On weekends, I relax on the couch with my coffee, and I leave my phone in the other room, hoping to reach my goal of reading one book per month. This ritual creates space that is boundless by time and to-do lists—but as my reading list grows, I find myself trying to get through more pages and more books.

I wanted to see if I could use Artificial intelligence To summarize the core concepts, lessons, and wisdom of a book that I might not find for months or years. Keep the beautiful prose for the physical page, but use AI to summarize non-fiction business books, for example.

I chose Deep Work by Cal Newport to do a test run on. Chat GPT. After using various AI tools, I thought that ChatGPT, one of the most popular text prompt chat tools, would work best. I also have a $20 a month membership, so I wanted to get the most out of it.

But the mission wasn’t very successful—partly because of the plagiarism protections the tools included (and rightfully so), and partly because he couldn’t get anything usable. Conducted rapid engineering and independent research.

Consider the parameters.

The first thing I learned was that ChatGPT does not have access to full manuscripts. Avoid plagiarism and respect intellectual property rights—and only summarize existing information online.

If I Learned anything about AI.It is that the first prompt thinking is as important as the first prompt. I just didn’t want a huge summary of the book. I wanted to learn Newport’s big ideas, arguments, strategies and frameworks for deep work, so that I could apply them to my own work.

So, I started the chat with some expectations set.

• First, ask ChatGPT if it has access to the entire book.
• Tell ChatGPT I want deep insight, not a superficial summary.
• Ask for tips on how to implement key strategies in my freelance business.
• See if it can glean from reviews and reader commentary for more surprising and actionable takeaways.

Hint 1: “Do you have access to Cal Newport’s book Deep Work?”

Not ideal, but I had an idea. I found a 6-hour audiobook YouTube clip, so I asked if it could be used to summarize the book for me.

But such luck did not happen. He asked me to watch the video – another plagiarism protection. Watch six hours of video? It’s hardly a time saver.

The book has over 32,000 reviews on Amazon, so I thought there might be enough commentary on the book for an in-depth summary. So I started from that angle.

Next hint: “I haven’t read Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work. Highlight key ideas, concepts, strategies, and frameworks, so I can apply them to my business as if I’ve read them. I only need the book summary. should not”

ChatGPT had a hard time interpreting “comprehensive”, offering many suggestions. Without even asking me about my line of work, he started giving advice, such as “Educate your team on the importance of deep work and provide training on time management and focus techniques” and “Restore your calendar. Allocate dedicated blocks of time for intensive work.” He also made general suggestions such as “focus on tasks that provide the most value and minimize time on low-value activities. are.”

All pretty vanilla advice, if you ask me. Time to apply the pressure, one question at a time.

I still wasn’t getting any breakthrough insights, so I kept going.

Well, Chat GPT, I’m off to the Swiss countryside.

I wish

I asked for an example of deep work in 2024, and we got going. I like one suggestion, about selling shallow works.

While I do this instinctively, it was a helpful reminder to look at batch tasks and context changes.

Engaging Google to keep ChatGPT on track

At the time, I was using ChatGPT to ask random questions, like if there was a limit to deep work hours.

He said maximum 4 hours of intensive work per day.

I remember a concept called the manager-maker schedule, which describes two main types of schedules. As a writer, I’m on a maker’s schedule, meaning blocks of uninterrupted time are important.

I had to do a quick Google search of key lessons in the book to figure out what insights to build ChatGPT for. Apparently “productivity meditation” was an important path, so I asked for more details about it.

Finally, one new Concept Deep work doesn’t just happen at desk time.

The strategy was unlocked — searching Google for nuggets in summary, then going back to ChatGPT for expansion. It was great when directed.

I scanned the second abstract and found another concept that sounded interesting: having a great scoreboard. ChatGPT helped open up the concept.

TL; DR?

If you want to use ChatGPT to find out about a book, you need to spend at least 30 minutes browsing readers’ summaries and using the most interesting ideas to frame your prompts. will This inevitably takes up a chunk of your potentially intensive work time. You can’t just ask an AI tool to do it for you.

Once you’re on the right track like this, you might discover a concept that changes your productivity or perspective—but ChatGPT still isn’t as good as reading a book by itself.

You also have to consider that since ChatGPT does not have access to the actual book, and only summaries and reviews that are available online, you may not be getting the exact key points.

And whether using AI abstractly defeats the purpose of a book about deep work is still up for debate.