A Hacker News user who still reads lots of print books takes a photo of the page whenever they hit unfamiliar notation and asks ChatGPT what's going on in that paragraph. They also use it to summarise a topic, drill into specifics and quiz them, as a kind of 'poor man's Anki' alongside their real flashcards.
Here's a photo of a page from a book I'm reading about [SUBJECT]. In [PARAGRAPH OR LINE], I don't understand [THE NOTATION / TERM / IDEA]. Explain it in plain English with a simple example, assuming I know [WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW]. Then ask me 3 quick questions, one at a time, to check I've got it.
Replace the [PLACEHOLDERS] with your own details before you send it.
How to try it
- Take a clear photo of the page and say exactly which bit is confusing you.
- Ask for a plain explanation and an example, then follow up until it clicks.
- Finish by asking ChatGPT to quiz you, and add anything you got wrong to your notes or flashcards.
More learning use cases
Make maths practice fun with personalised stories from Grok
A home-schooling parent whose son found reading and maths hard, but loved dragons and cats, asked Grok for adventure stories starring him that slipped in some maths. He kept asking for more, and afterwards they had Grok create a picture of each story's scenery.
Write a short adventure story for my [AGE]-year-old, [CHILD'S NAME], who loves [INTERESTS, E.G. DRAGONS AND CATS]. Weave in [NUMBER] maths questions about [TOPIC, E.G. ADDING UP TO 20] that the hero has to solve to carry on, plus a few real facts about [ANIMAL OR SUBJECT]. Keep the words easy enough for a [READING LEVEL] reader, and put the answers at the end for me.
Ask Gemini to explain a symbol or diagram in your child’s textbook
One parent took a close-up photo of a symbol in their daughter's textbook and asked Gemini what it meant. They found the answer genuinely helpful.
Here's a photo from my child's [SUBJECT] textbook for [AGE/YEAR GROUP]. What does this symbol or diagram mean? Explain it simply, give one example, and suggest a question I could ask my child to check they understand it.
Turn your ‘read later’ pile into a short audio summary with NotebookLM
An XDA writer fed NotebookLM the links from about 30 old 'read later' bookmarks and generated an Audio Overview. The 15-minute discussion pulled out the key ideas and showed which three articles were worth reading properly.
These sources are articles I saved to read later about [TOPICS]. Group them by theme, give me the three or four big ideas they share, and tell me which [NUMBER] articles are most worth reading in full and why. Point out any that mostly repeat the others.
Reference: Hacker News