It's high time we define what kind of competencies we want people to develop in different professional sectors given that AI is going nowhere and neither it should. Right now we're playing ostrich and it isn't helping anyone. Thank you for sharing your learning process with ChatGPT
I completely agree with you, and education needs to start getting on board. If they don't, they're going to find they're leaving students and their institutions behind. Because you're right, AI and ChatGPT are not going anywhere, and the more we adapt and teach people how to responsibly use these, the further ahead we're going to be.
I use it for everything. I'm actually going to start a weekly series on LinkedIn, "The weird ways I use ChatGPT" lol
This is such an important read! Especially the reminder that the tool isn’t the problem, it’s how we teach people to use it. Such a powerful call to shift our focus from panic to pedagogy....
Tough to deal with the new frontier...the old joke might not be politically correct...you know how you tell the pioneers? They're the ones with the arrows in their backs...
My observation is that the AI is a faster search engine and might find what you want faster than you can drive to the library...it can find that handful of answers from a billion you can't use. It won't be creative and it can only examine what has already been digested ...
And I'm the guy who said
AI is like Cat Barf
Because what you get out of it is not a lot different from what you gave it 😹
Great takes Bette; looks like we're both talking about AI at the moment!
Now, I did have one musing to your prompt: Would I want a surgeon who learned from ChatGPT? I'm not sure if my answer would be 'of course not'. Right now, the primary risk of this process is 'hallucinations' however what is a hallucination but incorrect information? I think it's still possible for surgeons to have picked up incorrect info from even traditional sources.
Which is why I agree that the emphasis really is on the later point you made, about teaching people how to better collaborate with AI and learn meaningfully on it in order to mitigate 'bad info' whilst also building up relevant experience.
Also, glad to see you're playing with vibe coding!
Yes, 100 percent agree with you. If they're using it in conjunction with solid medical training. I was trying to make the point for someone who might come in and say, "Well, I wouldn't want anyone trained on ChatGPT." I guess I should have qualified that a bit more.
Yes, looks like we're both writing on AI. I have your post bookmarked, so it's on my list. I'm trying to get caught up on things. And I did get your DM, so I will be responding to that. Sounds like we are kind of on a similar path in the direction that we're going because I'm pivoting a bit towards teaching AI with the focus on more critical thinking involved rather than just prompting or prompt stacking.
I often think that the real challenge isn’t AI itself, but our collective unwillingness to redefine what learning and productivity look like in 2025. I keep telling everyone to stop mourning the ‘old ways’ (even though I am sometimes guilty of this) and start designing education around collaboration with AI. Even workplaces are struggling lol.
AI is useful when we treat it like a mental sparring partner.
I agree with that and I think we’re going to have to teach people what it actually means to use it as a sparring partner. How to really work with it.
People are throwing around terms like collaborate and iterate but then giving prompts. That's not the same thing even if you’re stack prompting. You can use easily build a formula that looks like collaboration but isn’t.
I got your email and laughed. I'm a bit behind with my responding. 😊
It’s okay - after last week you are celebrity. I did see that em dash post. People are awful. I didn’t interact with it because then my feed will be filled with em dash posts hahahaha
I have always said people on LI are mean. They don’t understand nuance. They don’t care to. It’s why I stopped investing time there. I had ChatGPT plan my entire itinerary for Spain for a tentative visit on October. It gave me hotel prices. What to do and not do. Where to visit. Stuff that you will need to spend exhorbitant amounts of time researching and……..the info was factual.
Yeah my one viral hit wonder and it’s on punctuation. I was actually responding to everything at first and then I quit because they were just repeating the same thing, and it was on a topic that honestly I just spit out as a quick rant.
Not sure what world they’re reading in but dashes are being used in ways no one has ever used them before. That was the whole point of the post but whatever, it was fun for about five minutes. I swear something’s broken in my dopamine circuitry 😂
And yeah, using ChatGPT as an itinerary planner is a perfect use case. A trip to Spain, you might decide to stay there 😉
We are still looking for places to move. Ryan's job has locations in Spain, and we already know a bit of Spanish. I will keep you posted Bette. Enjoy your week ahead.
There was a guy on Medium who moved to Spain with his wife. They primarily only spoke English, but with the cost of living and healthcare they just decided they were doing it. Last I heard, he loves it there!
The people with the strongest opinions about AI are typically the people who have never used it. It’s a tool in your toolbox. It can do certain things well, even masterfully in the hands of an expert.
Same thing applies to a hammer or roll of duct tape.
I agree with that, Mack. A lot of people haven’t really immersed themselves in it enough to understand what it can actually do or how to use it in different ways. True collaboration takes time and curiosity. Prompt stacking or just prompting isn’t the same. It's more like telling it what to spit back, not working with it.
But it can be a powerful tool if you’re willing to sit with it and actually use it that way.
Exactly, Bette. These AI tools can do amazing things for you IF you take the time to learn how to properly use them, as you said. Most people won’t make the time, so they don’t understand the tools or see the potential.
I'm amazed at how much they have improved in the last year, even the last 6 months. I remember when I used ChatGPT when it first came out. To say it has come a long way is an understatement. I actually just created an Excel spreadsheet with all of my expenses on it, had ChatGPT create most of it by dictating it, then downloaded the document. So easy.
Thank you for sharing this, Bette. I appreciate your thoughtful engagement to see what's helpful for learning AND for teaching.
I read this piece about the MIT study recently, which seems to fit with your article. Have you seen it? I appreciate Jing Hu's approach and guidance about AI - https://substack.com/home/post/p-166592471
I have read some of her stuff. I'll have to look at that post because I haven't seen it. I've read the MIT article if you're referring to the one where they were studying brain changes.
Unfortunately, they completely forgot to use a group that actually did iterate with AI. But thanks for linking it because I'm going to pop over and take a look at that article.
Take a look - I thought she was saying that it was effective to do the work first, then use chatGPT for tightening and clarifying (so the next iteration).
I’ll take another look. Thanks, Bette! I appreciate your work!
From what I understand, the brain only group and the search engine group didn’t show reduced cognitive engagement. But the people who had the LLM do all the thinking for them did. Which is exactly what you would expect. In this group, it essentially turned into prompting with cutting and pasting.
They needed a fourth group. People going back and forth with the AI, building on it, questioning it, refining ideas. Socratic method style. Because I’d argue their engagement might’ve been the same, or even higher, than the others.
So yes, this study suggests you should do the work yourself first, then bring in the AI. But the real takeaway is we don’t know what that fourth group would’ve shown, because they didn’t even include it.
I’m torn on AI and education. Back when I studied accounting, the real world used software, but we did everything manually for class. That helped us understand the fundamentals, but walking into a first job was like visiting a foreign country.
Just like my article today’s says, it can’t be either/or. Everything is blending and education should too.
I feel the same way you do Todd. I’m really torn because there’s a lot of value in how we’ve learned and in understanding the basic fundamentals of writing or any craft.
But those fundamentals are definitely changing and honestly, I’m not sure how teaching writing will evolve. Are we heading toward a point where everyone’s basically dictating and editing drafts instead of writing from scratch?
It’s hard to imagine and wrap my head around, but I do think that’s where we’re going.
I think that's because it's so time consuming. But having said that, I do think there will eventually be a boomerang effect where people will start craving writing that is less generated and more human because you do start to see repetitive phrasing, words, syntax, and sentence structure...
I used ChatGPT to create code to set up a system of folders in Google Drive and find all extra copies to put into an archive folder. Same kind of trial and error but I got it to work.
Such a great take, Bette. Loved how you flipped the narrative—this is about learning how to think better with the tools we’ve got.
Exactly Nick. We need to start figuring out how to integrate these technologies into our lives because they are here and they are not going anywhere.
It's high time we define what kind of competencies we want people to develop in different professional sectors given that AI is going nowhere and neither it should. Right now we're playing ostrich and it isn't helping anyone. Thank you for sharing your learning process with ChatGPT
I completely agree with you, and education needs to start getting on board. If they don't, they're going to find they're leaving students and their institutions behind. Because you're right, AI and ChatGPT are not going anywhere, and the more we adapt and teach people how to responsibly use these, the further ahead we're going to be.
I use it for everything. I'm actually going to start a weekly series on LinkedIn, "The weird ways I use ChatGPT" lol
This is such an important read! Especially the reminder that the tool isn’t the problem, it’s how we teach people to use it. Such a powerful call to shift our focus from panic to pedagogy....
Exactly. And education needs to start doing this yesterday, or else students and institutions are going to find themselves being left behind.
Tough to deal with the new frontier...the old joke might not be politically correct...you know how you tell the pioneers? They're the ones with the arrows in their backs...
My observation is that the AI is a faster search engine and might find what you want faster than you can drive to the library...it can find that handful of answers from a billion you can't use. It won't be creative and it can only examine what has already been digested ...
And I'm the guy who said
AI is like Cat Barf
Because what you get out of it is not a lot different from what you gave it 😹
Great takes Bette; looks like we're both talking about AI at the moment!
Now, I did have one musing to your prompt: Would I want a surgeon who learned from ChatGPT? I'm not sure if my answer would be 'of course not'. Right now, the primary risk of this process is 'hallucinations' however what is a hallucination but incorrect information? I think it's still possible for surgeons to have picked up incorrect info from even traditional sources.
Which is why I agree that the emphasis really is on the later point you made, about teaching people how to better collaborate with AI and learn meaningfully on it in order to mitigate 'bad info' whilst also building up relevant experience.
Also, glad to see you're playing with vibe coding!
Yes, 100 percent agree with you. If they're using it in conjunction with solid medical training. I was trying to make the point for someone who might come in and say, "Well, I wouldn't want anyone trained on ChatGPT." I guess I should have qualified that a bit more.
Yes, looks like we're both writing on AI. I have your post bookmarked, so it's on my list. I'm trying to get caught up on things. And I did get your DM, so I will be responding to that. Sounds like we are kind of on a similar path in the direction that we're going because I'm pivoting a bit towards teaching AI with the focus on more critical thinking involved rather than just prompting or prompt stacking.
I often think that the real challenge isn’t AI itself, but our collective unwillingness to redefine what learning and productivity look like in 2025. I keep telling everyone to stop mourning the ‘old ways’ (even though I am sometimes guilty of this) and start designing education around collaboration with AI. Even workplaces are struggling lol.
AI is useful when we treat it like a mental sparring partner.
Happy New Week, Bette.
I agree with that and I think we’re going to have to teach people what it actually means to use it as a sparring partner. How to really work with it.
People are throwing around terms like collaborate and iterate but then giving prompts. That's not the same thing even if you’re stack prompting. You can use easily build a formula that looks like collaboration but isn’t.
I got your email and laughed. I'm a bit behind with my responding. 😊
It’s okay - after last week you are celebrity. I did see that em dash post. People are awful. I didn’t interact with it because then my feed will be filled with em dash posts hahahaha
I have always said people on LI are mean. They don’t understand nuance. They don’t care to. It’s why I stopped investing time there. I had ChatGPT plan my entire itinerary for Spain for a tentative visit on October. It gave me hotel prices. What to do and not do. Where to visit. Stuff that you will need to spend exhorbitant amounts of time researching and……..the info was factual.
Yeah my one viral hit wonder and it’s on punctuation. I was actually responding to everything at first and then I quit because they were just repeating the same thing, and it was on a topic that honestly I just spit out as a quick rant.
Not sure what world they’re reading in but dashes are being used in ways no one has ever used them before. That was the whole point of the post but whatever, it was fun for about five minutes. I swear something’s broken in my dopamine circuitry 😂
And yeah, using ChatGPT as an itinerary planner is a perfect use case. A trip to Spain, you might decide to stay there 😉
We are still looking for places to move. Ryan's job has locations in Spain, and we already know a bit of Spanish. I will keep you posted Bette. Enjoy your week ahead.
There was a guy on Medium who moved to Spain with his wife. They primarily only spoke English, but with the cost of living and healthcare they just decided they were doing it. Last I heard, he loves it there!
There are quite a few writers on Medium who did this. Where do you think I got this idea from hahahahaha
But this is mostly for Southern Spain. Like Malaga etc.
Useless advice...if you learned any Mexican slang, leave it behind. Spanish will look down upon you if don't sound like the inquisition 🤠
The people with the strongest opinions about AI are typically the people who have never used it. It’s a tool in your toolbox. It can do certain things well, even masterfully in the hands of an expert.
Same thing applies to a hammer or roll of duct tape.
I agree with that, Mack. A lot of people haven’t really immersed themselves in it enough to understand what it can actually do or how to use it in different ways. True collaboration takes time and curiosity. Prompt stacking or just prompting isn’t the same. It's more like telling it what to spit back, not working with it.
But it can be a powerful tool if you’re willing to sit with it and actually use it that way.
Exactly, Bette. These AI tools can do amazing things for you IF you take the time to learn how to properly use them, as you said. Most people won’t make the time, so they don’t understand the tools or see the potential.
I'm amazed at how much they have improved in the last year, even the last 6 months. I remember when I used ChatGPT when it first came out. To say it has come a long way is an understatement. I actually just created an Excel spreadsheet with all of my expenses on it, had ChatGPT create most of it by dictating it, then downloaded the document. So easy.
Some people are impressed when I tell them I have a left-handed Crescent wrench!
Thank you for sharing this, Bette. I appreciate your thoughtful engagement to see what's helpful for learning AND for teaching.
I read this piece about the MIT study recently, which seems to fit with your article. Have you seen it? I appreciate Jing Hu's approach and guidance about AI - https://substack.com/home/post/p-166592471
I have read some of her stuff. I'll have to look at that post because I haven't seen it. I've read the MIT article if you're referring to the one where they were studying brain changes.
Unfortunately, they completely forgot to use a group that actually did iterate with AI. But thanks for linking it because I'm going to pop over and take a look at that article.
Take a look - I thought she was saying that it was effective to do the work first, then use chatGPT for tightening and clarifying (so the next iteration).
I’ll take another look. Thanks, Bette! I appreciate your work!
From what I understand, the brain only group and the search engine group didn’t show reduced cognitive engagement. But the people who had the LLM do all the thinking for them did. Which is exactly what you would expect. In this group, it essentially turned into prompting with cutting and pasting.
They needed a fourth group. People going back and forth with the AI, building on it, questioning it, refining ideas. Socratic method style. Because I’d argue their engagement might’ve been the same, or even higher, than the others.
So yes, this study suggests you should do the work yourself first, then bring in the AI. But the real takeaway is we don’t know what that fourth group would’ve shown, because they didn’t even include it.
I’m torn on AI and education. Back when I studied accounting, the real world used software, but we did everything manually for class. That helped us understand the fundamentals, but walking into a first job was like visiting a foreign country.
Just like my article today’s says, it can’t be either/or. Everything is blending and education should too.
I feel the same way you do Todd. I’m really torn because there’s a lot of value in how we’ve learned and in understanding the basic fundamentals of writing or any craft.
But those fundamentals are definitely changing and honestly, I’m not sure how teaching writing will evolve. Are we heading toward a point where everyone’s basically dictating and editing drafts instead of writing from scratch?
It’s hard to imagine and wrap my head around, but I do think that’s where we’re going.
Writing from scratch is becoming a lost art. Much of what I see at work and online are tweaked versions of prior stuff. Reuse and repurpose.
I think that's because it's so time consuming. But having said that, I do think there will eventually be a boomerang effect where people will start craving writing that is less generated and more human because you do start to see repetitive phrasing, words, syntax, and sentence structure...
I used ChatGPT to create code to set up a system of folders in Google Drive and find all extra copies to put into an archive folder. Same kind of trial and error but I got it to work.