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That moment at a tech meetup in Austin when an AI tool saved my notes

I was at this small AI meetup last month in Austin, sitting in the back row trying to scribble down everything the speaker said about generative models. My handwriting is awful and I kept missing key points. One of the organizers mentioned this app called Otter that transcribes audio in real time, so I pulled it up on my phone. It caught every word including the Q&A, and now I actually have a searchable record of the whole talk. Anyone else use voice to text tools like that to keep up at conferences?

2 comments

2 Comments

juliashah8d ago

Man that first time you use one of those tools at a conference is like a lightbulb moment... I had a similar thing happen at a local tech talk back in spring 2022, I'd been missing half the details because my notes were just scribbles and doodles. This one guy pulled out his phone and showed me Otter too, and I was honestly blown away by how accurate it was even with the background noise and people shuffling around. It's wild how much stuff you catch in the Q&A that you'd normally just forget or write down wrong. I still keep a little notebook for quick thoughts and questions, but letting the app handle the actual transcription feels like cheating almost. Really glad you found it, makes those meetups way more useful.

wells.karen8d ago

Exactly, the Q&A part is where it really shines. Before, I'd be scrambling to write down the question and then miss half the answer anyway. Now I can just focus on actually listening and thinking of my own follow up instead of playing secretary.