There’s a famous quote from Steve Jobs that I think about often:
What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds. — STEVE JOBS
Whatever your mind could do before computers, it can go further and faster with less effort now.
The analogy is even stronger because just as you have to learn how to ride the bike to actually use it, you need to know what you’re doing with a computer to move faster. But once you do, you can cruise a lot faster than your two feet can carry you.
I’ve been riffing off Jobs and saying,
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the rocket for the mind.
With a computer, your mind can move faster, but AI takes everything to light-speed, and we’re still in the equivalent of the Wright Brothers era of AI aviation.
All of this got me thinking: bikes are easy to learn to ride, but most of us aren’t ready to take control of a rocket. Is this where my analogy breaks down?
Not quite. Sure, anyone can captain a “rocket” now. In fact, a core feature of AI is that it allows you to iterate and make improvements at break-neck speed. You barely have to know what rockets do, let alone how they work, to take advantage of them now.
But here’s where things get messy. AI speeds up and improves what you toss into it. Thus, the old adage—“garbage in, garbage out"—is apt.
If I’m putting trash into AI, it will spit out trash—maybe a slightly nicer version of that trash with a Studio-Ghibli-inspired veneer, but it’s still trash. There’s plenty of examples of very bad AI outputs, akin to taping half-brown bananas to walls and calling it modern art.
What you put in limits what you get out. If you want to succeed with AI, you need to mind the inputs (and tell it exactly what you expect for the outputs, but that’s a conversation about prompt engineering for another time).
After decades of writing, communicating, brainstorming, and designing, I’ve developed my own voice and style. That’s thanks in large part to Ms. White, my late English Composition teacher, who excoriated my writing and forced me to wield words like a solo samurai.
Most things I’m doing with AI aren’t novel—I’m just doing them faster. Writing. Iterating. Ideating. Designing. Optimizing. Tinkering. Prompting and pushing and requesting until things beyond my wildest dreams come shooting out the other side. Writing has been second nature for a while, but now I’m able to even more fluidly express my thoughts because I have a tireless editor who is always up for another round of tweaking and suggesting.
Now, I tell the AI to help me zero in even more on my tone, style, and clarity. I show it the words I most often use, the ones to avoid at all costs (like impactful), and explain my goals, and my AI companion nods along with (feigned) excitement. I’m able to improve and refine ad nauseam, all while having AI hold up a mirror (and sometimes a thesaurus).
For now, AI is simply holding me accountable to my own standards. It has better recall and a whole lot more patience. It’s helping me along in the same way Ms. White did, but without ever getting tired of reading another draft.
If a computer is a bike for the mind, and AI is a rocket, then we’re moving at exponentially higher speeds now.
But if we don’t know where we’re going—or who we’re becoming—we’re just blasting off into the far reaches of the galaxy without any sense of purpose or direction.
So if AI is a rocket you’re boarding, here’s your pre-flight checklist:
Know your mission. What are you trying to create, communicate, or clarify? Study the people who are doing it well because AI can’t give you good taste. The better you get at something, the faster AI can help take you to the next level (or planet).
Check your fuel. High-octane stuff really matters here. Remember: garbage in, garbage out. Start by telling your AI, “I want to develop or improve this skill. Give me a practical plan to work on it for 15 minutes every day. Help me evaluate my progress each week.” Train it to train you.
Adjust your course. Fast doesn’t mean right, and it definitely doesn’t mean better. My dad loves to say, “Speed kills.” Take the time to review where you’re going and let AI give you directions—then be brave enough to take a look and make sure you change what you don’t like.
Ms. White didn’t live to see the AI era. She certainly wouldn’t have been an early adopter or power user. She would have rolled her eyes when I told her all of my favorite uses cases.
I wish I could tell her that I couldn’t have written this without her.
But I think she’d be glad to know her red ink wasn’t spilled in vain. I’m still chasing the clarity she demanded. But now, I’ve got a rocket helping me get there.