WORK LESS WEDNESDAY
WLW #178
š Hey Reader!
This is issueĀ #178Ā ofĀ Work Less Wednesday, where I share with youĀ 5 thingsĀ you should knowĀ about, inĀ 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
š¤ 1. Why ChatGPT Is So Damn Lazy –Ā Try A Credit-Based LLM
āShow me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.ā – Charlie Munger
If you are using a subscription-based AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.), youāve probably noticed that it is lazy.
- You upload pages and pages of context and it only seems to read the first few pages.
- You set clear constraints (word count, audience, style), and it drifts off-topic or bloats the response with garbage.
- You provide a detailed example to mimic, and it copies surface phrasing while missing the structure or logic you actually wanted.
That is by design.
Think about the incentives.
Subscription-based companies want you to use as little credits as possible.
This saves them money and they keep more of it in their pocket.
But doing deep research and reading tons of context requires credits.
So they fake it.
They are incentivized to do a bad job.
Recently Iāve been using a credit-based LLM called Manus for deep research projects.
(Think: thousands of pages of context, large agent projects, etc.)
Because the incentive for credit-based LLMs is to be thorough (it takes more credits), you get much better outputs.
So for your day-to-day use, Iād stick with ChatGPT or Claude.
But if you need to go deep on something, definitely consider trying a credit-based tool like Manus.
(There are other tools like Manus, I have no incentive to share, just telling you what Iām using right now.)
š 2. The Problem With Competing On Price –Ā Email from Charles Miller
Got this email from my friend Charles Miller (CEO of Platoon) last week about the problem with competing on price. It never works out the way you hope.
Iāve reproduced it below for you:
About ten years ago I invested in a little vacation rental in Colorado.
Weāve been working with the same small outfit to help us manage the property ā looking after guests, showing up when a pipe bursts ā essentially covering our asses when Iām a few thousand miles away. And theyāve been amazing to work with.
I get cold emails like this from their competitors all the time:
Sounds like a great deal right?
But hereās the thingā¦ if someone leaves a great long-term relationship over nothing other than a few percentage points, theyāll likely leave you just as fast.
Thatās the problem with building your business on price alone.
It attracts people who value the idea of saving a few bucks rather than a real partnership.
And those people are never loyal.
The moment someone cheaper comes along, theyāre gone.
This is why Iāll always believe in leading with value, not discounts.
Because value creates alignment, and alignment builds longevity.
A race to the bottom almost always ends the same wayā¦ everyone loses.
You can get Charlesā daily emails here.
š§° 3. Tool Iāve Been Curious About –Ā Sublime
Thinking about dipping my toes in the water of Sublime.
I follow their founder on Substack and have been intrigued.
Iāve been looking for more ways to save and gathering inspiration that do not rely on algorithms (as much).
Sublime is a personal knowledge app for saving, organizing, and remixing ideas.
You capture anything that sparks interest – web pages, PDFs, podcasts, images, highlights – and keep it in one home.
It then surfaces handācurated, related ideas from others to help you explore and connect concepts.
If you want to see more, check out this post āWhat does Sublime actually do?ā
What do you think? Anyone using it?
š 4. What Horror Movies Weāre Watching This Halloween
We here at the Webster household are big horror movie fans.
My wife recently completed a ā100 horror movies in 92 daysā challenge leading up to Halloween.
So what are we watching this Halloween?
For the last several years, weāve had a consistent double-header on Halloween.
These two Rob Zombie movies:
- šĀ House of 1,000 Corpses
- šĀ The Lords of Salem
These films arenāt for beginners, but if youāre a true horror fan, I recommend.
A couple others we watched this week:
- šĀ Halloween III: Season of the WitchĀ – The only Halloween franchise movie that doesnāt feature Michael Myers. Massively underrated and weirdly awesome.Ā Also features this epic commercial.
- š§Ā The HomeĀ – Horror movie starring Pete Davidson. Donāt watch it, itās not good. If you really must watch him in a horror movie, watchĀ Bodies Bodies BodiesĀ – which is good.
Happy Halloween!
š 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
š§Podcast Iām Listening To – Design Podcast (Front & Center) featuring my client Alex Adam (Founder of Boredom Kills Creative)
š Article Iām Reading – The 25 Most Interesting Ideas Iāve Found In 2025 (So Far)
š® Game Iām Playing – Ball x Pit on Switch 2 (Thanks Jon Courtney!)
š§ Concept Iām Thinking About – 5 Levels of Mental Toughness
š¬ Quote Iām Ponderingā¦
āJust remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that. You forget some things, dont you? Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.ā – Cormac McCarthy, The Road
How we can work together
When youāre ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- š¤ My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- š§ My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And one paid engagement:
- š§ŖĀ The Lab.Ā I advise and mentor 6-7 figure Creative Solopreneurs. If you want to work closely with me (i.e. we speak 1-2 times a week),Ā watch this video, then follow the instructions.