You're Using (or not using) ChatGPT All Wrong

Ever since my friend sent me a story that I could have sworn he wrote, written by ChatGPT, my reliance on it has grown with every passing day.

In the past month I used ChatGPT to write marketing emails for a film screening, letters to lawmakers advocating climate change policy, a letter of recommendation for a fellow volunteer at the border, a children's book about my dog, an apology letters to my wife and much much more.

The thing about ChatGPT in the news is it focuses on the big jobs and ignores the many small things it can do for us.

If you're a professional, you are often tasked with mind sapping writing tasks that are no fun. Or you want to write something, but after a day of work and taking care of a child, there is simply no energy to write something. That is the beauty of ChatGPT. It doesn't write like me when I am at my best, but it writes a lot better than me when I am at my worst. And to be at my best I can use ChatGPT for the tasks that are not my main priorities.

So yes, I wanted to write a story about my dog for over a year, and no I didn't have time for it and no, ChatGPT story is not the story I would have written, but it is pretty good and pretty close. The letter of recommendation before editing is useless, but after 15 minutes it is perfect and I am a lot less exhausted by it and it went out on time. My marketing email is frankly much better than I would have written it and so is the letter to the marketers. Do I feel bad about it? No. Because with all of those things the point is not originality, but utility. An original letter to the lawmaker is pointless, the effective letter that makes a difference is not, even if written by ChatGPT.

So yes, you are probably not using ChatGPT to its full potential, especially if you are not using it for the mind numbing writing tasks that are on your to do list.

PS- As full disclosure, I almost wrote this article with ChatGPT and if I did, it would have been probably better. But I didn't, because somethings require the trade-off of quality to a touch of personality and originality - such as an apology letter to a wife.