Simplicity Over Complexity in Bookwriting

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The speaker believes in keeping bookwriting simple, focusing on limited facts, dad jokes, graphs, and avoiding unnecessary complexity. They suggest that people prefer this straightforward approach over lengthy descriptions and big words. The speaker's friend was impressed with this simple style in their latest book as compared to their previous ones. The speaker questions the traditional book industry's emphasis on detailed narratives and believes in cutting to the point in writing.

Seth-Stephens Davidowitz wrote a book in 30 days—and he did it with ChatGPT.

Seth is a data scientist, economist, and author who challenged himself to write a book—Who Makes the NBA?—in less than 1 month after realizing how fast he could work by using ChatGPT plugin Advanced Data Analysis.

But along the way he discovered something else: Writing with AI wasn’t just faster, it was also way more fun.

Seth outsourced the boring parts of data analysis—like cleaning data, merging files, and looking up code snippets—to AI. This left him to focus on what he loves: thinking up questions to ask the dataset.

In a world where AI can answer any question humans know the answer to, asking the right questions is becoming increasingly important—a skill Seth isn’t just really good at, but also finds joy in.

In this episode, Seth walks me through how he used AI to analyze data and write a book in 30 days. We get into:

How to create and edit complex charts with AI in seconds
Using ChatGPT to brainstorm creative ideas
How AI is redefining who can be an artist
Why ChatGPT is an excellent tool to get a quick ballpark estimate
Developing a sixth sense about when ChatGPT is wrong
The power of AI instantly answering hard questions that would normally take months of research

We also use ChatGPT to analyze a dataset of Olympic athletes live on the show—in pursuit of finding out which sport I’m best suited for!

This episode is a must-watch for anyone curious about data science and how AI is transforming the future of creativity (or who is just a fan of the NBA).

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