I used other services before Google Reader, now I use feedly (what do you use?).

I use self-hosted FreshRSS, and Readrops on my phone to synchronize with that.

RSS is amazing for sure, especially if you can limit the firehose to specific categories that you’re interested in. The modern web does not like RSS because it’s too pure and useful, and they need to inject user engagement/algorithmic-despair into you somehow.

I try not to use ChatGPT, just because I don’t want to get addicted to relying on someone else’s service. AFAIK, ChatGPT is actually quite intensive to run, so I don’t believe in a free lunch forever there. I’m betting they’re trying to get people hooked before pulling the rug. I will start trying stuff like that if it becomes open source and self-hostable etc.

As for unique and useful Youtube videos, yeah there’s still a wrinkle there. As an example, I keep up-to-date with Matrix’s “Matrix Live” video blogs on Youtube, and I don’t think they host them anywhere else. I will be consciously limiting any interaction I have on Youtube that’s not needed though.

I don’t have a Google account so I actually just use RSS feeds for every Youtube channel and get their content delivered that way!