Newsletter #5

Model updates

Opus 4.5 & Gemini 3 Pro: Claude and Gemini are now better than ChatGPT for most tasks. Opus 4.5 is the best default model.
Coding: this month, it's Claude Code for everything. Opus 4.5 is a big step up.

⭐ It's time to try Claude Skills ⭐

Claude Skills with Opus 4.5 are a milestone for mundane utility. To understand, check these examples:

Create invoices, send them, and verify payment (pulls data from Toggl; makes invoices in Xero; sends via Gmail).
Review, edit and publish blog post.
Make an OKR progress report (pulls data from Google, Drive, Calendar, Notion and Gmail).
Rachel Wollen's AI Chief of Staff.

Motivated? Learn how skills work, and how to make them.

Want help? Book a call, and we'll make a skill together.

How to pull data into the Claude web app

Notion: Claude can search, create, and edit. Install the connector and configure your system prompt to make it faster. ⭐
Call transcripts: Claude can read transcripts directly from Granola, Fireflies and Google Meet. ⭐
Read any URL: Claude's security sandbox limits web access. Use Zapier to work around this, if you understand the risks.

Good to know

Google Docs: The sidebar assistant is now powered by Gemini 3 Pro. It is finally not useless.
Research: Dwarkesh likes the Google Scholar PDF Reader. Andy Masley thinks that Google Scholar Labs may be a "game changer".
Calendar events: Gemini can create Google Calendar events, and so can Claude Code. ChatGPT and Claude can only read them.
Gemini memory: Gemini doesn't have memory. To get better responses, add "who am I" context to saved info. ⭐
Airtable field agents: Send bulk prompts to LLMs and get results in a spreadsheet. Good for bulk classification, extraction, and data enrichment.
Evaluation: How to systematically improve your prompts.
AI Twitter roundup: If you feel like some wow-scrolling, see this roundup. If you want just one thing, make it Gavin Leech's review of 2025. ⭐

Coding

Notifications: Get notified when Claude Code or Codex finish work. ⭐⭐
Front-end design: Claude's new design skill can one-shot excellent, characterful web design. ⭐

Support AI adoption on your team

Playbook: I've updated my notes on how to support AI adoption.
Internal guidelines: Coefficient Giving shared their internal guidelines on using AI.
Robust automations: How to make Zaps that don't break.

Try this

Claude Skills: As above...
Reduce friction: Make a browser extension to add keyboard shortcuts to a web app.
Fun: Vibe code the Spotify homepage you actually want.

Tell your friends

Please tell your friends about this newsletter. You can tweet this, if you like.

Closing vibe

Gemini 3 Pro is step up for hard questions. But Opus 4.5 is the bigger story for this newsletter: it's a breakthrough for daily tasks, and for coding.

The "wow" has been strong for me, these past days.

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