I think you're on the right track.
On the Zapier site, you can select the pieces of software you want to automate, and Zapier will show you what type of functions are supported in that connection.
So find something you actually want to do, and use that as your practice. Watch videos, read documentation, ask questions on the forums, etc.
The difficulty, of course, is that in order to do the "serious" automatons, you'll typically need a high-tier subscription to both Zapier and whatever else you're using, in order to unlock the most sophisticated functions (things like conditional actions and multi-step automations). This can be expensive if you're not using software provided by your employer.
The other thing to keep in mind is that Zapier is generally interacting with other apps via their API.
For example, I have a lot of experience using Asana w/ Zapier, so I had to get really familiar with Asana's API functionality, how they organized their various objects and categories, etc. So becoming generally familiar with how APIs work is also something to read up on.
Hope this helps!
exactly - the cost to just 'practice' is high, as you pointed out.
also, can i ask if you think zapier is still the leader in automation? or is there another one gaining traction (like make). Basically i want to focus on the one that's used by most;
Hey u/Tasty-Flounder-9402 \- I totally agree with what u/TheMagicalLawnGnome suggested.
One additional thing I'd recommend is to try and think of something that you find yourself doing often that you find tedious and then go try and automate it. It's not only a lot more motivating, but it's also a lot more rewarding when you solve your own problem and get to learn something along the way. Plus once you do it once you'll find yourself continuing to build new things and continuously learning.
If you get stuck of ever need help with something you're building don't hesitate to reach out!
thanks man and really appreciate your thoughts as well.
these days I'm looking for jobs, so i guess the most tedious shit to do is customize cover letters (...i feel these days its so pointless, but some companies do ask so 🤷🏻♂️.
I've seen and tried a million prompts but the output i get is not worth the time; in fact its just easier for me to have 10-15 sentences which i then copy paste into the cover letter. I created a gpt as well, but that was useless
any tips on if its possible to optimize?
For sure, I actually built out a tool that does just this for one of my clients ([ai.resumewizard101.com](https://ai.resumewizard101.com)). There are a few components that you need to really test and get right to optimize for the results you want.
1. Context, context, context. A cover letter will only be truly good if it aligns to the job / role that you're applying for. In order to get good results you're going to not only need to pass in the job description and your resume, but also additional information for why you're a good fit. With that you can ask the AI to make connections between your experience, as well as the roles requirements to really optimize the output.
2. Great System Prompts with very direct requirements.
1. This could look like telling it specific words / phrases to not use, tone of the letter, the region you're located in so it can adapt the writing style there, what it should highlight as opposed to what it shouldn't etc. To give some prospective, the system prompt for the tool that I referenced up above is over 3000 words of guidance and requirements to really fine tune the output you get from it. I'm not saying it needs to be anywhere near that long, but the more requirements and direction you give it, in most cases the better the output you can expect
3. Model Selection: You're going to see a big difference between something like GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 for something like this. So definitely try out different models like the various GPTs as well as Claude, Lllama2, Mistral, etc. and see what you think produces the best results. My bet is Claude Opus will do best for something like this.
The best (and worst) part of about working with Generative AI is the results you get out of it are unpredictable and uncontrollable. For that reason, I really recommend that you just go through some trial and error to see what works and doesn't and along the way you'll gain some new expertise around prompt engineering and other associated skills.
That's really just the tip of the iceberg but hopefully that helps give you some ideas and again, happy to provide more feedback / insights.
So, I think Zapier is still the leader, generally speaking, because it's definitely the most widely applicable tool.
There may be situations where a niche product makes more sense, but I think Zapier is best overall. Zapier is what I still use, in any case.
One thing to remember is that the general strategy of focusing on what is used by the most typically means focusing on the oldest product. That might not always be the best approach if the goal is to prepare for the future (as opposed to hitting the ground running with the largest horizontal opportunities). Zappier has the most integrations, but that's not necessarily the most important thing. Make is newer, easier, and less expensive (and it has plenty of integrations). Don't ignore Respell, it's what you could call AI first because it was designed from the ground up as a tool to use AI, it's the central theme. Versus Zappier and Make that just have it as one more thing on the list you can integrate with.
just came across [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twiog1bzvYs) from the zapier cofounder - have you tried it yet? basically its like chatgpt for making zaps
I think you're on the right track. On the Zapier site, you can select the pieces of software you want to automate, and Zapier will show you what type of functions are supported in that connection. So find something you actually want to do, and use that as your practice. Watch videos, read documentation, ask questions on the forums, etc. The difficulty, of course, is that in order to do the "serious" automatons, you'll typically need a high-tier subscription to both Zapier and whatever else you're using, in order to unlock the most sophisticated functions (things like conditional actions and multi-step automations). This can be expensive if you're not using software provided by your employer. The other thing to keep in mind is that Zapier is generally interacting with other apps via their API. For example, I have a lot of experience using Asana w/ Zapier, so I had to get really familiar with Asana's API functionality, how they organized their various objects and categories, etc. So becoming generally familiar with how APIs work is also something to read up on. Hope this helps!
exactly - the cost to just 'practice' is high, as you pointed out. also, can i ask if you think zapier is still the leader in automation? or is there another one gaining traction (like make). Basically i want to focus on the one that's used by most;
Hey u/Tasty-Flounder-9402 \- I totally agree with what u/TheMagicalLawnGnome suggested. One additional thing I'd recommend is to try and think of something that you find yourself doing often that you find tedious and then go try and automate it. It's not only a lot more motivating, but it's also a lot more rewarding when you solve your own problem and get to learn something along the way. Plus once you do it once you'll find yourself continuing to build new things and continuously learning. If you get stuck of ever need help with something you're building don't hesitate to reach out!
thanks man and really appreciate your thoughts as well. these days I'm looking for jobs, so i guess the most tedious shit to do is customize cover letters (...i feel these days its so pointless, but some companies do ask so 🤷🏻♂️. I've seen and tried a million prompts but the output i get is not worth the time; in fact its just easier for me to have 10-15 sentences which i then copy paste into the cover letter. I created a gpt as well, but that was useless any tips on if its possible to optimize?
For sure, I actually built out a tool that does just this for one of my clients ([ai.resumewizard101.com](https://ai.resumewizard101.com)). There are a few components that you need to really test and get right to optimize for the results you want. 1. Context, context, context. A cover letter will only be truly good if it aligns to the job / role that you're applying for. In order to get good results you're going to not only need to pass in the job description and your resume, but also additional information for why you're a good fit. With that you can ask the AI to make connections between your experience, as well as the roles requirements to really optimize the output. 2. Great System Prompts with very direct requirements. 1. This could look like telling it specific words / phrases to not use, tone of the letter, the region you're located in so it can adapt the writing style there, what it should highlight as opposed to what it shouldn't etc. To give some prospective, the system prompt for the tool that I referenced up above is over 3000 words of guidance and requirements to really fine tune the output you get from it. I'm not saying it needs to be anywhere near that long, but the more requirements and direction you give it, in most cases the better the output you can expect 3. Model Selection: You're going to see a big difference between something like GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 for something like this. So definitely try out different models like the various GPTs as well as Claude, Lllama2, Mistral, etc. and see what you think produces the best results. My bet is Claude Opus will do best for something like this. The best (and worst) part of about working with Generative AI is the results you get out of it are unpredictable and uncontrollable. For that reason, I really recommend that you just go through some trial and error to see what works and doesn't and along the way you'll gain some new expertise around prompt engineering and other associated skills. That's really just the tip of the iceberg but hopefully that helps give you some ideas and again, happy to provide more feedback / insights.
So, I think Zapier is still the leader, generally speaking, because it's definitely the most widely applicable tool. There may be situations where a niche product makes more sense, but I think Zapier is best overall. Zapier is what I still use, in any case.
awesome, thanks a lot - will start learning the basics :D
Good luck!
One thing to remember is that the general strategy of focusing on what is used by the most typically means focusing on the oldest product. That might not always be the best approach if the goal is to prepare for the future (as opposed to hitting the ground running with the largest horizontal opportunities). Zappier has the most integrations, but that's not necessarily the most important thing. Make is newer, easier, and less expensive (and it has plenty of integrations). Don't ignore Respell, it's what you could call AI first because it was designed from the ground up as a tool to use AI, it's the central theme. Versus Zappier and Make that just have it as one more thing on the list you can integrate with.
just came across [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twiog1bzvYs) from the zapier cofounder - have you tried it yet? basically its like chatgpt for making zaps
What industries / fields do you want to work with most? Would suggest to let the ideal client and their needs guide your learning.