Recap from last week (last month or more really)
I’ve been tinkering away on this with lots of minor updates, so there hasn’t been as much to share.
A lot of bugs have arisen, and they’ve been squashed, but it’s rare that any AI tool will fix it.
I’ve been using AI as a text editor quite a bit which feels like its rightful place in the writing process.
Tools and tricks
The AI editor: I’ve been doing a lot of writing for Agora, and other things, and as a one-shot writer, I find AI terrible and fricken annoying. But as an editor, it can add a lot of value.
The process I now follow is build a structure of what I want to say myself, test my thinking with an AI, write the first draft myself, run it through an AI and spend a couple of rounds of edits (no more), then go back and give it another crack yourself. Then some AI editing again.
I do this normally in a project where I’ve given the AI tool strict instructions on what I want the writing to achieve, good examples of it, and what it should not do. Even with all of this, the first shot it has is normally horrible.
Telling the AI to sound like a normal human does nothing. All of them (Claude in particular) are very dramatic when writing, and write as though they’re a university president candidate who just graduated top of the class from debate school.
I’m finding ChatGPT the best at being my editor at the moment, but only just. The others can get you good results.
If you go through more than 3 edits, it’s very easy to lose the core of what you wanted to say so be very careful.
Mental models to keep for next week
Never let AI control the process: It became more apparent when doing this for writing, but it holds when you do anything. If the AI runs away with what you told it, you lose any of your own creativity and input very quickly.
Next up
I’ve still got a lot of minor editing of the site to do, and fixing up various UX flows, then I’ll be back at work with Gerald, my growth agent.
I’m pretty keen to explore how AI can help with some design principles, so if you’ve had experience with that, or found any good content, let me know!