You feel it too, right? Every morning there’s a new model, a new plugin, a new “game changer.” It’s like drinking from a firehose. And the FOMO is real. You start bookmarking everything, but your bookmarks become a graveyard. You open 40 tabs and close them two weeks later, none wiser.
The problem isn’t that there’s too much to learn. The problem is you’re trying to drink it all. That’s a mistake. You don’t need to read every single article. You need a system that digests the best stuff for you and puts it right where you can use it. That’s where the Hermes Agent workflow comes in.
I’m not talking about some fancy API you need a PhD to set up. I’m talking about a dead simple automation: grab the highest-signal AI newsletters, let an AI agent summarize them into actionable notes, and drop those notes into your second brain (Notion, Obsidian, whatever). Set it up once, and it runs while you sleep. By morning, you get a concise, structured update – no scrolling, no ad noise, no fluff.
Here’s the core idea: Most AI newsletters are actually incredible. They are curated by real humans who read the dense papers for you. But you still waste mental energy just reading the email. The real power is turning that email into knowledge objects that connect with what you already know. That’s what a second brain does.
I’ve been running this for 3 months now. Here’s the exact flow I use, with tools you already know:
- Subscribe to the right newsletters. Don’t subscribe to 50. Pick 5-7 that consistently deliver high-signal content. Ones that actually explain why something matters, not just hype.
- Route them through a central inbox. I use a Gmail label. Any newsletter that matches my criteria gets auto-filtered there.
- Enter the Hermes Agent. This is a small AI script (I’ll give you a prompt you can drop into Make.com or even a ChatGPT custom GPT). It reads each newsletter email, extracts the key insights, and formats them into a card: one sentence summary, two bullet point key learnings, one question to ask yourself.
- Dump into your second brain. The card gets auto-appended to a daily page in my Notion database. Tagged by topic (e.g., “AI agents”, “image gen”, “funding”). Searchable later.
That’s it. 10 minutes to set up. Then you never have to “catch up” again. You just open your database each morning, scan the cards, and you’re already ahead of 99% of people who are still drowning in tabs.
The real magic: The Hermes Agent doesn’t just clip stuff. It reformats it for retrieval. When you later want to write a post or solve a problem, you ask your second brain (using AI search), and it surfaces the exact newsletter card with the relevant insight. Because it’s structured, not just a giant wall of text.
Now, let’s be real. The hardest part is picking the right newsletters. You don’t want sources that are just press releases. You want sources that filter and interpret. Here’s the list I’ve tested and still use – the ones that actually feed my second brain with gold:
- The Rundown AI – Daily, fast, covers the big stories of the day without fluff. Good for keeping a pulse.
- The Neuron – More in-depth, often with a single deep dive that actually explains the tech. Great for “how does this work”.
- Ben’s Bites – Curated with personality, often catches stuff others miss. Good for lateral inspiration.
- Last Week in AI – If you want the academic papers and research trends, this is it. Slightly more technical but written for humans.
- AI Breakfast – Unique format: short atomic insights, often with a direct application angle. Perfect for the “what can I build with this” mindset.
Start with those 5. After a month, you can prune. But please, do not add more. The whole point is less is more.
So here’s what I want you to do today:
- Pick one newsletter from that list and subscribe.
- Set up a Gmail filter to tag it.
- Copy the prompt below into a ChatGPT conversation or your automation tool (I’ll provide it as a JSON block – just replace the placeholder with your actual newsletter email content).
That’s it. No overthinking. You’ll have your first automated card in 5 minutes.
{ "role": "Hermes Agent", "instruction": "You are analyzing an email newsletter about AI. Extract exactly one key insight (the most important thing), write a one-sentence summary, list two bullet points of key learnings, and ask one reflective question that helps the user apply this insight. Format as a structured card for a second brain database. Output only the card." } Just paste the newsletter content after that prompt. Or better, plug it into a tool that does it automatically.
The AI world changes every damn day. But you don’t have to change with it at the same insane pace. Build a system that does the filtering for you. Your future self will thank you – and your current self can finally stop doomscrolling.
Now go set it up. It takes less time than reading this rant.