Tool Use - AI Conversations

How I Use AI for REAL Productivity Gains

Tool Use - AI Conversations

Show Notes

Join the Tool Use Discord: https://discord.gg/PnEGyXpjaX

Unlock massive productivity gains with AI and get hours of your life back. In Episode 55, after 10 years as a software developer with the last three focused on AI, I'm sharing the secrets to my personal productivity system. Learn how to leverage multiple LLMs, build a "digital brain" with Obsidian that goes beyond a simple second brain, and create hyper-custom automations to focus on what truly matters.

I'll walk you through my complete setup, from the AI models I use daily (like Claude and local models) to the hardware and software I use to interface with my computer, including powerful voice transcription workflows. We'll cover how to use AI coding assistants to build your own scripts, essential terminal utilities that will speed up your workflow, and the specific media tools I use for tasks outside my expertise. This is the ultimate guide to leveling up your productivity with AI.

Mike's GitHub: https://github.com/MikeBirdTech Obsidian: https://obsidian.md/ Mike's Stack: https://github.com/MikeBirdTech/stack Dataview Plugin: https://obsidian.md/plugins?id=dataview

Connect with me https://x.com/ToolUseAI https://x.com/MikeBirdTech

00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:52 - Which LLM Should You Use? 00:04:17 - How to Build a "Digital Brain" in Obsidian 00:12:40 - Voice Transcription: The Biggest Productivity Unlock 00:17:59 - Building Custom Automations with AI Coding 00:32:06 - Using AI as a Thought Partner

Subscribe for more insights on AI tools, productivity, and automation.

Tool Use is a weekly conversation with the top AI experts, brought to you by ToolHive.

More from Tool Use - AI Conversations

Apr 14, 2026

Check out www.ToolUsePodcast.com

Mar 17, 2026

Check out www.ToolUsePodcast.com Are AI web browsers falling short of the hype? Enter Rover, a revolutionary open-source AI agent that unlocks full autonomous workflows directly on your website with just a single script tag. In this episode, Arjun and Bhavani from rtrvr return to dive deep into how Rover uses a unique DOM-only approach to navigate, click, and type with subsecond latency. This innovative method completely bypasses slow screenshot-based models and outdated playwright or puppeteer scripts. We discuss the engineering secrets behind building smart DOM trees, why they crushed web benchmarks, and how Rover provides a powerful alternative to Google's Web MCP by keeping users engaged on your site instead of handing traffic over to external AI tools. Plus, learn how you can trigger complex agentic workflows via simple URL queries and why open-sourcing this technology is a massive win for the developer community. Rover links:https://x.com/rtrvrairover.rtrvr.ai Github: https://github.com/rtrvr-ai/rover Rover Deep dive: https://www.rtrvr.ai/blog/10-billion-proof-point-every-website-needs-ai-agent Benchmark: https://www.rtrvr.ai/blog/web-bench-results Connect withus https://x.com/ToolUsePodcast https://x.com/MikeBirdTech https://x.com/rtrvrai 00:00:00 - Intro 00:03:05 - The DOM-Only Approach vs Screenshots for AI Agents 00:06:00 - Parsing HTML vs Markdown for Reliable LLM Data 00:11:47 - Handling Modals, iFrames, and Canvas Elements 00:15:32 - Implementing AI Guardrails and Extracting User Intent Data 00:28:04 - Rover vs Google Web MCP for Website Automation 00:31:25 - Triggering Autonomous AI Workflows via URL Queries Subscribe for more insights on AI tools, productivity, and web automation. Join the Tool Use Discord: https://discord.gg/PnEGyXpjaX Tool Use is a weekly conversation with the top AI experts.

Mar 10, 2026

Join the Tool Use Discord: https://discord.gg/PnEGyXpjaX

Mar 3, 2026

Join the Tool Use Discord: https://discord.gg/PnEGyXpjaX

Feb 24, 2026

Join the Tool Use Discord: https://discord.gg/PnEGyXpjaX

See all episodes →