How I use Perplexity

Perplexity raised $500M recently. Given the recent news, I thought I’d share how I use Perplexity and why the internet feels familiar.

I remember when I first used the Internet. I was eleven. AOL was the gateway drug. And for 30 days at a time, I clogged my parent’s landline to check my email, read news, and chat with randos. You know – eleven year old shit.

If you used AOL 30-day free trail CDs, they gave you free hours and you would rotate them out. I would insert another AOL compact disc into our computer, and I was back to black.

My internet addiction continued with NetZero and AskJeeves. AskJeeves made it possible for me to get answers to questions I had at the time. I don’t remember what my eleven year old self would search for, but it engaged me in the same way Perplexity does today.

So, why do I like Perplexity?

Perplexity helps me do research and explore random questions I have. It takes information from the World Wide Web and gives me a summary that answers my question. The answer quality gets better when I toggle Pro, which is available in the paid version. Like AskJeeves, it allows me to ask a question and get quick insights on anything.

One of the things I like most is the questions it recommends. It’s like anticipating what my next question would be, and displays the thread in an intuitive way. The mobile app is a better experience than web.

One thing that snuck up on me is that I use Perplexity everyday. My library tab has roughly 50 or so searches saved. I use it 60% for research on ideas or work-related questions. The other 40% is on random questions that pop up.

But between Perplexity and DuckDuckGo, I’ve avoided Google search almost completely for over a year now.

Here are some things I’ve used Perplexity to help explore my interests:

What are some resources to learn Tailwind CSS

Is XP programming still relevant?

Red envelopes in Chinese culture

What is a forward deployed engineer?

Chess players who attack aggressively

Who is Royce Haynes?

Tools like Perplexity remind me of the internet when I was eleven. Less monopolistic, more optionality. Dot com-ish. Exploratory. Divergent.

The Internet feels fun again. At the same time it also feels busier. But I’m here for it.

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