Recap: Do Lecture’s Lazy ChatGPT course
AI is everywhere. It feels like part monolith of uncertainty, part massive window of opportunity. So, when you’re pushed for time and have a thousand other plates to juggle – where do you begin?
In situations like these the place we like to start is to check out what the good people at Do Lectures are thinking.
The latest in their series of Lazy Discipline courses explores ChatGPT, and here are our key takeaways from what was a great intro to the tool that everyone’s talking about.
Context is key
ChatGPT isn’t a search engine. You need to put quality in questions to get quality answers out, and giving context is key. Tell it about you, your writing style, and the purpose of the what you want to achieve, i.e., sales email, warm tone. And always remember, context before prompt.
Use anchor notes
It’s likely you’ll be asking ChatGPT to assist you with similar tasks on repeat so try to keep a record of what’s worked for you. Building anchor notes or a simple document to hold all this gold means you’re one step ahead and can just copy and paste each time.
Narrow things down
Try to get as granular as you can with questions and prompts. If you’re vague, the answers will be too. Be super-specific and think of different angles that will help the AI unearth pearls of wisdom.
Research
ChatGPT is the ultimate research tool – if you ask it the right questions. You can use it for fact checking, finding research papers, defining terms, and summarising data. Struggling with a concept? Ask it to explain it with a metaphor. Want to mix up your digital ads? Ask it to rewrite them and then AB test to see which is best.
It’s you vs you
AI has been billed by some as a ‘robots vs humans battle’ but it’s really an opportunity to get better at being you. You can’t outsource your voice, but you can use ChatGPT for inspiration. Ask it to ‘make this shorter but say more’, to ‘show examples of how I can make it better’, or for 10 alternative headlines that might spark new ideas for you to play with.
Idea Generation
ChatGPT is a wonderful opportunity to challenge our assumptions, to come at questions in a different way, and to find new angles. Ask it the same questions as everyone else you’ll get the stock answers but think of the pain points others might not have addressed and it’s a different story. Ask how different industries or even personalities might approach a problem or task: How would Einstein approach brainstorming? What if Barack Obama was to write an ad for cat food? You can use it to find new frameworks for brainstorming too.
ChatGPT has the potential to be a really powerful tool that will no doubt get better and better with every iteration. With a bit of experimentation we’re looking forward to learning how to harness it to help us work smarter and faster.