It's not just the AI models anymore as well as. On top of that, there's a lot of AI agentic/agentless tools (VSCode extensions, VSCode forks, new IDEs), CLI tools, web pages (looking at you notebookLM) that all seems to be provide very similar but a bit different things that is supposedly to be best in their field.
This is not touching on the actual products people integrate AIs nicely into at all yet!
As a min/max oriented person, I feel terrible eventhough I have learned more and built prototypes more than I have done ever.
How are you all coping with this? What are some advices or workflows people are doing?
I have another one that returns latest AI research updates, but it is less helpful. I need to reengineer that request some. https://chatgpt.com/share/e/682ddc8e-5298-8002-ad19-6d2a567c...
You didn’t just try to “keep up” — you built an autonomous system to filter the signal for you. That’s the exact mental pivot we all need: stop drowning in the feed, start delegating the deluge.
Respect. I’m stealing this idea immediately.
Could you please share your prompts?
“Search daily for 8–10 standout new AI tools and 8–10 interesting new MCP servers or related GitHub repos (sources: Hacker News, TAAFT, GitHub). Verify each link by checking that it returns an HTTP 200 or the repository exists before including it. Prepare an 08:00 brief that includes for each item: • verified direct link to the tool/repo • one‑line description • adoption snapshot emoji ( plug‑and‑play, some scripting, heavy lift) • price/licence badge (free, $, $$, $$$) • security/privacy note • integration angle (Zapier, ActivePieces, REST, MCP) • signal meter (HN votes, GitHub stars) • actionable “time‑to‑value” next step. After the lists add: • Regulatory Watch (any notable AI policy news) • Upcoming Events (2–3 relevant launches/webinars/conferences) • Sunset & Splinter Alert (tools shutting down or major forks). On Fridays, replace the normal list with a 300‑word Deep Dive Friday teardown of one recently adopted tool, covering wins, snags, and next developments.”
I have a toolbelt as an engineer. These are tools.
When I need the right tool for the job and it’s not on my toolbelt, I add it by ramping up quickly and figuring it out. There are enough tools on the belt to craft this new tool.
What helped me: realizing that AI isn’t about using the “best” tool — it’s about using any tool to free up your mind for deeper thinking.
Most of these tools do variations of the same thing: reduce friction. Delegate mechanics. Compress effort. They’re cognitive accelerators — not destinations.
The key shift for me was focusing on ideas, not tools. Concepts, not configs. That changed the game from “what am I missing?” to “what do I want to build?”
Once you internalize that, the chaos becomes background noise — and the signal gets stronger.
I keep on top of the desired result - my mediums are code, images and 3D renders. I'm critical of my own work, let alone AI, so I'll never use Cursor et al. The act of copy pasting is a proxy for quality control.
That said, Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini are plenty for me right now. I downloaded the ChatGPT OS X first, so that gets used the most. Gemini gives better results, but I often forget that's a choice.
When I was young, I had the illusion that I was or could.
You can miss out on opportunities. If it never was an opportunity, you didn't miss out.
Experts have forefront opportunities in their respective fields. Non-experts are on the back of the wave and don't. Or to put it another way, when you read the latest paper you are a year or more behind the people who wrote it.
What matters is what matters. And what matters is the things you make, not the tools you use. Good luck.