DeveloPassion's Newsletter 196 - AI Assistants Revolution

Hello everyone! I’m Sébastien Dubois, your host. You’re receiving this email because you signed up for DeveloPassion’s Newsletter. Thank you for being here with me ✨

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Welcome 

Another week, another newsletter! I hope that you all had a great one 🤩

This week has been exhausting because of the heat here in Belgium, but really fun as well. I've been focusing really hard on building something that's changing how I think about and use AI. Oh and I've also just launched a new product that I'm proud of.

I have one week left before we go on vacation. Part of me already wants to be there, to finally hit PAUSE and relax. But my brain wants to keep grinding, and keep trying to make this "work" somehow. And I know I need to silence that part of me, because I really need some rest!

Alright, let's gooooo 🚀

This Week's Highlights 

• Launched my AI Ghostwriter Guide!
• Built a really COOL AI Assistant proof of concept 🎉
• Awesome feedback from Knowledge Management for Beginners students ❤️
• Insights about trauma and beekeeping (yes, really!)

Before You Go Any Further 

I want to reach more people. Got 60 seconds? Then share the link with one friend/colleague who would benefit from joining us! And of course, don't forget to also mention the Knowii Community ❤️

And if you bought some of my products or courses? Then please leave a rating/review. It really helps a lot ❤️

New Launch: AI Ghostwriter Guide 

Big news this week! I just launched a new product: my AI Ghostwriter Guide. It's the blueprint of the system I'm currently using to teach AI to write like me. I documented my approach step by step, and get the recipe and use it to create your very own AI writing assistant.

You can check it out here: https://www.store.dsebastien.net/l/ai-ghostwriter-guide

Build Your AI Ghostwriter: The Complete Guide to Creating an AI Assistant That Writes Like You

What is this?Transform any AI into your personal ghostwriter that writes with your exact voice, style, and expertise using this proven step-by-step system.Who This Is For✅ Perfect if you: Create content regularly (articles, essays, newsletters, social media posts, etc) Want to scale your content using AI without losing your unique voice Spend too much time editing AI slop-generated content Have products or services to promote through content Want to build a sustainable content creation system ❌ Not right if you: Never create content or have no interest in writing Prefer to write everything manually without AI assistance Don’t have existing writing samples to analyze Are looking for a “magic button” solution without any setup Stop Using AI Like a Dummy. Start Training ItYou’ve tried them all: ChatGPT. Claude. Gemini. But every time, you feel the same frustration: “This doesn’t sound like me at all.“The AI gives you generic text, content that could apply to anyone. You spend more time editing than you would writing from scratch. I’ve been there as well, but that was a long time ago!Here’s the problem: You’re using AI like everyone else—throwing random prompts at it and hoping for magic to happen. But that’s not the way it works!The solution? You have to TEACH AI to write like YOU.What If AI Could Capture Your Exact Voice?Imagine opening your AI assistant and getting content that: ✅ Sounds like YOU ✅ Uses your signature sentences and personality quirks ✅ Understands you and your unique perspective ✅ Knows your content strategy and helps you create highly relevant content for your target audiences ✅ Knows your business, your brand, your products and services, your audience, etc ✅ Creates content across all your formats (articles, essays, newsletters, social media posts, scripts, ...) ✅ Evolves over time Sounds too good to be true? Well this isn’t fantasy. It’s exactly what I’ve built for myself. And now, I’m showing you how to do the same.The System You NeedAt this point, my AI Ghostwriter has helped me write hundreds of pieces of content: notes, articles, newsletters, podcasts, course scripts, emails, letters, etc.I’ve spent months perfecting this system and approach. I’m relying on it daily, and thus I know from experience that it works flawlessly. The cool part is that I’ve documented it all along the way, and thus I can teach you how to create the same for yourself.This isn’t about better prompts (though you’ll get those too). This is about creating an AI Ghostwriter that understands you and your needs.Why This WorksMost people make these mistakes: ❌ Using generic prompts hoping to get unique content ❌ Starting over with new prompts for every piece of content ❌ Settling for “good enough” content that needs heavy editing ❌ Abandoning AI because “it doesn’t work” My system fixes all of this by: ✅ Creating a comprehensive description of your personality, writing style, rules, content strategy, content types, and more! ✅ Training AI to adapt to your style, not the other way around ✅ Building a system that delivers high quality results and improves over time ✅ Establishing consistency across all content types What’s IncludedYou’ll get the complete step-by-step guide you can follow to create your own AI Ghostwriter, including: Clear explanations Many AI prompts you can use to help you create the documents you need Document templates Advanced techniques for power users 💡 Bonus Resources Private community access for questions, updates and knowledge sharing Real examples taken from my own implementation Frequently Asked QuestionsQ: Do I need deep technical skills to implement this? A: No. There are advanced options for power users, but the core system works with simple copy-paste/upload on any AI platform.Q: Which AI platforms does this work with? A: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, NotebookLM, ... Basically, any AI that accepts custom instructions and/or file uploads.Q: How long does it take to set up? A: Basic setup takes 2-3 hours. Advanced implementation with Model Context Protocol (MCP) can take a weekend, but the time savings compound quickly.Q: Will this work for my niche/industry? A: Yes. The system analyzes YOUR writing samples, so it works regardless of your topic, industry, or content type.Q: What if I don’t have enough writing samples? A: Start with what you have. You can still add more later. It’s not a showstopper.Stop settling for generic AI responses. Start creating content that sounds like YOU.

Gumroad

The Lab 🧪 

AI Assistants for the win 

My AI Ghostwriter was the very first step. But I want to build something much more valuable: a general-purpose AI Assistant. I'm busy training AI to organize my calendar, manage my emails, structure my notes, and basically handle any task I throw at it, having full knowledge of who I am, what I work on, why, etc. It's like a personal assistant that really understands how I work and think. And this is key!

So far, the results are really promising, and I'm wondering how far I'll be able to go with this project 🤯. More on this one soon. If you're curious, then join Knowii, I'll be sharing my progress over there.

Knowledge Management Course Success 🎉 

Speaking of cool results, my Knowledge Management for Beginners now has about 100 students, and the feedback has been really positive! It feels so good to see people actually transforming how they work with knowledge. This is exactly why I do what I do ❤️

Knowledge Management for Beginners

Your ultimate video course to mastering Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)

Knowledge Management for Beginners

300 YouTube Subscribers 🎉 

My YouTube channel just hit 300 subscribers, pretty cool:

It just took me two years to get there 😂

Knowii 

I have mixed feelings about Knowii right now. One one hand I'm super happy about having created this space and finally meeting some of you, for instance through our first Knowii Community Events. I'm also happy about the fact that the costs are almost covered by the current subscriptions, meaning that it's a successful experiment.

On the other hand I'm a bit sad because I haven't really managed to make the space come alive yet. Yes many of you are "there". Yes, some of you interact from time to time. But generally speaking, I still feel like shouting in the void. But I'm patient. I'll keep trying to invite new people in, sharing ideas in the different spaces, etc. As usual, I'm in for the long run.

Last but not least, I'm pretty stressed about sales going further and further down ($300 this month, compared to $1400 last month) since I launched Knowii. My fear is that all the time/energy I put into this hurt my business (obviously since sales are going down). What worries me most is that I don't know where the problem lies, as usual. Either it's because I spent less time creating/promoting my other products. Or it's because my website/store don't make my offers obvious/clear enough. I feel lost.. Again 😂

Trauma + Beekeeping = Relief 

Here's something fascinating I learned two weeks ago from a member of our Knowii Community who works for Hives for Heroes, an association helping military veterans (by the way, they're always looking for beekeepers).

Did you know that beekeeping has powerful therapeutic effects for people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

The humming of bees' wings has natural calming effects on the mind. But there's more to it than that. Being around bees requires you to be slow, careful, deliberate, and intensely focused on the present moment (i.e., mindful).

For people suffering from PTSD, this is super valuable. They need to learn how to manage/tame their internal "frenzy" and focus on the "now" instead of letting trauma overwhelm their emotions. Beekeeping essentially acts as a Mindfulness technique.

In my opinion, this could also be incredibly helpful for people with ADHD. The combination of required focus, calm presence, and connection with nature creates the perfect combo for mental regulation.

Knowii Community Spotlight 

This week I recorded a workshop about "Clarity" for our Knowii Knowledge Builders. In this workshop, I shared my complete approach for gaining clarity about your needs, values, principles, and life goals. If you feel "lost" or wonder what should come next in your life, this session might help. You can get access to the recording here: https://www.store.dsebastien.net/l/knowii-clarity-101

Knowii - Clarity 101

What is this?This is an workshop about life and career design, “how to live a life that feels good” that was recorded in the Knowii Community.Check out the full list here. Note that paid Knowii members have access access to ALL the video recordings 🤩.Who is this for?People who feel lost in their life or career, and want to find the right path forward.In this workshop, I’ve shared the approach I recommend to gain more clarity about your needs, your values, your principles, life/career goals, non-goals, and priorities.This won’t magically answer all your questions or solve all your problems, but it might help you better understand where you are, where you want to go, and also help you make the right decisions.It doesn’t matter where you came from. All that matters is where you are goingTopics covered in this workshop: What clarity is all about What are gravity problems How to determine your Personal Value System How to define your Personal Principles How to create your Personal Manifesto How to find your life’s mission, your Ikigai Why non-goals are important as well Why it’s not too late to make changes How to approach life design How to make better life/work decisions (that you don’t regret) How to leverage Design Thinking and the Design Thinking Process Identifying your 12 favorite questions or problems Why mindfulness is key How to uncover your true motivations Why you should optimize for happiness How to envision your future lives How to create a vision grid for each How to validate/experiment with important life/career changes How to avoid the paradox of choice How to make an actual choice, and move forward The importance of emotional intelligence and gut feelings How to leverage Reverse Goal Setting to identify the path forward What SMART Goals are and why they’re useful How to define SMART life/career goals How to document your goals Which time horizons to consider when setting life/career goals and why they matter How to set the right priorities

Gumroad

Speaking of clarity, Jenn, who focuses on helping/coaching multi-passionate creatives, has created a wonderful free guide called "What Works For You". Check it out here: https://stan.store/jscreative

Tim Miller, also one of our community members but also the creator behind Obsidian.rocks, has recently launched a cool product for Obsidian: a ready-made bookshelf to track the books you want to read/are reading/have read. Seems cool, especially with the new improvements in Obsidian Bases: https://obsidian.rocks/simple-systems-for-obsidian/

Lastly, I recently made multiple community spaces free for all to see: AI, Knowledge Work, Zen Productivity and Content Creation.

Latest Video 

This week I focused more on building than writing, but I did publish a new YouTube video taken from my Knowledge Management for Beginners course. In this video, I share my point of view about what Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is about.

Obsidian Bases Improvements 

The Obsidian team just released a new beta with major improvements to their Bases (cfr Obsidian Bases) feature! It now includes a card view gallery where you can add cover images to each item:

About Sébastien

I'm Sébastien Dubois, and I'm on a mission to help knowledge workers escape information overload. After 20+ years in IT and seeing too many brilliant minds drowning in digital chaos, I've decided to help people build systems that actually work. Through the Knowii Community, my courses, products & services and my Website, I share practical and battle-tested systems. You can follow me on X 🐦 and on BlueSky 🦋.

I am an author, founder, and coach. I write books and articles about Knowledge Work, Personal Knowledge Management, Note-taking, Lifelong Learning, Personal Organization, and Zen Productivity. I also craft lovely digital products.

If you want to follow my work, then become a member and join our community.

Ready to get to the next level?

If you're tired of information overwhelm and ready to build a reliable knowledge system:

• 🎯 Join Knowii and get access to my complete knowledge transformation system
• 📚 Take the Course and Master Knowledge Management
• 🚀 Start with a Rock-solid System: the Obsidian Starter Kit
• 🦉 Get Personal Coaching: Work with me 1-on-1
• 🛒 Check out my other products and services. These will give you a rock-solid starting point for your note-taking and Knowledge Management efforts