Hey, remote work fam! Welcome back to another edition of Remote Insider, this one is a doozy so I won’t blab too long. Here’s what you can expect:

• Chat GPT-4 just dropped and it’s melting our brains

• Hologram meetings are here but are they worth it?

• Seattle official blames fentanyl pandemic on remote work

Before we jump into that, today’s Tips & Tricks section discusses one of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the last 5 years, and it’s just in time for St. Patty’s - how to get lucky 🍀…

💡 TIPS & TRICKS

The 4 Types Of Luck & How To Always Be The Luckiest Person In The Room

Ray Kroc, the man who build McDonald’s into what you know and love famously said that "Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get."

And he’s only 25% correct.

The 4 Types of luck:

1. Blind Luck - this is the most common, finding a winning lottery ticket on the ground

2. Hustle Luck - you work really hard and because you take a lot of action you increase your chance of finding luck

3. Spotted Luck - otherwise knowns as “luck from preparation”. You learn an industry & because you know it so well you can spot opportunities and make the right call and “get lucky”

4. Luck Finds You - the rarest and best type of luck. When other people’s luck becomes yours because of your unique skills and reputation.

Imagine that someone discovers treasure in an underwater sea cave. It’s a very tricky dive, you need someone that is not only a great diver but understands underwater caves and currents.

If you’re a diver that specializes in cargo retrieval, but also have a lot of cave dives then the treasure hunter’s luck just became your luck thanks to your unique overlap of skills and reputation.

The most successful people in the world learn how to exploit Luck #4

🔬 DEEP DIVE

Chat GPT-4 Just Dropped. What Does That Mean & Our Favorite Use Cases

By this point, you’ve probably heard of ChatGPT, and maybe you’ve heard that the newest version of GPT, which is the AI system that ChatGPT uses, was just released by OpenAI. But what exactly is the difference between GPT-3 and the new version, GPT-4?

It turns out it’s pretty massive! 

GPT-3 was trained on about 175,000,000,000 pieces of data. The new version was trained on 100,000,000,000,000 pieces. If you have trouble understanding the difference, here is a visual representation:

Here’s how all that extra training is improving GPT-4:

• faster responses

• way more accurate responses

• has a better sense of humor (at least for dad jokes)

• can generate video from text prompts 🤯

We sourced a few of our favorite Chat GPT-4 uses so you get an idea of what is possible with this upgrade:

1. What is the best CDMX neighborhood for me?

Our friend Jesse Schoberg asked Chat GPT what neighborhoods he should check out in Mexico City if he really enjoyed living in Sukhumvit (Bangkok)…

And Chat GPT-4 decided it was a perfect opportunity to flex 💪 and show off just how good it is:

2. Build my business for me:

Twitter user @jacksonfall decided to see how good of an entrepreneur GPT-4 is…

And the result is actually pretty interesting, seems like GPT-4 can run with the best of 4-Hour Workweek readers…

Impacts of GPT-4 on work:

In my opinion, the best way to think about AI, and more specifically GPT-4, is as a tool that increases your leverage as a worker. This is true for just about any technological development…

For example, if you wanted to dig a hole you could use your hands, a shovel, or an excavator.

A shovel allows you to dig a hole quicker than just by your bare hands, and an excavator allows you to dig 100 holes in the time it would take you to dig one with a shovel. That’s leverage!

As a tool GPT-4 could:

• enable a developer to write code in minutes vs hours

• give a designer a head start on a logo project

• help someone write 10 blog posts in the time it takes to write 1

AI most likely can’t fully replace people (yet), but it could enable one person to do the job of several…

That’s why it’s really important to be the one that learns how to use it - you can increase your leverage, become more productive, and avoid becoming expendable.

In other words, become the person certified to use an excavator.

🚨 WORD ON THE WEB

🗂️ Google Docs Update: Google is rolling out a new update to Workspace including Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Smart Canvas. The new design aims to be easier to use and more collaborative.

🏢 Meta RTO? Meta has announced a new round of layoffs and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also hinted at a wide spread return to office, citing that at least for new employees in-person work seems to be more productive

🔮 Hologram meetings: ARHT Media has partnered with WeWork to create 19 holographic studios around the world. Just a cool gimmick or the next evolution of remote meetings?

🗺️ Remote Year launches new remote work group trips expanding into Kenya, Brazil, Albania, and Canada in addition to relaunching in Morocco

📝 Young freelancers: Stats show that 65m Americans are freelancing, and a growing number are people early in their career, here’s how their experience is different and the 4 stages they go through

👔 Lumbergh of the Week:

Jon Scholes - President of Downtown Seattle Association

Welcome back to our recurring segment where we highlight people who are embodying the spirit of Office Space character Bill Lumbergh and his pro-cubicle management style.

While on a normal week Zucks could have taken this award for his remarks at Meta, he was dwarfed by the insane comments of Jon Scholes, President of the Downtown Seattle Associate.

On Tuesday at the annual “State of Downtown” event Mr. Scholes called remote work an “affliction that afflicts our downtown right now” and then went on to connect the rise of remote work, and the drop in city revenue, as a cause to the fentanyl pandemic saying:

“We can have a revitalized, thriving downtown with retail and restaurants and arts and culture, or we can have a fentanyl market. We can’t have both. We must act on this crisis, and we must act with urgency.”

📆 UPCOMING EVENTS:

April 25-26: Running Remote [📍 Lisbon, Portugal] - Largest remote work conference in the world for enterprises and SMEs

May 24-28: Vivel [📍 Multiple Locations, Turkey] - networking meets music at this one-of-a-kind conference for location-independent professionals

June 16-19: Camp Indie [📍 Kent, Connecticut] - adult summer camp & conference for digital nomads & those living an unconventional life

June 25-July 2: Bansko Nomad Fest [📍 Bansko, Bulgaria] - for digital nomads, freelancers, and founders in the mountains of Bulgaria

🤪 MEMES THAT MADE US LAUGH

⭐️ THIS WEEK’S WFA JOB:

RageCreate Project Manager

Our friends at RageCreate are hiring for a part-time Project Manager to help speed up processes and projects!

The position will include scheduling projects & deadlines, managing internal systems & content creation schedules, and helping come up with new product ideas.

Required skills include a fiery personality that’s not afraid to keep people accountable and some prior experience with project management.

This is an hourly contract position with pay rates depending on experience level and the ability to work from anywhere!

We make this newsletter for you so we’d love to hear what you think about it and how we can make it even better in the future!

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That's it from us this week, hope you have an amazing day!