NotebookLM has become the backbone of most of my projects. I use it for studying, condensing YouTube videos, research, and even journaling. One area where it’s really shown promise is in helping me learn new tools. Learning any new software, whether a simple video editor or a complex project manager, can often mean hours of trial and error. And I don’t always have the time for that, so I’ve been getting help from NotebookLM to speed things up.
I’ve already successfully paired it with a couple of design tools, but I wanted to expand this use case into other types of software too, especially those I’ve been putting off testing. Sure, I could have learned these tools on my own, but the whole point of NotebookLM is to make the process quicker and also gain insights I might not have gotten on my own. Here are some of the tools I learned completely with NotebookLM…
Blender
A complicated app I’ve been putting off for years
Blender is primarily a 3D modeling app, which is quite out of my scope. I’ve used it for video editing and a bit of motion graphics, but I’m not a 3D artist by any means. Honestly, the reason I haven’t really dabbled in it is because all the tools for 3D modeling look so complicated. And they kind of are. However, I’ve successfully created my first ever donut with NotebooLM’s help (and I wrote about it).
Because I gave the AI a task – creating a donut – rather than a general overview of Blender, it managed to narrow down the exact steps for me to get there. And much faster than any YouTube tutorial ever could. Working through the steps also started building some muscle memory and made the app a bit easier to navigate in the end. NotebookLM did stumble when I ran into some issues with the mesh of the icing on top of the donut, so it wasn’t entirely smooth-sailing. But it did help me get started, and I’ve been practicing a couple of other models since.
Fractorium
The weirdest app I’ve ever used
I’ve written about Fractorium in my strange motion graphics tools article. So technically, I’ve had a go at it before turning to NotebookLM for help. But that’s exactly why I wanted to consult the AI – it turned out to be more complicated than I realized. Fractorium is a free, open-source fractals generator, letting you generate animations using something called the “fractals flame algorithm”. I still don’t really understand what that means, but it looks really cool.
Because this one is a bit more interesting than 3D modeling, I actually prompted NotebookLM to help me understand how the math behind these fractals works. It did end up taking me down a bit of a rabbit hole, but I eventually used the AI to learn how to manipulate the parameters and settings. Whereas I just messed around with the settings before, I now better understand which controls shape the forms and motion.
Whether you use NotebookLM or not, I highly recommend checking out Fractorium if you want to experiment with weird graphics. But if you’re going to use NotebookLM, here’s one of the prompt structures I use to get started:
I want to learn [whichever specific] tools, settings, and parameters of [tool name]. Give me a step-by-step overview of the main features, explain what each control or parameter does, and include practical tips for using them effectively. Keep it beginner-friendly.
Zotero
I learned Zotero using NotebookLM, to pair it with NotebookLM
Zotero is a free, open-source app that helps you collect, organize, and cite research sources. I’ve been pairing it with NotebookLM since I started using it, and it legitimately improves the insights you get from your research. But prior to that, I actually learned how to use it with NotebookLM. Uploading a couple of YouTube tutorials was all it took to help me get the basics of getting started. The whole process took about 30 minutes – Zotero is much easier to navigate than I thought.
If you’re learning Zotero, or any app for that matter, I recommend creating a sort of YouTube knowledge base in NotebookLM to quickly condense the information into digestible nuggets. This is what works best for me, at least, as opposed to spending hours watching the tutorials.
LibreOffice
The Base Database tool in particular
I’ve been using databases in Notion for a while – and in my favorite Notion alternative, AFFiNE. I’ve also tried them in Grist, which has an interesting take on spreadsheet-style databases. But the databases in LibreOffice intimidated me, probably because of how outdated the interface feels – it looks like a tool for accountants.
LibreOffice has a couple of database templates, so I thought it would be quite easy to get started at first. Entering my data was easy enough, but then I had no idea what to actually do with it or how to link my databases. But I was determined to at least understand the basics, so I dumped a couple of tutorials into a notebook.
This is probably the tool that took the longest to learn out of this whole list, to no fault of NotebookLM – LibreOffice really just isn’t an intuitive interface. But, while I still don’t know how to use LibreOffice’s databases to their full capacity, I at least now know how to navigate most of the controls, create databases, and create relationships.
Learning smarter, not harder
I used to open a new app and just click around until things made sense. There’s still value in figuring things out on your own. But if you’re in a time crunch or can’t do it for whatever reason, then NotebookLM is a great assistant to speed up and streamline the process. Just remember to feed it the right sources, which will probably be tutorials in most cases.
