Skip to content
App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.OpenAI

ChatGPT

OpenAI's chat assistant, used for drafting, condensing and rewriting

A chat assistant from OpenAI, on the web, on phones and through an API. Writers use it to compress source material, argue the other side of a draft, or produce a first version they then rewrite in their own voice. There is a free tier with paid levels above it. It states wrong things in the same tone it states right ones.

Who backs it

Sorted by strength of stance

  • Apple writer · founder of MacStories

    Lists ChatGPT next to Codex under the AI heading of his setup, and in mid 2026 dropped Claude, Perplexity, Comet and Superhuman from the same list in one pass.

    Source: MacStories: Our Setups
  • Productivity writer · Building a Second Brain

    Ran seven experiments trying to get ChatGPT to write a book summary for him, and published the prompts and replies. Feeding it excerpts he had already saved helped most. His verdict stayed modest: a result about half as good as one he would write himself, for maybe 20 to 30 percent less effort.

    Source: fortelabs.com: How to Summarize Books Using ChatGPT

Other entries filed under productivity or focus.

  • App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    Claude

    Anthropic

    Anthropic's AI assistant, used by writers as a sounding board

    Backed by 5 of 62 stacks: 5 do it, 0 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
  • App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    Readwise

    Readwise

    Syncs your highlights and resurfaces them a few at a time

    Backed by 4 of 62 stacks: 3 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
  • App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    Website and app blocker

    Software that makes distracting sites genuinely unavailable on a schedule

    Backed by 4 of 62 stacks: 2 do it, 2 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
  • App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    Codex

    OpenAI

    OpenAI's coding agent, run from a terminal rather than an editor

    Backed by 2 of 62 stacks: 2 do it, 0 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
  • App$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.

    DEVONthink

    DEVONtechnologies

    Document and information manager for Mac and iOS with local, indexed databases

    Backed by 2 of 62 stacks: 2 do it, 0 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
  • App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    Gemini

    Google

    Google's chat assistant, built to hold very long documents at once

    Backed by 2 of 62 stacks: 2 do it, 0 recommend it, 0 have discussed it

App entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.