Welcome to Fresh van Root newsletter #86!
I know this newsletter was supposed to go out last Thursday, but unfortunately, an emergency demanded my full attention. Sorry for the delay!
Anyway, let’s get to the good stuff. These are my favorites in this newsletter: An article explaining what “work on strategy” means. And an app called Perplexity shows what the future of search could look like.
Finally, I’d like to ask for 20 seconds of your time to fill out our newsletter survey. Your feedback is invaluable and helps improve the newsletter.
Thanks for reading, and as always, stay fresh!
-Rolf
Hello to 93 new subscribers. 👋 I’m Rolf, exploring content and apps at the intersection of marketing, productivity, tech, content creation, and social media – for curious minds. This bi-weekly newsletter is a summary of that exploration.
🧠 Hand-Picked Content
AI: Not Useful Until Its Lossless (Article, 20min)
ChatGPT is serving our answers based on a compressed version of all the content it was fed. This article argues it has the same attributes as a poorly working Xerox copier: The more often something gets copied, the faultier the result. The author points out that ChatGPT should not replace classic search engines because we are not directed to the (quotable) original; therefore can’t trust the result. While that might be true for ChatGPT, it can be solved, as AI search tool Perplexity (featured below) shows. More
Business: Working on Strategy (Blog, 15min)
Of all the words thrown around in meetings, “strategy” is a contender for being mentioned most, but also vaguely defined. In its simplest terms, strategy means connecting intention with actions. If you land at a result that doesn’t bring you closer to reaching your intentions, you fail to deliver on your strategy. This blog post outlines a simple-to-apply method on how to think about/work on strategy. More
- We picked this content recommendation from the Initiator Creator newsletter – a newsletter we like. More
Social Network: Modern Way Of Work (Video, 2min)
Creatives can showcase their work on ReadCV, a social network aimed at designers, illustrators, graphic artists, and alike. Their launch video showcases how creatives can connect on the platform. It’s a very slick video in the “new world of work” realm. Video | More
Marketing: First 90 Days In A New Content Role (Blog, 10min)
If you are a one-person content team, you can read how someone juggles all the tasks as a one-person content team at a growing startup. Tools, processes, tactics, there is a lot to manage and master. This comprehensive article shares hands-on advice. More
Productivity: Remembering Your Digital Work (Blog, 3min)
This blog post is a reminder of why taking screenshots of your digital creations throughout your career is essential. We are updating our CVs and social media profiles, but how much time do we spend documenting what has been created? More
🛠️ Tools & Apps & Services
Creators: The AI Way To Build Slide Decks
Slide-creation app Tome jumped on the AI bandwagon early on and added features to generate images and slides inside the app. It has a neat user interface to customize the style of your slides and allows the integration of Figma files, Miro boards, and more. Also noteworthy is the feature to record a video inside the app to narrate your slides. 1min Demo | More
- Bonus: Tome raised a whopping 45mio recently. More
AI: Conversational Search Engine
Put any question into the search box, and get one result instead of hundreds. That’s the idea of AI-powered search. Perplexity is a new player in that product category. The result shows which underlying sources have been used to generate the answer. We searched for Fresh van Root, and the results shown were accurate. Demo | More
Creator: Turn Your Doodle Into A Image
If you have an image on your mind but lack drawing skills, you can try Autodraw. Doodle the idea of the image you want, and autodraw will do the rest. Gif | More
Productivity: Scheduling Across Timezones
This tool makes it easy to see how your time zone overlaps with others. Add the cities, and move the slider. Screenshot | More
📣 Fresh van Root
🙏 Important: 1min Newsletter Survey
It would be extremely helpful for us if you fill out this 1-minute newsletter survey. It helps us to optimize the newsletter to your needs further. More
👤 LinkedIn Profile Status
On LinkedIn, you can officially only have two profile status, open to work or hiring. Our fun and honest LinkedIn profile frames fix this issue. More
🏞️ Your Next Wallpaper?
🔗 One More Link
Track Your Travels (App)
Polarsteps is an app for documenting your tracking your trips. More
Hustling NYC Travel Blogger (Short Movie, 10min)
A fun look at the stressful work of a travel blogger. More