Skip to content
How I AIHow I AI

How this former NYT columnist uses ChatGPT to brainstorm, do research, and find the perfect metaphor

Farhad Manjoo, a former New York Times and Wall Street Journal columnist, reveals his AI-enhanced writing workflow, from research to finding the perfect metaphor, and how these tools have transformed his creative process without replacing his unique voice. What you’ll learn: • How AI evolved from a simple tool to an essential writing companion • Using ChatGPT as a research assistant with web search capabilities • The “super-thesaurus” technique for finding the perfect words and idioms • How AI helps brainstorm ideas and refine arguments • The benefits of having an “always-on” writing partner in a remote work world • Using AI as a first reader to evaluate drafts in progress • Why AI enhances rather than replaces a writer’s unique voice • Practical tips for getting unstuck when AI doesn’t deliver • How AI speeds up the writing process while improving quality • The future improvements that would make AI even more valuable for writers Brought to you by: • Enterpret—Customer SuperIntelligence Platform for Product and CX teams: http://enterpret.com/howIAI • Vanta—Automate compliance and simplify security with Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/howiai Where to find Farhad Manjoo: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farhad-manjoo-161229/ • X: https://x.com/fmanjoo Where to find Claire Vo: • ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ • Website: https://clairevo.com/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ • X: https://x.com/clairevo In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Intro (02:40) Farhad’s journey from skepticism to adoption of AI tools (04:20) Brainstorming with ChatGPT (06:54) Assessing the quality of AI-sourced information (08:34) How ChatGPT helps identify new angles and perspectives (10:52) Using ChatGPT to find alternatives to clichéd expressions (16:44) The “super-thesaurus” technique for finding perfect words and idioms (20:12) Using AI as a first reader for draft evaluation (22:15) Lightning round Tools referenced: • ChatGPT: https://openai.com/chatgpt/overview/ • Cursor: https://www.cursor.com Other references: • New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/ • The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/ Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.

Claire VohostFarhad Manjooguest
Apr 27, 202525mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Former NYT columnist reveals practical ChatGPT writing workflows and tricks

  1. Farhad Manjoo explains how ChatGPT has become a constant companion in his writing process, often replacing hours of Googling and early-stage uncertainty with rapid, interactive exploration.
  2. He uses web search inside ChatGPT to quickly gather perspectives and sources, then verifies claims by inspecting citations and opening referenced articles.
  3. For craft, he relies on ChatGPT as a “super-thesaurus” and idiom/metaphor generator—iterating conversationally to land on precise, non-cliché phrasing and correct nuance.
  4. He also uses the model as an early structural editor (“first reader”) to evaluate whether an opening is clear and paced well, while noting current limitations like weak persistent memory and too much copy/paste friction.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Use ChatGPT web search to compress research time.

Manjoo shows that prompting for “all commentary” plus a specific angle (e.g., who argues tariffs are good) can surface key people, viewpoints, and links in minutes instead of hours.

Treat citations as mandatory, not optional.

He emphasizes checking the linked sources beside claims and scanning the full list of consulted materials—especially important given earlier hallucination risks.

Prompt for contrarian or under-covered perspectives to find story angles.

Instead of passively reading search results, he interrogates the model (“anyone in automotive saying X?”) to uncover new avenues to report or argue.

Use AI to replace clichés with tailored metaphors and idioms.

He pastes a draft sentence using “pay the piper,” then asks for alternatives that preserve meaning while improving freshness, coherence, and imagery.

Make word choice a dialogue about nuance, not a thesaurus lookup.

By testing a candidate word in context (“public grief”), he gets feedback on tone mismatch and suggestions to keep or reshape the sentence depending on intended emotion.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

“Now when I write, I have, like, two windows open on my screen. One is ChatGPT, and one is the document I'm working on.”

— Farhad Manjoo

“This is the stuff that… would take me… half a day or so to just find all the stuff… and now… I could just kind of interrogate it.”

— Farhad Manjoo

“Probably it's not as smart as that person, but it's maybe 80%, and it's great, and instant, and available all the time.”

— Farhad Manjoo

“It’s… not gonna find… logical inconsistencies… but it will find… better ways to say something.”

— Farhad Manjoo

“There’s this freedom of saying… ‘This is a very stupid thing. Please… let’s talk about something else.’”

— Farhad Manjoo

Brainstorming with ChatGPT vs. GoogleWeb search, citations, and source verificationAI as research assistant and idea-sparring partnerFinding non-cliché idioms and metaphorsWord-level nuance and tone-based synonym selectionUsing AI as a first reader for structure and pacingTool limitations: memory and cross-app context

High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.

Get more out of YouTube videos.

High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.

Add to Chrome