I want to start with this statistic that feels
almost counterintuitive today. Yeah. Roughly
90 % of people using Notebook LM to generate
slides are doing it completely wrong. They ignore
one tiny UI element, and because of that, they
just get generic corporate slop. It is wild.
They ignore the pencil icon. That one button
is the difference between a bland summary and
having an AI act like your own senior creative
director. Welcome back to the Deep Dive. It is
Tuesday, February 24th, 2026. Today, we are looking
at a new guide by Max Ann from AI Fire. It explores
seven blueprints for moving beyond basic AI summarization
into something called creative synthesis. Right,
which is the big shift right now. We are going
to cover how to transform literally a messy napkin
into a boardroom deck. We'll look at creating
manga -style storybooks and the exact 2026 instructions
you need to make it happen for you. We have a
lot of ground to cover. We're looking at sources
that range from handwritten notes to dense technical
papers. The mission today is to figure out how
to stop using AI as just a fast reader and start
using it as a true design part. Let's unpack
the core problem first. People dump their sources
into the tool. They click generate. Why is that
default button such a trap? Because it is the
path of least resistance. You know, you upload
your PDFs or audio files into Notebook LM. You
see that big generate button. You click it. And
the AI just defaults to the safest, most average
output. It just gives you text on a screen. Right.
It is factually accurate, but it has absolutely
no soul. For those who might be new to this specific
tool, Notebook LM is Google's free multimodal
tool. Multimodal just means it understands text,
images, and audio all at once. And the defining
feature here is grounded creativity. Unlike other
AIs that pull random data from the web, this
one only uses the sources you upload. Which is
great for accuracy. But that safety rail makes
the default slides incredibly boring. It is afraid
to improvise. That is why you need the custom
instructions menu. The pencil icon. Exactly.
It sits right next to the generator. That is
your control panel. You can force the AI into
a specific role. You can tell it you are a Japanese
manga illustrator or you are a senior workshop
lead. So it's creativity, but restricted strictly
to the truth you provide. Exactly. It creates
style without inventing facts. Let's move to
the first blueprint. The guide calls this handwritten
notes to slides. I think this resonates with
anyone who still prefers analog thinking. The
messy page of ideas. Oh, the conspiracy wall
phase. Yeah, exactly. Circles, arrows, half thoughts.
We all do it. You have this great brainstorming
session. The notebook looks like chaos. And then
you realize you have to type it all out. It kills
the momentum. So how does the pencil icon fix
that? It's actually really fluid. Step one, you
just snap a photo of the napkin. Step two, you
upload it. The AI reads handwriting incredibly
well now. Even my terrible handwriting. Probably
better than you can read it. But step three is
the key. You use the pencil icon to request a
style. The guide uses a space exploration example.
Someone uploaded rough notes about milestones
and future missions. And what did they ask for?
They asked for a modern, inspiring aesthetic.
And the AI didn't just transcribe the text. It
built a stunning deck. And it even kept the original
handwritten image as a very first slide. Oh,
to keep the authenticity. Right. It shows exactly
where the idea started before moving into the
polished slides. Does it actually understand
the logic of the arrows and circles? Surprisingly,
yes. It follows your visual logic perfectly.
That is fascinating. It translates the visual
relationship, not just the words. Beat. Let's
look at the second use case. This addresses the
opposite problem. The source material isn't messy,
it's just incredibly dense. The glazed eyes phenomenon.
Yes. Reading a 40 -page research paper. The information
density is high, but retention is basically zero.
Because it is a wall of text, the solution here
is narrative. You have to treat the AI as a storyteller.
You upload your dense sources. But instead of
asking for bullet points, you use the pencil
icon to ask for a visual storybook. How does
that change the output? It changes the delivery
mechanism. You are asking for metaphors. You
are asking for cause and effect. Whoa, imagine
taking a dense quantum physics paper and instantly
turning it into a graphic novel for a 12 year
old. That completely changes how we approach
education. It really does. It is perfect for
visual learners or teaching kids complex topics.
You aren't dumbing down the science. You are
just stacking Lego blocks of data into a story
they can actually digest. Is the retention actually
higher with this narrative approach? Research
says yes. Story stick, raw data fades. That brings
us to use case three, which tackles a massive
corporate pain point, ugly slides. Inconsistent
fonts. The wall of text. The Frankenstein deck,
where you stitch together five different presentations.
It is the worst. But the guide has this brand
guide hack. You basically build a content -only
deck in Google Slides. It can be completely ugly.
You export it as a PDF and upload it. Okay, but
how does it know your brand? You upload a second
PDF, a brand Bible. This has your hex codes,
your fonts, your logo rules. And then you prompt
it. You use the pencil icon and say, apply the
visual rules from the brand Bible to the content
deck. And it automatically maps the style. It
aligns the fonts. It creates visual consistency.
So you never have to manually format a slide
again. Not if you upload that brand Bible once.
That is a massive time saver. Sponsor. Placeholder
for separate script. Do not include content.
We're back. Let's shift from corporate workflows
to personal skill mastery. Use case four is the
step -by -step guide. I have a vulnerable admission
here. I still wrestle with prompt drift myself.
Oh, totally. We all do. I'll want to learn a
new coding language, and I end up with 20 tabs
open, but I don't know the sequence. I want to
learn, but I don't know the structure. That is
tutorial hell. The progression plane use case
solves this. The guide uses the one -armed pull
-up as an example. It's a really hard skill.
So you upload all the scattered advice. Yeah,
you upload YouTube transcripts, Reddit threads,
fitness blogs. You intentionally feed it the
chaos. Yeah. Then you use the pencil icon to
ask for a structured progression plan. And it
outputs a roadmap. Right. It gives you baseline
strength requirements. Progressive drills. Stage
-by -stage advancement. It acts like your own
personal coach. It synthesizes the conflicting
advice from Reddit and YouTube. It finds the
consensus and orders it logically. That is incredibly
practical. Let's move to use cases 5 and 6. These
are for high -pressure settings. The classic
Monday morning panic for a Friday workshop. Right,
where you have no plan and you just end up making
a boring lecture. But use case 5 changes that.
You upload your case studies. Then you ask for
a workshop structure. And it doesn't just give
you slides. It generates discussion prompts.
It creates live activities and reflection questions.
It essentially writes a full lesson plan for
you. It builds the actual experience. Two sec
silence. Use case six applies a similar logic
to debates. We usually only research things that
confirm our own biases. Which is dangerous. The
debate use case forces critical thinking. You
upload conflicting sources. For example, articles
saying AI is great for jobs and articles saying
AI will destroy the economy. And you ask for
a head -to -head comparison deck. Exactly. You
get a slide showing the productivity gains right
next to a slide showing the inequality risks.
It forces you to see the trade -offs. Does it
pick a winner in the debate? No. It steelmans
both sides for clarity. It builds the strongest
possible argument for both perspectives. I love
that. Now, use case 7. The guide calls this the
recursive speaker notes trick. This is the absolute
smartest workflow in the entire guide. It sounds
a bit meta. Walk us through it. Okay, so you
generate your slide deck using everything we
just talked about. You download that finished
deck. Then you re -upload that finished deck
back into Notebook LM as a new source. You feed
the final product back into the machine. Yes.
Then you go to the standard chat, not the slide
generator, and you ask for structured speaker
notes for the file you just uploaded. Because
it can see the slides it just made. Exactly.
It looks at the visual cues, it pulls the underlying
data, and it writes a slide -by -slide script
for you. You're feeding the output back in as
input. Exactly. It analyzes its own creation
to coach you. Let's pause there. We've talked
a lot about the magic, but we need to talk about
reality. What breaks? What is the catch here?
There are three main limitations you have to
know about. First is the watermarks. There is
a notebook LM watermark in the bottom right corner
of every slide. You can't remove it inside the
tool. You have to export it and crop it manually.
Yeah, which is annoying. The second limitation
is no editing. You cannot change the text inside
Notebook LM. If it makes a typo, you can't just
click and fix it. That seems like a massive friction
point. It is. You have to export to Google Slides
or PowerPoint to fix any text. And the third
limitation is what they call the clean trap.
Meaning the aesthetic. Right. Unless you use
a really radical style prompt like a 1960s NASA
poster or a chalkboard style, the visuals tend
to look very similar. They lean toward a clean,
generic corporate look. So this is for the first
80 % of the work? Yes. It gets you to the polish
phase instantly. You still have to do the final
20 % yourself. That seems fair for how much time
it saves. Let's do a quick recap. The big idea
here is a fundamental shift in how we view the
software. Right. In 2026, you cannot treat this
like a search engine or a photocopier. It is
a creative synthesizer. You have to stop clicking
generate and start clicking the pencil. Treat
the AI as a designer. Give it a role. Give it
constraints. That is where the magic happens.
If you want to try this out today, the guide
suggests starting with the handwritten note trick.
Take a picture of your messy notepad, upload
it. and use the pencil icon. It is the ultimate
gateway drug to this entire workflow. Once you
see it work, you will never look at your notes
the same way. Before we sign off, I want to leave
you with a thought. If this tool allows anyone
to generate a perfectly structured, beautifully
narrated presentation in 10 seconds, what happens
to the baseline? When a perfect slide deck is
no longer impressive, what will make your actual
ideas stand out? Beat? Thanks for diving in.
See you next time.