ZD 25.29: The Zen of Notion With AI
What if the killer AI app was one you already had?
This week I am pleased to share a short primer on how Notion is a way to achieve AI Zen. AI, Advice, Shipbuilding and more in the Distilled Spirit. Suno 4.5+ has dropped and it makes the musical coda bang hard.
Notion Knows AI
I have tried countless productivity tools over the years. Evernote came close at one point, but I never really found the one. This might have changed. Notion has become the first app to truly deliver on AI's promise for knowledge work. It has become central to my workflow. It has all the right moving pieces and the AI integration makes it as close to knowledge management Zen as I have seen anything come.
The Foundation
You need a strong foundation and structure for your data to be effective using it for AI. There are certainly better databases out there for many things, but as a repository for your thoughts it is hard to beat Notion. It has enough database functionality to provide the backbone needed while letting you just write. The ability to connect with other app platforms, and perform some internal automation, makes it a great place to centralize knowledge for an AI push.
The page hierarchy is like creating a map for AI to navigate your brain. Instead of dumping files in a folder, you're building connections between ideas. Just nesting pages gives a ton of context. Markdown is not fancy, but AI loves it while still being easy to read and update for humans.
Beyond pages, Notion supports a limited database function as well. It is far from perfect, but it serves some very useful functions. It opens the door to using tools like Make and Zapier to push data into the platform. From there, you can perform additional automation, making it a great place to capture knowledge for further use with AI. Notion has a lot of the right tools to track your life.
Native AI That Actually Gets It
Notion's built-in AI surprised me in ways I didn't expect. The context window management is huge — large language models have token limits (think of them like memory slots), so handling long documents without losing relevant context is vital. While other tools choke on large documents, Notion gracefully manages context windows, letting you throw entire project repositories at it without breaking a sweat. Need to synthesize insights from 50 sets of meeting notes? Notion's got you.
Recently, Notion added a very well thought out meeting recording feature. The innovation is that Notion captures both sides of the meeting. It provides a window for your notes while recording the meeting. You can write down the non-verbal and leave it to Notion to capture the rest. Then the software weaves them into coherent summaries. From there, you can then talk to the summaries with the same AI tools you can use in the rest of the app. This might be the best thing that has happened to busy project and product managers in a long time.
MCP Makes it Shine
Notion’s internal AI is powerful, but their support for Model Context Protocol is where things become amazing. It connects directly with tools like Cursor and Claude today, and many more tomorrow. This connection is intelligent — you don’t have to fight it to find the right files in a way you have to with some other tools.
I connected Notion to Cursor and watched it build entire applications from specifications stored in my workspace. Cursor nailed the spec on the first pass, scaffolding the entire app in minutes. The tool got more right than wrong out of the gate. Writing specifications is much more rewarding now.
The Claude integration is where things get genuinely exciting for most folks. With Claude connected via MCP, you can:
Search your entire Notion workspace in plain language via Claude.
Generate comprehensive reports from scattered data -- like connecting the dots from discussions across a dozen meetings about AI.
Save your generated content right back to Notion without opening the app.
Leverage Claude artifacts to create interactive visualizations of your content. Like creating word clouds from meeting notes, interactive timelines for project deliverables discussed and more.
Just about anything else you and Opus can think of.
This sort of function is limited to Claude today, but MCP is spreading rapidly. I'd expect to be able to do this in ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini soon.
Notions of the Future
Notion is a unique application — it is easy for humans to understand and update. It checks all the right boxes in terms of usability, device support, security and integration. And it has some amazing AI support. It is the sort of tool that can be developed into your organization’s AI fulcrum. The place where all the information streams meet for your staff to consume. On a smaller scale, you can apply the same principles to your personal workstreams. It has the right tools to get many human-centric, AI-powered workflows off the ground.
Musical Coda
The Distilled Spirit
AI News
👨💻 AI Does Not Slow Down Software Development ()
You might have seen a headline about “AI slows coders down” recently. Don’t believe the hype. The study is flawed, Zvi tells you how.
🩸 Tokens are the New Oil ()
In the modern world, access to AI input and output tokens becomes the constraint. Be judicious in how you use them.
🙀 When ChatGPT is Your Best Colleague ()
AI is not a magic productivity pill. People need tools and training to leverage the magic on the one hand, while on the other hand shadow AI is growing in cases where tools are not provided.
Using AI
📖 Risks of AI as a First Reader ()
People are relying upon AI summaries these days. Document submitters know this and will game it to their advantage.
🛠 Go To AI Tools Update ()
Daniel Nest keeps a well curated list of AI tools, with good links on how they can be used. Check out the updated version.
Building Things
🚢 How China Became the World’s Biggest Shipbuilder ()
In the last few decades China has come from nowhere to dominate the world shipbuilding industry through the Chinese State Shipbuilding Corporation and its descendants, technology transfers and a long and concerted effort.
🤖 The Rise of Automation ()
There is a plausible argument that robotics are going to be the biggest industry on the planet. The rise is already underway — explore this well curated list of companies in the space and what they are up to.
Money Things
🍾 SPACs are Back! ()
It has been said that when the market goes manic, pre-deal SPACs go parabolic.
⌨ Software Company Tax Win ()
How details of tax code affect software company profitability and software developer employment.
Good Advice
✒Write to Understand ()
Applying Kidrin’s law to get from clarity to action through writing to create a fixed point and problem definition to act upon is solid fieldcraft.
🥓 4 Principles to Make Any Food Tastier ()
Four very sound practices to make anything taste better without cheating and just using bacon.
👩🎓 Post-Education Career Advice (Sahil Bloom)
22 life lessons worth repeating.
Fun and Interesting
🎙 Is Colbert the Next Substack Star ()
Now that he is leaving CBS, will he come join the party? Explore the options here.
⚰ Death in the Middle Ages (ACOUP)
Contrary to popular belief, people in the middle ages mourned their children deeply even as they buried nearly half of them.
🎹 NPR Tiny Desk ❤()
NPR’s tiny desk is a cultural treasure. Learn a bit about the back story and see a few choice act.
The Look
Elon’s 🕸 via @yohei.
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I’ve been using Notion for a while, but only recently started tapping into its AI features. After reading Wyatt’s post, I’m definitely inspired to explore what else is possible with the platform :)
Maybe using it with AI would help me, I’ve tried using Notion and it seems so overwhelming