A breakthrough for me when collaborating with #AI was realizing that working with an #LLM is more like a road trip than a conversation 🛣️.
An important realization is that the end result of your interaction with #GenAI is not the measure of success, its the byproduct. The measure of success is the itinerary for the trip. 🧭
A good road trip is optimized for whatever you want:
- The scenic route
- The fuel-efficient route
- The route that avoids the traffic
... whatever is important to you.
But, we can universally agree that you'd never plan a trip that takes you 100 miles out of your way for no reason and ends up at the wrong address. That would be a pretty bad itinerary. The only way that is happening is if you have no idea what you're doing and you decide to totally wing it. 🎰
With #aicollaboration the magic is in the trip planning:
You know where you are when you start (that is your initial prompt) and you know where you want to go (the end result). The stops you plan along the way (intermediary inputs) will have a huge impact on the route you take to get there, and whether you even make it to the destination at all.
Think of it like this:
- Each word in your prompt is a digit in the GPS coordinates 🛰️
- Each prompt is a landmark on your journey 📍
- Where you start, what you pass along the way, and your effectiveness at conveying the coordinates will all directly impact the journey.
With this in mind:
- If you take a wrong turn, but keep going, will that work out? No. You should rewind back to the wrong turn and pick up where you left off ⏪
- If you put the wrong digits in the GPS coordinate, will it get you there? You might get close, or you might end up in the middle of the Atlantic 🌊
- If you fail to plan at all, will you have problems along the way? Probably. 🚧
The wrong words in the wrong order can take you on a wild goose chase pretty quickly 🪿
If you aren't getting where you want to go, there's a good chance it's because something is off about your approach with #artificialintelligence.
The more time you put learning how to plot the course, and the more thinking you put into route planning, the more likely you are to have a good trip.
At the end of the day, it's your trip. You get to decide where to stop and which route to take along the way. If you just need to run out and get a cup of coffee, maybe it doesn't matter.☕
But, if you're planning to drive across the country and spend the only 2 weeks of vacation you have while you're at it, take the time to make it worth it.
Rule of 100