Dan Martell - This Video Will Make You Dangerously Smart With AI

00:00:00.000 Most people think they're using AI the smart way, but they're actually getting dumber.

00:00:05.340 The smartest people I know aren't using AI to get answers, they're using it to upgrade their

00:00:09.920 entire brain. And the gap between them and everyone else is growing every single day.

00:00:16.320 I've built AI into every part of how I run my business. I'm talking my team,

00:00:20.500 my learning, my decision making. Martell Ventures alone, my AI incubator,

00:00:24.760 is on track to break $250 million in enterprise value this year.

00:00:28.840 This way of thinking is a huge part of how they'll get there.

00:00:32.420 I'm going to show you how to use AI to upgrade the way you think,

00:00:35.880 how to use it to make every decision bulletproof,

00:00:38.740 and how to make AI a part of who you are, not just something you use.

00:00:43.760 Starting with the biggest mistake everyone is making, the calculator trap.

00:00:49.680 Most people are using AI to do tasks faster.

00:00:53.180 Things like emails, summaries, or slide decks.

00:00:55.920 but that's using a supercomputer as a calculator.

00:00:59.320 The people pulling ahead use AI to think better,

00:01:03.440 learn faster, and make smarter decisions.

00:01:06.380 I mean, I remember reading a Harvard study

00:01:07.840 where they tested whether AI tutors

00:01:09.560 could actually help students learn,

00:01:11.520 not just get work done faster.

00:01:13.220 So what they did is they had two separate groups,

00:01:15.300 students who used the AI tutor and those who didn't.

00:01:18.280 The ones who did improved their test scores by twice as much

00:01:22.140 and they finished in less time.

00:01:24.220 So they got better and faster.

00:01:26.720 That's why you wanna stop treating your AI

00:01:28.800 like a calculator.

00:01:30.040 It can do way more.

00:01:31.020 So if saving time is just the surface level,

00:01:33.140 what's the actual unlock?

00:01:34.560 Well, let's start with the easiest upgrade

00:01:36.240 most people completely ignore.

00:01:38.280 Upgrading your inputs. 0.99

00:01:40.500 Gen Z was the first generation in 100 years 0.99

00:01:43.240 to score lower than their parents on IQ,

00:01:46.300 memory, reading, and focus.

00:01:48.460 Because of these new technologies

00:01:50.320 and people didn't understand

00:01:51.320 how it was gonna change everything,

00:01:52.600 The screen-based consumption replaced the deep, deep learning.

00:01:56.720 Your brain is a machine.

00:01:58.460 It takes information in and ideas come out.

00:02:02.020 If you put garbage in, guess what's going to come out?

00:02:05.100 A lot more of that.

00:02:06.440 Brain rob, doom scrolling, random nonsense.

00:02:09.360 This all just equals junk ideas.

00:02:11.540 Premium inputs like organic food are things like frameworks, expert knowledge, insights,

00:02:18.320 and those produce better ideas.

00:02:20.180 A long time ago, I realized my ideas

00:02:22.860 were only as good as my data.

00:02:24.480 So I subsidized my curiosity.

00:02:26.440 I had my AI assistant set up a dedicated Slack DM

00:02:29.540 for me every morning.

00:02:31.200 It went out there.

00:02:32.240 It looked for the top breakthroughs, the news,

00:02:35.000 the information around four core buckets.

00:02:37.140 For me, it was frontier models and AI,

00:02:39.260 robotics, infrastructure, and the tools.

00:02:42.020 No fluff, I'm talking signal

00:02:44.300 because I need that to feed my mind.

00:02:46.540 The quality of your output is a direct reflection

00:02:49.160 of the quality of your inputs.

00:02:50.980 So here are three ways to upgrade your inputs today.

00:02:53.720 The first one is my favorite,

00:02:55.480 is reset your social algorithm.

00:02:57.500 Go into your settings, go under content preferences,

00:03:00.480 and reset your suggested content.

00:03:03.060 And most platforms have this setting.

00:03:04.920 Instagram has it, TikTok has it.

00:03:06.640 It wipes your explore page, your reels,

00:03:09.240 and your feed clean for you to start over.

00:03:12.260 Then go look up the stuff that you wanna master

00:03:14.820 and engage in, and then like, save,

00:03:17.120 and comment on that content.

00:03:18.460 that tells the algorithm hey i like this and on instagram they even have a button that says your

00:03:23.420 algorithm and you can tell it exactly what you want to be fed most people just don't realize that

00:03:28.220 the algorithm that is used in these platforms is actually powered by ai and it is a reflection of

00:03:34.860 you it is a mirror of you that's why i always say use your feed to feed your mind number two

00:03:40.700 build your own daily newsletter that thing i told you i do every day you do it so use ai to go scrape

00:03:47.100 new sources in the categories every morning that you need to know so here's the prompt to do that

00:03:51.900 really simple you're my daily ai research assistant each morning find the top three

00:03:56.620 developments in this this and this summarize each one of them into two sentences with the source

00:04:01.980 links because you might want to click through and read more and then the key for me is tell me why

00:04:05.820 it matters and then format it as a quick briefing i can read in under three minutes keep it

00:04:10.380 entertaining and easy to digest within three minutes every morning for me i'm a treadmill

00:04:15.420 I'm getting caught up, up to date on everything that's important in my industry.

00:04:19.860 Which brings us to the third way that you can upgrade your inputs,

00:04:22.940 which is use Notebook LM to learn your way.

00:04:26.380 I call it accelerated consumption.

00:04:28.840 Essentially, you can go into it, give it any topic,

00:04:31.880 and then it takes that all and it creates like this mini AI brain just on that topic.

00:04:37.280 So you can chat with it and ask it questions.

00:04:39.680 The coolest feature is it can create other media from that research.

00:04:43.300 So it can create PowerPoint slides.

00:04:45.420 it can create an infographic, it can create a quiz,

00:04:47.980 it can create flashcards, it can even create a podcast.

00:04:51.580 And the coolest feature is you click the button

00:04:53.460 and you can call in and ask it questions.

00:04:55.660 I call it just in time versus just in case.

00:04:58.580 Most people are consuming information,

00:05:00.740 they're reading books, they're talking to friends,

00:05:02.600 just in case someday I might need to use it.

00:05:04.820 Sound like school, doesn't it?

00:05:06.260 I like to do just in time where I am using it

00:05:09.020 to feed myself the information that I'm gonna use

00:05:11.480 to make a decision this afternoon.

00:05:13.020 And look, if you're really serious

00:05:14.440 about upgrading your inputs for yourself

00:05:16.500 and for your business,

00:05:17.500 I created this AI company operating system

00:05:20.220 that teaches the top CEOs how to implement AI

00:05:23.260 so their teams and their processes become AI first.

00:05:27.020 So just DM me AI business on Instagram

00:05:28.900 and I'll send it right over to you.

00:05:30.360 So now you're feeding your brain better information,

00:05:33.520 thumbs up.

00:05:34.380 Next, we have to find the real power

00:05:36.460 that comes only when you use AI to upgrade your outputs.

00:05:40.280 Here's the problem.

00:05:41.900 Every bad business decision started with a great idea

00:05:46.000 that nobody challenged, nobody said anything,

00:05:48.760 and next thing you know,

00:05:49.540 it costs you six months or $50,000.

00:05:52.180 Our brain is wired to fall in love with our own ideas

00:05:55.640 because it sees all the fit in all of our ideas

00:05:58.320 and it ignores all these fatal flaws.

00:06:00.200 Back in 1985, the company Intel

00:06:03.340 were making profits of 198 million

00:06:06.800 and then they crashed down to 2 million in one year. 1.00

00:06:10.740 Essentially, the Japanese competitors came in 0.99

00:06:12.800 and they destroyed them around memory chips.

00:06:15.160 Andy Grove, who I consider a legend,

00:06:17.660 Intel's president at the time,

00:06:19.040 sat down with co-founder Gordon Moore,

00:06:21.160 went back and forth for months with what to do.

00:06:23.580 And honestly, they couldn't come up with an answer.

00:06:25.700 And then Grove asked a beautiful question

00:06:27.760 that I asked most of my coaching clients,

00:06:29.700 which is, if we got fired by the board

00:06:32.660 and they brought in a new CEO, what would he do immediately?

00:06:36.240 And Moore said, he'd get us out of memories.

00:06:38.580 They had the answer the whole time, but they couldn't see it.

00:06:41.820 They were blind because they had emotional attachment

00:06:44.060 to the business they had built.

00:06:45.460 A single pre-mortem question, that's what it's called,

00:06:48.380 led them to pivot into processors.

00:06:50.780 Intel then became one of the largest tech companies

00:06:53.840 in history, leading to $52 billion in revenue.

00:06:58.040 One honest question about their ideas got them clear,

00:07:01.700 and they built a mega company.

00:07:03.320 So my question to you is, what are you pretending not to know?

00:07:07.340 If somebody came into your business today,

00:07:09.140 knowing your industry,

00:07:10.380 what's the first change it would make?

00:07:12.360 And if you know the answer to that,

00:07:13.540 my question to you is, is why haven't you made it yet?

00:07:16.040 So here's a solution to that problem.

00:07:17.680 And this is where AI really comes in.

00:07:19.100 It's called red teaming, right?

00:07:20.340 It's a military concept.

00:07:21.740 Essentially, intentionally try to kill your own plan

00:07:24.640 before the enemy does.

00:07:25.800 It's kind of like doing devil's advocate

00:07:27.860 or what's called steel manning.

00:07:29.180 AI is the perfect red team partner because it has no ego.

00:07:32.700 It does not hold back

00:07:34.320 and it has infinite knowledge about a lot of stuff.

00:07:36.840 So it can attack you from 10 different angles

00:07:39.600 in 30 seconds, and it's so cheap,

00:07:42.480 you can fail 100 times for free

00:07:44.500 instead of losing 100,000 every time you test a new idea.

00:07:47.580 So before you ship your next big idea,

00:07:50.860 can you please red team it with AI?

00:07:52.900 But do it in this specific order.

00:07:54.620 First, ask it to find the fatal flaw.

00:07:57.500 Okay, this is a pre-mortem.

00:07:58.720 Prompt it, if this project fails in six months from now,

00:08:01.700 why did that happen?

00:08:03.420 Because then what happens is it works backwards

00:08:05.620 through from the disaster, that single point of failure,

00:08:08.280 and it figures out where you should try to fortify the idea

00:08:11.060 so you don't have that thing happen to you.

00:08:13.020 The second is you wanna eliminate blind spots.

00:08:15.580 So here's the prompt for the AI.

00:08:17.200 You are a cynical, highly successful competitor.

00:08:20.060 Now analyze this plan and tell me exactly

00:08:22.200 how you'd exploit the weaknesses to steal my customers.

00:08:25.300 Now, the key is if you want this to really blow your mind,

00:08:27.680 give it your constraints, your timelines, your resources.

00:08:30.960 I'm talking if you wanna give it access to your CRM,

00:08:33.520 to your internal documents so that it can really push back.

00:08:37.180 The third is risk ranking.

00:08:38.840 So this is the prompt.

00:08:40.040 Rank the top three risks by likelihood and impact,

00:08:43.820 then build a contingency plan for each.

00:08:46.120 That will turn all your fears into a checklist.

00:08:50.200 A list of vulnerable ideas into answers

00:08:53.240 on how you can defend each one of them in that checklist.

00:08:55.920 The more I do this, the more I realize

00:08:58.320 that the decisions that seem obvious

00:09:00.580 are the ones that almost need the most scrutiny.

00:09:03.120 Cause like your brain is a hundred percent hiding something

00:09:06.140 from you if it is just quick to get to a thing

00:09:09.260 and you gotta go like, whoa, whoa, whoa, why did I decide

00:09:12.700 that and how do I have the AI to put me in check?

00:09:15.700 So now that you're feeding your brain premium inputs

00:09:18.840 and stress testing every output,

00:09:21.320 here's the shift that makes all this stick.

00:09:23.980 Point number four, your new identity.

00:09:27.560 So what you're gonna do is you're gonna pick a new name

00:09:29.600 and you're gonna go and change your name

00:09:30.900 and you're gonna be that new person.

00:09:32.060 what we're doing problem solved no i'm just kidding but the truth is if what you want out

00:09:38.300 of life you don't have in your life then who you are today isn't the right version of you to get

00:09:42.620 that and i call this the 92 rule ai can now handle 92 of your tasks now you might pretend not to know

00:09:50.700 this but i'm going to tell you it can do writing it can do research it can do analysis it can do

00:09:55.100 scheduling it can do drafting it can build things for you so your new identity has to be one of

00:10:01.180 director not doer this is gonna be hard for a lot of people you come in at the end at that eight

00:10:07.180 percent that eight percent is three things it is taste knowing what looks great it is vision

00:10:13.740 understanding what the future should look like that doesn't exist that should and it is care

00:10:18.060 it's the emotional connection it's the ability to talk to people and show ideas and get involvement

00:10:22.540 and enroll people that's what you do as a human the ai will always have a hard time a couple years

00:10:27.580 ago i came into my team and i sat them down and i looked at them in a very loving and positive way

00:10:33.260 and i said you're all cooked and i need you to listen please i need you all to sit down and

00:10:38.940 decide what is that 92 what can you engage and invite and co-create with ai to help you get all

00:10:46.700 this time back because i want you to stick around i don't want to not work with you and if your work

00:10:51.180 is being done by the ai game on okay that eight percent is where the talent lies and that's why

00:10:56.780 we have to change our identity and our beliefs around it or you'll always feel stuck as a doer

00:11:01.580 see the best leaders don't do the work they orchestrate it that is the future of ai so here's

00:11:08.940 what i need you to do right now the first thing is we got to gather every task you do on a typical

00:11:14.380 week sit down and write them down look at your calendar look at your projects list and just

00:11:19.260 break them down into like 15 to 30 minute like chunks of things you do and then the second step

00:11:24.060 is you put them all in a quadrant and this quadrant should help you understand how to be

00:11:28.280 future-proof forever. So on the bottom of the x-axis you want to have hard for humans easy for

00:11:34.040 humans and on the y-axis you want to have easy for computers hard for computers. Then you go look in

00:11:39.880 the top right quadrant and ask yourself what are the things that would make it hard for a computer

00:11:45.220 to do but easy for a human. Think about it things like detecting sarcasm in conversations, reading

00:11:51.580 emotional tone in a room, making ethical judgment calls in messy situations. Those things computers

00:11:57.320 will have a hard time with. So when you look at your list, you find that 8% that usually should

00:12:02.080 be in the top right quadrant. So circle the ones that require taste, your vision, your care,

00:12:07.400 the emotion, the ones that without you just don't get done well and are super important.

00:12:12.320 And then the rest, we bring it to step number four, which is automate the 92%.

00:12:16.660 percent how can you delegate the rest of ai you might be still pretending that ai is chat it is

00:12:23.940 way more than that the tools can automate things the tools can think for you the tools can go from

00:12:29.060 prompt to completed project itself with no human involvement and if you've never heard of any of

00:12:35.060 these tools can you please just go on my youtube channel and search ai and dan martel and you will

00:12:40.020 see me break these down step by step super easy i even give you the scripts and the tools and

00:12:45.700 and the configurations and the prompts, all for free.

00:12:48.820 So my question is, what can you automate this week?

00:12:52.420 If you want one of my favorite tools around this,

00:12:54.380 go check out Manus AI.

00:12:56.260 And for the nerds that really wanna take this

00:12:57.880 to another level, check out OpenClaw.

00:13:00.020 In the quadrant, which is easy for computer

00:13:02.440 and hard for human,

00:13:03.840 that's where you wanna start automating your .

00:13:06.060 That's the one shift from an identity point of view

00:13:08.820 that you need to make.

00:13:09.980 But to wrap all that up, let me just share this.

00:13:13.240 I think in the future,

00:13:14.240 there's only gonna be two types of people.

00:13:16.060 They're gonna be consumers and creators.

00:13:18.700 Be a creator, be a director,

00:13:21.440 be somebody that partners with the AI to create.

00:13:24.860 People who use AI to improve themselves

00:13:27.060 versus there's people who use AI to cut corners,

00:13:29.560 those are two different things.

00:13:30.980 That will literally be what separates those who win

00:13:33.480 versus those who get left behind.

00:13:35.120 You started this video using AI like a fancy Google search.

00:13:39.140 Now you have the playbook to use it as a brain upgrade,

00:13:42.560 as a sparring partner, as a leadership multiplier,

00:13:45.740 as a tool to level up your identity.

00:13:48.800 So I need you to leave a comment below.

00:13:50.380 What's one way you're going to use AI

00:13:52.220 to level up your thinking?

00:13:54.020 Tell me what you're gonna do.

00:13:55.200 Because guess what?

00:13:55.600 I don't want your AI to tell me.

00:13:56.660 I want you to tell me.

00:13:57.700 Put it in the comments below.

00:13:59.040 And remember, if you want my full AI company operating system

00:14:02.320 with all the system prompts

00:14:03.680 and the tools that I use to run my business,

00:14:05.500 just DM me AI business on Instagram

00:14:07.820 and I'll send it right over.

00:14:09.320 Next up, if you wanna know the 20 AI tools

00:14:12.060 that will make you rich, click here and I'll see you on the other side.

Dan Martell - April 09, 2026

This Video Will Make You Dangerously Smart With AI

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