There have been recent studies, I think already discredited, that suggest AI is eroding our thinking skills. My experience is the opposite and so here are a few thoughts I wrote with my own brain on how AI helps me think:
When I started using AI chatbots to help me work I quickly learnt first-hand what ‘garbage in garbage out’ means. I knew I couldn’t be so lazy as to ask ChatGPT to “do my work for me” or “write my article”, but I didn’t expect I’d have to put quite as much effort into getting what I wanted. With the help of other users I learnt to think really carefully about what it is I actually want and how to articulate it.
In the process of getting help from AI, I have to:
- Externalise my goals using words: This forces me to clarify those goals as I’m writing them, and then again if I don’t get the results I want.
- Break the task up into steps: This makes the task much more manageable from the outset, and easier to get started on, and I include important steps I might have otherwise missed.
- Provide unambiguous instructions: this helps me catch any issues that come from misunderstanding my words or the way my words fit together.
- Reassess my goals more critically: it can be a lot easier for me to assess my goals critically a) when part of the work is being done by not-me, and b) the results come back exactly as I instructed, and they aren’t what I want.
I find that being forced to think this way has helped me be more focussed and clear. I think it is a non-trivial benefit of working with AI. And it is helping me work better with organic intelligences, as I get better at clarifying and articulating goals and instructions.
I was determined to learn how to use AI, so I persisted when the machine gave me back the garbage I had fed it. I couldn’t blame the box, I’ve stopped hitting my technology for some years now. I had to understand the limits of the tool and reframe my prompt, aim for a smaller goal and progress patiently.
I think “iteration” was much more popular word in 2010 but it’s still really helpful for me to approach my work with an iterative mindset. I don’t get held back by perfectionism and tasks can get momentum quickly. I learnt that using AI was going to mean I needed to try again and again, changing how I approached a task and sometimes starting from scratch.
I often start tasks now with a very lazy prompt that I know won’t get me very far. It helps remind me that I will need to be patient and persistent as I try new approaches. It has a ripple effect in the rest of my work, and I can bring more patience and persistence to working with humans.
Early in the AI learning curve you start taking on personas. Personas work, in general, as a way of thinking differently. Personas are used widely across sales and marketing, business strategy and the performing arts to help us think or perform particular tasks better.
AI bots also work better when they take on more specific personas. For example, I can ask AI to generate some good marketing ideas for my next series of workshops, or I can ask it to think like an experienced lead creative of a top tier marketing company who knows my brand and mission and is looking to impress me with a comprehensive strategy.
When I ask my AI to take on a persona, what I have to do is think:
- Which persona suits best? Good start for any task is to clarify the skills and expertise I think this task needs.
- Who else could I think like? I can use other perspectives to review and improve what I'm doing. What might a risk averse client say or a skeptical customer?
- Are there real people that I can consult? I may even think of a real person that fits the profile I'm writing and I could reach out, can't hurt.
I know we all know, but sometimes I think we forget; we all think differently. Thinking from other perspectives is a really valuable exercise when doing most things. It's an empathy skill being able to take on personas and it's invaluable for working well with people.
These are just three ways using AI has improved the way I think. If you want it to improve the way you think, join me at a workshop. Feel welcome to email me hello@playfulthinking.com.au for any thoughts you have on what I've shared here.
