As ChatGPT gets smarter, some prompting techniques get outdated, while new ones emerge. Text expanders are a big time-saver for prompts. Tools like Alfred, Beeftext, or Text Blaze let you quickly type prompts and save, organize, and reuse prompt templates. [JC: Raycast is another good option for this.] You can be just as productive on the ChatGPT mobile app as on the web. On iPhone, the built-in Text Replacement feature works like a text expander and helps you type prompts faster. Find it under General Keyboard Text Replacement. Use voice mode in your phone to brainstorm or talk through topics when you want a second opinion. Ive tried this many times, and Im usually satisfied with the results. ChatGPT speaks many languages. You can practice your speaking and writing skills anytime. For translation, it beats literal, word-for-word tools like Google Translate because it understands context, intent, and cultural nuance. Chatbots can be overly agreeable. To get less agreeable responses, ask for opposing viewpoints, multiple perspectives, nd a critical take (if possible, avoid inserting your own opinions). See Jeremys piece on how to prompt boldly for more surprising, unusual responses. Midjourney is great for generating outstanding AI images, but for beginners, ChatGPT offers a better balance of ease of use and image quality (just make sure you follow this simple tweak). AI tools have made coding more accessible through vibe coding. However, if you dont know (or want to learn) the basics of programming, youll waste your time, because, at least for now, you have to guide the AI, check its work, and put it on the right course. Some AI companies are more privacy-invasive than others. According to a report, Le Chat (Mistral AI), ChatGPT (OpenAI), and Grok (xAI) are the least privacy-invasive platforms. Meta AI and Gemini (Google) were found to be the most aggressive in data collection and the least transparent about their practices. See Jeremys resources for private AI. Making the most of ChatGPT features Since ChatGPT was initially released, OpenAI has added a lot of features to improve the way we work with it. Some are essential, while others are more domain-specific. Most features can be accessed via the + button. Here are the features that every ChatGPT user should know: Web Search: Web search can help you get answers to contemporary questions. File Uploads: You can upload files such as PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and presentations to ChatGPT. Projects: You can create folders to better organize your chats. Temporary chats: Great for one-off questions, helping you avoid clutter in your chat list. Voice mode: You can speak to ChatGPT instead of typing. Very useful when youre on the phone. See Jeremys guide to ChatGPTs Advanced Voice Mode. The rest of the features are more advanced and for specific use-cases. Create Image: A beginner-friendly tool that creates images or edits existing ones from plain-English prompts (this tweak helps me get the most out of it). See Jeremys guide to ChatGPTs new image generation tool. Deep research: Spends several minutes searching the internet to build complete reports on topics that need evidence, comparisons, and step-by-step reasoning. ChatGPT agent: It can take actions on the web (visit sites, click buttons, scroll) and work toward a goal with minimal human input. Study mode: A learning-focused mode that explains answers at your level, breaks topics into steps, and tracks what youve mastered or need to review. GPTs: Custom versions of ChatGPT you can configure with specific instructions, knowledge files, and tools to specialize in a topic or workflow. Personalization: Setting up custom instructions and memory lets ChatGPT know more about you and provides tailored responses. These features can also be used in the mobile app. In the guide below, I explain how I set up my iPhone to boost my ChatGPT productivity. iPhone setup for ChatGPT: Features to boost productivity in ChatGPT Want to learn more? Stage 1: Sharpen how you write prompts Prompting is how we communicate with AI. Writing good prompts is essential for anyone working with AI tools. ChatGPT has many features and modes, but they wont matter if you dont know how to write good prompts. The basic prompt: Task + Context Theres a ChatGPT prompt formula to get better responses. However, if I were learning prompting again, I wouldnt start with the formula. Why? The complete formula is valuable for advanced work, but for most everyday tasks, its overkill. Using all elements from the formula will slow you down and waste time. Most of the time, youll only need two elements: task + context Task: What you want ChatGPT to do Context: The extra details the model needs to deliver a more tailored response Heres a prompt example: Im a 75kg man who wants to gain 5kg of muscle in 1 year. Build a 1-year training program to follow. I dont have previous experience and I can train 45 days per week (6075 min per session). In the example, the task is to build a 1-year training program, while the context is the persons information and background to create a personalized program. The basic prompt should be enough for most everyday tasks. That said, when we do more complex tasks, well need to use more elements from the formula. Advanced track: The complete prompt formula The prompt formula I use has four extra elements: Exemplar: A short sample response that shows the structure to emulate Persona: Who ChatGPT should be while answering (aka role) Format: The required structure and presentation (tables, length, etc) Tone: The voice and vibe the response should adopt (friendly, formal, etc) When you feel that task and context arent enough to get a good response, add one of these extra elements to your prompt. For example, if I were a personal trainer, the basic prompt would be a good start to build a program for a few clients. However, as my client base grew, Id need a more robust, reusable prompt I could apply across clients. In the guide below, I transform our basic prompt into a more robust one by using every element of the formula. ChatGPT prompt formula: Examples, when to use it, and when not Stage 2: Learn how GPT-5 works ChatGPT used to have a wide variety of models to choose from (o3, 4o, o4-mini, etc). They were consolidated into GPT-5, which has a system that decides whether to use its Chat or Thinking mode for your task. The issue with GPT-5 is that the system doesnt always do a good job and might assign low reasoning to a task that needs deeper reasoning. Its best to avoid the default mode (aka auto) and choose manually the mode we need: Instant: Gives fast answers without spending extra time on reasoning steps Thinking: ChatGPT will think more carefully before answering. Responses take longer, but theyre more structured, detailed, and well thought out. Pro: Research-grade intelligence for high-stakes tasks Pro mode is only available to Pro subscribers. For 95% of people, instant and thinking (available to Plus subscribers) should be enough. For more details, check out my guides below. Complete guide on ChatGPT-5 modes: Who should use it, use-cases, & weaknesses ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscriptions: Worth it? Advanced track There are more advanced concepts you can learn to get better responses with GPT-5. Lets start with those that can be applied in the ChatGPT web app: Instruction following: Avoid contradictory instructions in your prompts. The model may get confused or waste time trying to reconcile the conflicts. Verbosity refers to the length and detail of ChatGPTs responses. Low verbosity is good for critical info and key takeaways, while high verbosity suits comprehensive, in-depth answers. You can explicitly set a word limit in your prompt. GPT-5 prompt optimizer: OpenAIs advanced tool helps sharpen your prompts. It can identify contradictory instructions or other weaknesses. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps.
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Below, Judd Kessler shares five key insights from his new book, Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want. Judd is an award-winning professor of economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His research and writing have been featured in leading media, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and Harvard Business Review, among others. For his work on organ allocation, Kessler was named one of the 30 under 30 in Law and Policy by Forbes. He has been researching market design for the past 15 years. Whats the big idea? Life is full of hidden markets quietly deciding who gets whatand learning their rules is the real competitive edge. See the system, play it strategically, and you can manufacture your own luck. Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Judd himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. 1. You are constantly playing in hidden markets all around you. Economists think about the world as a bunch of markets. In each market, people are trying to get something that they want. But we have a problemscarcity. There is rarely enough of what people want to just give it to everyone. So, we need a way to decide who gets access to the scarce resource and who does not. We often decide who gets what by letting the price rise. As the price rises, a bunch of people decide that paying such a high price isnt worth it and they leave the market. (Fewer people wanting something as the price rises is so reliable that economists call it a law of demand.) I call markets that use prices to decide who gets what visible markets. Theyre visible because its easy to see them. And playing in them is also easy: you simply decide whether something is worth the price and then buy it (or not). But scarcity is not always resolved with prices. Some things are doled out by hidden markets that do not rely on prices to decide who gets what. These hidden markets are harder to see and more complicated to play in, but they are all around you. Sometimes prices exist but are set too low to resolve the scarcity: Taylor Swift sold tickets to her most recent tour, the Eras Tour, for an average of $204, but some tickets were as low as $49 each. At those prices, many people would have happily bought each ticket. Some restaurants are so popular that its nearly impossible to get a table. New iPhones used to fly off the shelves the day they were released. Fad toys (most recently the Pop Mart product Labubus) may be incredibly hard to get your hands on. Scarcity is not always resolved with prices. Other times, we decide not to use prices at all: government benefits like public housing, seats in public schools, and library books are not sold to the highest bidder. We dont let price decide who gets life-saving donor organs or access to the last hospital bed or ventilator. In these cases, we still resolve scarcity: some people get the tickets, reservations, products, government benefits, and life-saving medical care while others do not. Those are the hidden markets all around you. They have their own rules, and you need to learn them. 2. You need to learn the market rules. Every hidden market has its own set of market rules. Your first step toward success in hidden markets is learning them. What are the types of market rules? One class is based on the principle first-come, first-served. With first-come, first-served, whoever gets to a product first gets to claim it. But while this principle might sound simple, the market rules it generates take three very different forms. For example, first-come, first-served market rules can take the form of a race. If you want a reservation at The French Laundry, a world-renowned restaurant with three Michelin stars in the Napa Valley of California, you need to secure a reservation for one of its 17 tables in a first-come-first-served race. All reservations for a given month are offered online simultaneouslyif you want to eat there in November, you need to be ready to click quickly at 10 am on October 1st. First-come, first-served market rules can also take the form of a waiting list or line. People who need a life-saving kidney transplant can join a multi-year waiting list for a deceased donor organ through their local transplant center. The longer that they have been waiting, the higher their priority for an organ when it becomes available. If you want to see a masterpiece like the ceiling frescos of the Sistine Chapel, buy high-end apparel at a clothing drop, or just make your way through airport security, youll be standing in a first-come, first-served line. These first-come, first-served market rules all reward arriving early or waiting the longest. But other market rules operate completely differently. Another class of market rules uses lotteries to decide who gets what. The New York City Summer Youth Employment Program gives 100,000 jobs to youth each summer, but still has to turn away tens of thousands of kids. They use a lottery to decide who gets a job and who does not. Lotteries also provide access to spots in the London Marathon, license plates in Beijing, seats in charter schools, and tags to hunt big game. Every hidden market has its own set of market rules. Another class of market rules involves centralized clearinghouses, where you must rank your preferences: telling an algorithm your first choice, second choice, and so on. This is how we decide which kids go to which elementary schools in New York City, how doctors are assigned to residency programs, and how college admissions work in China. Dating markets, labor markets, and private school admissions markets operate with different market rules. I call these markets choose-me markets because you are choosing someone, a firm, or an academic institution. But for a match to take place, you must also be chosen. Every hidden market has its own specific set of market rules. To succeed in a given market, you need to learn them. Once you know how the game is played, you can develop a strategy to win. 3. You might want to settle for silver. Once you have figured out the rules of the game, you can develop an optimal strategy to get what you want. Across many hidden markets, one common strategy you might want to play is what I call settling for silver. This strategy requires acting like something less desirablesomething that is not your real first choiceis at the top of your list. Why might you want to play this strategy? Imagine youre in a first-come-first-served race, like for a restaurant reservation at The French Laundry. Say you really want to have dinner there on a Saturday night in November. All the reservations are going to be released on October 1st at 10 am. And when theyre released, you will race to click on a particular reservation time. Which time should you click first? Your real first choice might be 7:30 pm on Saturday. You might decide to click that time slot first. I call playing that stratgytrying to get the thing you actually want the mostgoing for gold. The problem with going for gold is that its risky. What you want is often popular with many other people. So, when youre racing for that highly desirable reservation slot, youre likely competing with many other diners who want the same thing as you. Settling for silver would mean pretending that an earlier dinner reservation, say 5 pm or even 4:30 pm, is your first choice. If you prefer getting a reservation at 4:30 pm to not getting to eat at the restaurant at all, settling for silver might be the right strategy for you. Since many fewer people will be racing for a 4:30 pm reservation, you are much more likely to get it. The same logic applies in markets with much higher stakes. Many applicants to private colleges in the United States choose to apply early decision, which commits them to attending the school if theyre admitted. Since an early decision application comes with a binding commitment to attend, you can only apply early decision to one school. Colleges like it when you commit to them, so they reward early decision applicants with a higher chance of admission. This strategy requires acting like something less desirablesomething that is not your real first choiceis at the top of your list. So, what school should someone apply to early? They might be tempted to apply to a reach school early decision. This could be the right move. But if the candidates chance of admission is exceedingly slim, then even if its their top choice, it might be suboptimal to apply there early. Rather than trying to go for gold, they might do better settling for silver by applying to a less selective school early. This way, they can take advantage of their improved admissions chances at their second-, third-, or fourth-choice school. 4. You might want to double dip and multi-list. Another strategy that comes up regularly in hidden markets is what I call double dipping. This strategy involves simultaneously playing in a market multiple times. Double dipping is a common strategy in markets that use lotteries. The U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery has historically offered visas to those from countries that dont send many immigrants to the U.S. The program selects applicants by lottery and gives winners a chance to come to the country and get a green card. But the lottery lets you bring your whole family if you win, so a married couple does better if they each submit an entry: if either of them wins, the whole family gets to come to the U.S. When you enter a theater ticket lottery, you can usually enter for a chance to win two tickets. If you want to go to the theater with a friend, then you should double dip. You should both enter the lottery, effectively doubling your chances of seeing a show. Allowing double dipping can be good for the efficiency of the lottery overall. People who are more motivated are more likely to put in the extra effort needed to play this strategy. Allowing double dipping gives people who care more about winning a higher chance of success. A related strategy is called multi-listing. If there are a limited number of daycare slots in your city and lots of families who want them, spots may be offered on a first-come, first-served waiting list. In that case, you might want to add yourself to waiting lists at multiple daycare centers to increase the chance that you will have secured a spot for your tot when you need it. And people in need of life-saving organ transplants may decide to multi-list by adding themselves to organ waiting lists through transplant centers in different regions. Since being affiliated with a transplant center closer to a deceased donor organ increases the chance you get offered it, being on waiting lists at multiple transplant centers increases the number of organs you get offered. In that case, multi-listing could save your life. 5. You are a market designer! Many hidden markets are designed by others, and you just have to learn the rules to try to get what you want. But there are also hidden markets that you control, like the hidden market for your time and attention or the hidden markets for household resources. You get to decide which emails you respond to promptly, which friends to call back and which to ignore. At home, you get to decide how to allocate everything from financial resources to the television remote to desserts for your kids. In these cases, you get to set the market rules. As a market designer, you can prioritize the three Es in your hidden markets: Efficiency: Not wasting resources and giving resources to people who value them most. Equity: Distributing resources as equally as possible to market participants. Ease: Letting market participants be honest about what they want and not putting them through an ordeal to get it. Good market rules strive to get as close as possible to achieving all three. Efficiency might mean prioritizing email responses where your prompt reply will be most helpful to the recipient: perhaps someone who is actively working on a project and will be more productive once they receive your feedback. It could also mean devoting your limited time to whatever your highest-return activity is today, rather than to a recurring meeting you put on your calendar months ago, which canand probably shouldbe skipped. Equity might require giving people whom you want to treat fairly the same amount of time, attention, and resources, rather than (intentionally or unintentionally) favoring the one who is most demanding. Finally, in some markets, we can make more of a scarce resource by how we prioritize access to it. In some countries, people who register as organ donors receive higher priority for organs if they ever need one. Similarly, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we prioritized medical treatmentlike the last hospital bed or ventilatorfor medical professionals serving on the front lines. These priority systems help ensure that we allocate more of the scarce resources we have. The same logic applies to your time and attention. Prioritizing some of it for yourself (perhaps for self-care) can also mean theres also more to go around. Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea App. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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The past year saw unprecedented change and turmoil in the labor market, from pandemic-era layoffs to AI fundamentally and tangibly turning the workforce on its head. But its in these times of uncertainty and transition that leadership becomes of paramount importance. In 2025, the very nature of leadership itself morphed along with the times, and specific themes resonated with readers in specific ways. And theyre bound to remain very much in the game heading into 2026. Here are some of Fast Companys most popular leadership stories from the last year. Managing underperformers We live in a world of quiet quitting and more workers rejecting hustle culture and the rise-and-grind that defined the last couple of decades. While there are valid reasons fuelling some of this behaviorworkers holding steadfast in their desire for work-life balance, for example, or resisting corporate control when they can be brazenly let go at the drop of a hatother team members may simply be phoning it in or slacking. Underperformance doesnt just materialize, writes Roxanne Calder. Unfortunately, far too many companies prioritize optics over results, turn to placating instead of coaching, and compensate instead of addressing. Multi-hyphenate leadership Entrepreneur. Author. Executive. Board member. Founder. Teacher. Storyteller. These are just a few labels business leaders may gravitate toward when describing their careers, or even current roles. Nowadays, multi-hyphenated monikers not only better describe the full dimensionality of a leaders skills, but also how success involves lots of paths, not a straightforward ladder to a single title. Awareness of this multifaceted quality gained more attention in 2025especially for women, write Alison Moore and Nada Usina. Mother and manager, founder and caregiver, mentor and innovator, they write. What looked nonlinear was simply a different kind of training ground, one that creates resilience, adaptability, and perspective. Not everyone wants to be a leader at all Theres a truism in work: if you want the fancy title, the extra respect and responsibility and most important, the big bucks . . . you have to become a manager. You can only go so far unless you manage people, writes Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. We live in a culture that glorifies leadershipbut not everyone wants to have direct reports. And thats okay. Especially because, in truth, a lot of people are just bad at it. Data from organizational psychology is sobering: Most people are not competent leaders, Chamorro-Premuzic continues. Studies suggest that 50% to 60% of leaders are seen as ineffective by their employees, and engagement surveys regularly show that my manager is the single biggest factor driving dissatisfaction at work. The rise of fractional leaders 2025 saw more of a spotlight on whats known as fractional leaders: senior leaders moving away from high-power, high-profile roles at a single company and instead providing strategic consulting and C-suite-level experience on a part-time basis to many different companies. Typically theyre people with executive experience who are looking for better work-life balance. From fractional CEOs to CFOs, its an employment setup for leaders whove long sat atop the summit of the org chart desiring a change of pace, and it was on the ascent this year: Sara Daw writes that [fractional leaders] feel like they can have a greater impact on a small organization than within the constraints of a large corporation. The interim CEO And with CEOs specifically, 2025 saw more turnover in the head boss position at many companies, leading to a trend dubbed interim CEOs. Nearly a quarter of new CEOs named in the first two months of 2025 were hired on an interim basis, versus 8% in the same period last year, Mansueto Ventures CEO Stephanie Mehta writes. It often occurs when theres a sudden vacancy in the position, and someone needs to quickly step in to buy the board more time in a search for a successor. And currently, the talent pool for CEOs is uniquely robust: Many of the CEOs exiting business right now are baby boomer and Gen X retirees who are eager to remain active by taking on interim roles.
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