About

I'm an architect and an academic. I teach, I do my own research, and every year I walk a new group of students through their final-year projects.

Over the last couple of years the questions from students changed. It used to be "where do I find papers?" Now it's "can I use ChatGPT for this?", "is Elicit worth paying for?" and "will I get in trouble if I use AI?" The honest answers were hard to find. Most of what's online is written by the tool companies themselves, and of course they think their tool is the best one.

So I started ThesisStack. I test the tools on real research work, tell you what each one is actually good at, point out the free options that do the job, and say clearly where the AI should stop and your own thinking should take over.

I'm also building Gapnostic, a tool that turns a stack of papers into a literature review matrix, because doing that by hand takes far too long. When I mention it here, I'll always say it's mine.

Say hello

The easiest way to reach me is on X at @ErhuTakes. Tool suggestions, corrections and questions are all welcome.