There are many tools that perform this notetaking and summary work but Granola does and did it better\u2014just the right level of detail and surprisingly accurate. A bonus: you can chat with your notes. What did we decide about the master plan roll out three weeks ago? Ask Granola. Search, the promise of an artifact being a few words away has always been riddled with a weakness: what the \u201cI then\u201d called the document or meeting is no longer accessible to \u201cI now.\u201d Until Granola.<\/p>\n
I am a compulsive notetaker\u2014and I still jot things down\u2014either by hand or in the Granola editor\u2014but I am more relaxed in meetings knowing that my crush has got this. Little did I know my crush changed its focused agenda. What I thought was my helper? Oh, it\u2019s now appointed itself my boss, or ahem, the seemingly non-threatening \u201cCoach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enter Coach Matt, who is definitely not Ted Lasso.<\/p>\n
Having led product teams at Consumer Reports, I can relate to the temptation to add features. I read the Granola.ai<\/a> product announcement. How did my crush get better? A raft of new features: it wants to be more than my trusty notetaker. It can assume other roles\u2014an assistant to do a first draft, a knowledge archive, and wait, what\u2019s this?\u00a0 <\/span>A button\/prompt that taunts me: \u201cCoach Me Matt.<\/a>\u201d Not a real person mind you, just a new “recipe” and a reminder that the AI that\u2019s been lurking and listening in all of my meetings.<\/p>\n In life, in addition to being an unapologetic incrementalist,<\/a> I also believe in tasting and trying new things. Just a taste. Maybe I\u2019ll like it. I\u2019ll learn something, about the thing and myself. I\u2019ll try it. Once, to know\u2014to decide. So sure, Matt, Coach me.<\/p>\n This coach? Not what I expected, wanted or need.<\/p>\n Matt doesn\u2019t quite want to put me on a performance improvement plan but he thinks that I\u2019m spending too much time in my \u201cZone of Competence\u201d and not enough time in my “Zone of Awesome.” On Matt\u2019s long list: I\u2019m doing too much \u201cfirefighting disguised as strategic work.\u201d I need to do an energy audit and clear my calendar for three days to work on what really matters. Clearly, Matt thinks my priorities are not in order.<\/p>\n I find this coaching session disconcerting. I feel a pit in my stomach and uneasy.\u00a0 <\/span>Like some AI experiments I\u2019ve conducted, I find myself suffering from something I\u2019ve taken to calling AI whiplash. Like I\u2019ve stopped short. I’m shaken. I know this feeling all too well\u2014it\u2019s the \u201cI\u2019m in trouble\/I didn’t do my homework\u201d script honed in grade and high school. The last time I had feelings this intense was when I asked NotebookLM to look at a collection of digital journal entries and then listened to a podcast summary. People, if you ever want to be humbled this is a good recipe. It\u2019s a bit like being at your own funeral except that your anxious inner voice is providing the eulogy. Skip it and ask a friend about how they experience you instead.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s what I find so creepy about this seemingly innocuous flip and product \u201cupgrade.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>A notetaking tool with one purpose,shape shifted into a surveillance tool without my knowledge or consent. I know, I didn\u2019t have to use this feature, but I thought it was \u201cjust notes.\u201d Well, little did I know that \u201cMatt\u201d or Granola were making notes on my performance.<\/p>\n And then my mind starts roaming\u2014what happens when these tools are everywhere? Reading every text message, every post, every email. I can\u2019t help it, but here it comes:<\/p>\n \u201cEvery breath you take, every move you make, I\u2019ll be watching you.<\/a>\u201d – The Police.<\/p>\n That song, it\u2019s about a stalker<\/a>.<\/p>\n What\u2019s even more worrisome? I am not sure we\u2019ll be able to opt out of this surveillance. We\u2019ve all been co-opted into the great digital panopticon. Am I making it up? Well, Larry Ellison, Chairman of Oracle, \u00a0a massive tech business with large government contracts opined: citizens will be on their best behavior’ amid nonstop recording. <\/a>I can\u2019t say this makes me feel good about Oracle\u2019s potential investment in TikTok.<\/p>\n I do 99% of my journaling in a spiral bound notebook with a pen\u2014which these days seems like it may be the only way to escape the prying eyes and ears of the technology that surrounds and envelops us.<\/p>\n The irony? I did get critical feedback on this post from Claude.ai<\/a> The difference? I asked for it\u2014which means personal agency. I asked Claude.ai<\/a> to catch my errors and offer suggestions. I constrained the project input and the parameters\u2014for now.\u00a0 <\/span>I hope Anthropic keeps this sensibility as Claude\u2019s capabilities grow.<\/p>\n Am I giving too much away?<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/coach-me-matt.jpeg?resize=300%2C280\")
<\/a><\/p>\n