FridAI - Prompts and Blind Spots

Business Brain Episode 641 for Casual Friday, April 18th Lineman Appreciation Day 2025. Greetings, folks and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take some ideas, we dissect them, we use them to tune our business brains so that we can each keep on living those charmed and unpacking the mindset of success. Selectquote.com BusinessBrain is where you can go to get the right life insurance for you for less. And shopify.com businessbrain is where you can go to sign up for a $1 per month trial period and upgrade your selling today. We'll talk more about each of those in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And out here in Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean. Happy Friday, man.

Happy Friday. Yeah, man.

My you I like every day of the week. I'm a big Monday, big fan of Mondays. But Friday's pretty cool. I guess I'm going to be, you know, it. My I'm happy to say the days for me are pretty. Are consistent. Meaning.

Oh, interesting.

I may, you know, work today. I may work Saturday. I may work, you know, it's different. Empty nesting. The kids are gone. So it just depends on what's going on. We may go to Tahoe on a Wednesday or we may take you just, you don't, you don't know. And I love the fact that I can work anywhere and so but Friday.

School, my, my music addiction, sorry, my music career, it defines days of the week more than anything else in my life right now.

Interesting. Yeah.

Yeah. Because, you know, people, most people are going to come out on, you know, Friday, Saturday nights sometimes, Thursdays sometimes. And it doesn't mean that there aren't gigs on, on, you know, Sunday. Well, Sundays, Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays. Although Mondays are sort of known as a musician's day off in a general sense. It's kind of the day that, you know, it's after the weekend, everybody's kind of done with their. Their work for the week. Why do I put work in quotes? That's probably the hardest work I do.

There you go. That's it. That's it. Yes.

Yes.

Yeah, that's funny.

Friday. I man, we got.

Yes. Yeah, we do. We do. You want to start? Want me to start? I can do.

I can start one.

Good.

Yeah. I saw a woman named America Turner on LinkedIn commented something she says. I'll read most of her post here, but it gets to a question here. I think we're having the wrong conversations about AI Most of what I see is either panic, total rejection, or debates about EM dashes, she said. I was listening to a podcast with Liz Moody and NYU professor Susie Welch, who spent her career helping people build theirs. And when the topic turned to AI, she said something worth thinking about. She says for a while now it's been that we need to turn over 25% of our skill set every 18 months just to keep up with emerging tech. And with AI, that number has jumped to 65%. 65% skill churn every 18 months. So the real question isn't whether creatives should fear AI, it's how quickly and how well can we level up by 65%? And so this NYU professor Susie Welch's advice is to ask ChatGPT, I work in whatever your field is. I've made a career as a, whatever your job is. How will AI disrupt my progress and what skills will it replace? And, and then follow up with what can I do in the next six, 12 or 18 months to use AI to grow my career? And I'll put those two prompts in the show notes.

Yeah, that's good. That's good.

Right?

That, that fundamentally gets to something I've, I've been thinking about a lot is that you have to know the right questions to ask.

That's.

It's just.

Yes. That's been the case since search engines came out.

Yes. Yes. Google, some people are good at googling and others are not.

Yeah.

And so you. To really take advantage of the AI, it's knowing how to phrase it and prompt engineering. Yes. And I can tell you the more like I use the Voice, the, the ChatGPT voice interaction a lot.

Yes.

And I've, I've told this story on the show here before but like I needed to learn. I have a rural property with a. Well, that I'm, I have all kinds of issues with and I've had like almost an hour's worth of conversations with ChatGPT trying to troubleshoot this well and it's mind blowingly impactful and effective at prompting me to try this and check this and come back and tell me if you tried that. So then I can go to the next thing and the next thing. And what I love is I would do it typically on the way back to my house after leaving this property. But then when you get home, every, all your conversation in text is all right there in ChatGPT for you to reference and help me solve those problems. And I've used it like that a lot.

I use the voice with ChatGPT so frequently, it's ridiculous. It's crazy to me that there's not a CarPlay component to the Chat GPT app, and I can only presume that that's because Apple has asked them not to make one. I have learned something, though, and that is when I'm communicating via voice with someone like say, you, for example, if I ask you a question and you give me an answer, I am trained to then respond to that answer pretty much right away. It's how conversation generally works between two humans. What I. And so therefore that habit presented itself while I was conversing with Chat GPT. Right. It's like it says something, I say something, it says something, I say something. And I realized at one point I was in the car having one of these conversations and it said something and I didn't immediately know how I knew I wanted to ask it a follow up, but I didn't know what that follow up was. And so I paused and then I thought, well, wait a minute. It doesn't care If I take 20 minutes to respond. Like it's listening the whole time because I've turned it on to listen. Like if I could turn it off, obviously. But you know, it's in that conversation mode, so it's listening, it'll hang out and the freedom to sit and think about the exact right response. And sometimes I'll like daydream off on other things and come back to it or whatever. It's as strong and powerful as the freedom that I realized in the moments where we're doing this show where I can pause and the pause in my head is not as long as it is in the listener's ears. Right. And, and I don't have to say all the time, even though I still do. But all those things, waiting 20 minutes or 5 minutes to respond to chat GPT until you know what you want to ask it next has made my interactions with it at least twice as valuable.

That's wild. That's really great.

I love that super patient is what it's in. In fact, it's almost infinitely patient.

I, I would, I would argue that it will impact our. The way we converse, you know, have conversations socially over time.

Oh, interesting. Yeah. I mean, yeah, why not? Like, if you and I are talking, I, I guess it would be like high people talking. Right? Because they'll, one person will say something and the other person just won't respond for 20 minutes. And then 20 minutes later, like, hey, you know, and the conversation resumes. Right.

So like, I think could be More valuable.

I think that could be more valuable. Yeah.

Yeah, it's pretty wild. I love that idea. I have some more chatgpt stuff to talk about as well.

I do too. I want to take a minute and talk about our sponsors because look, you've worked hard to build something. Your business, your future, your secret underground innovation bunker. So why leave your legacy unprotected? And that's where our sponsor, Select Quote comes in. With nearly 40 years of experience, Selectquote helps you find the right life insurance fast, affordable and customized for your needs. Their agents work with top carriers to get you up to 5 million in coverage, possibly same day with no medical exam, if you're in good health. And yes, they shop around so you don't have to. This is about protecting your assets, your family, and everything you've built, all while still living that charmed life you deserve. Select Quote they shop, you save. Get the right life insurance for you for less@SelectQuote.com BusinessBrain Go to SelectQuote.com BusinessBrain today to get started. That's SelectQuote.com BusinessBrain and our thanks to SelectQuote for sponsoring this episode. Now look, you already know that I use our sponsor, Shopify to sell merch for my other podcasts. And every time I launch a product, it feels like I've hired an entire E Commerce department. But without the meetings or the awkward team building exercises, Shopify powers 10% of all E commerce in the U.S. wow. With ready made templates, AI tools that write your product copy, and a checkout experience so smooth it practically sells for you. That little purple shop pay button, that's the secret sauce. And it might just convert faster than coffee at a Monday morning staff meeting. If Shopify were a person, I'd nominate it for Entrepreneur of the year. Or at least let it run my fantasy football league. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into Ka Ching. With Shopify on your side, sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com businessbrain go to shopify.com businessbrain again, shopify.com businessbrain and our thanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode.

Okay, we're talking about Chat gbt and I've just. Let's stick with that theme because it's Friday I.

Man, it's Friday I.

And on April 10, there was an upgrade to chat GPT, apparently to the memory. And Sam Altman, who's, you know, is he still the CEO. I don't know what he is. I think so. He said, we've greatly improved memory in Chat GPT. It can now reference all your past conversation. This is a surprisingly great feature, in my opinion. It points out something we're excited about. AI systems that get to know you over your life and become extremely useful and personalized.

And I guess they thought it did this already. Yeah, in fact, I know it did.

This already a year ago, but what it says it remembered things through a combination of you telling it what to recall and acting on its own. But now it's this new comprehensive memory function. Okay, call it.

And my guess is if you want this turned on, you have to go, well, I think it's on by default. But to make sure that it's on, you go to Settings Personalization and make sure that both reference saved memories and reference chat history. I think the second one is the new one, maybe.

Yeah, maybe that's true. So I was reading about this and I saw a post on X where someone, I think it was real estate Trent, who is a strip mall guy, who's a great follow, by the way. It says, he says, hey, now that this memory, go ask this question, it'll blow your mind. And it is. The prompt is you asked ChatGPT, now that you can remember everything I've ever typed here, point out my five top five blind spots. Okay, so you're asking for some critique. All right.

Okay.

And then of course. So chatgpt says, I love this question. It shows serious self awareness based on everything you've shared so far, including hundreds of projects, business ideas, strategic discussions. Here are five potential blind spots that show up in patterns, not criticisms, just growth levers. And I'll. I'm gonna read this to you, okay. Cause I'm all about this stuff. The first one, and I know this is so true. Number one, blind spot, reluctance to scale with delegation.

She would say that about me too.

It's. It says you're brilliant at building and launching, you know, courses, mastermind groups, projects, newsletters, short term rentals, but you tend to operate as the engine behind each. And man, that's so spot on. So there's a lot of. And it gets this because it says there's limited mention of hiring help, systematizing with team members, or building layers between you and the daily grind. This could be capping your scale and freedom. And I was like, man, that is. Nailed it. Very true. The next one is extreme idea velocity could equal incomplete execution. Some ideas may need more boring follow through to really Pay off big. The opportunity cost of jumping too soon might be hidden. Dude, that's just so spot on, you know. And then this one that I thought was pretty good too. Undervaluing your authority brand. You may be focused so. And there's more in depth. I'm just going to read the little summary.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I fed this to chat. GPT for me just now too. And I'm. Everything it's said is right but I'm trying to listen to you so. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Undervaluing your authority brand. You may be so focused on helping others win that you underplay how powerful you already are. That's. That's motivating. Obsessive optimization in creative projects. Perfection might occasionally get in the way of publishing fast and letting feedback guide the next move. I disagree with this one. I think it got this because I especially when it was brand new, I'd be like no, that's not right. Fix it. You misspelled this. Change this. So there's a lot of that in it as it's evolved over time.

Yes.

And then number five which I get it totally. Future planning bias towards control, not leverage. And I don't. I'm not risk averse but I am a bit leverage averse. You know I've paid off all my houses which people are like that's a huge mistake. Yada yada yada. It says your blind spot risk aversion may be keeping you from placing a few smart bets that could 10x your reach or income. Yeah, these are amazing.

I. I have, I have a couple of these do it that I'll share. The rest I kind of need to process. But underutilization of. Of your leadership gravity. The blind spot is you may underestimate the power of your reputation and network leading to under leveraging your platform when negotiating, pitching or recruiting. I totally. 100% true.

Because you're humble.

Yeah, I have. I have.

What's the imposter syndrome?

Imposter syndrome. That's it. Yeah. No we all definitely.

We talk about it. That's probably why we talk about on the show that much.

Correct. Because we both have it. Yeah. I've talked to about building wealth and it says my blind spot is you may be overestimating how much knowledge is required to get started with a more active investing strategy. Waiting for the perfect understanding might be holding you back from progress through small safe actions.

Powerful. Dude. Dude, I, I have to tell you after I did this on.

Oh wait, after.

Go ahead.

No, I have one more but you. I have mine in Front of me, you have yours on the top of your tongue.

No, what I'm saying is I started asking it more financial planning because I'm clearly saying, yeah, yeah, I'm asset rich but I do always face cash flow issues because I have a great lifestyle and I'm constantly trying to build new things which is expensive, right? I'm building a new business right now. It's very expensive. And so I gave it everything. I was like, okay, here's this, I've got this, I got that, here's this, here's all that. And it was so helpful man to break down and it created a. I'm also reading a new book called Die with Zero which I highly recommend. It's not. It's very interesting because I went to my financial planner not to make this about that, but they're like, oh, when you're 90 something, if you pass away, you're going to have X number of dollars. I was like, that's a lot of money. Yeah, I want my kids to obviously get something, but there's a lot. And I was like, man, what if we change that and what happens? So I'm trying to educate myself more and ChatGPT has been very helpful. There you go.

No, it what I what I like about chat GPT to follow on to your point is it is excessively objective like it does. It can take all I can share with it things that I wouldn't necessarily be comfortable just posting on the Internet or even sharing with everybody necessarily but I can share it with this stuff and the answers it comes back with are just so stark and obvious sometimes it's like of course I can't see that because I'm stuck in the middle of it but the one that that came up with it says over engineering technical solutions the blind spot is your deep technical know how can sometimes create complexity where good might have gotten the job done faster and with less maintenance. Before building ask what's the smallest dumbest thing I can ship that works and iterate only when needed? Yeah, that's good advice.

That's really good.

I feel like Alice in Wonderland, you know?

Yes.

If only I'd ever listen to it, you know. Yeah, this is great advice.

I have to say I'm involved in this stuff every day and I have another AI service I can't wait to share with you next week on Friday AI but this past weekend, as I rolled through these two prompts about finances and this one about blind spots, it hit me hard how impactful this technology even though I knew it was very impactful already. But as it learns your life and you've talk about. What do they call that? The walled garden or that.

Yeah.

You know, like, it's not. Think about, would you give up your iPhone for an Android or your Google Android for an iPhone? Phone this. You will have an AI that is so intertwined in your life that you will never give it up, because so much history is in there. And it's so valuable to you to guide and. And come back and say, well, you know, Shannon, five years ago on January 13, 2025, you said this and you wanted to look like this by 2030.

Yes.

Oh, I've just think.

I've had this conversation with my therapist and he jokes, he's like, well, one of these days, AI is going to take my job. And I said, maybe. But right now, what it does is it makes it easier for me to come in and know what I want to talk about with you, because it knows what you're good at. What, for me. And there's some things that AI can't do. Like. Like having another human respond to things.

Yes, of course.

Right. Like, it's not that yet. And so being able to dissect things and. And articulate things and then be like, all right, now, here's what I want to talk about. My therapist is like, you move so quickly through all this stuff, and. And I'm like, well, yeah, like, why would I want to waste time? He's like, well, yeah, but you know what you want to talk about? I'm like, well, part of that's just me, but also part of it is I like, work these tools. And to your point about not caring whether you have iPhone or Android, it's going to be about the AI. I have said on macgeekab, which is a show I do for, like, tech stuff, that whoever can deliver me a smartphone with that level of personal assistant first, I. If it's Android, I will move to Android. Because once I have that, the rest of the interface is far less important. It doesn't matter.

Yeah, we're on the cusp of our entire, you know, handheld technology changing from app point button push to, hey, I need to. I need this, I need a haircut next Wednesday or I'm trying to connect with Dave. Can you find a meeting for us that we can both go here? That. That is the future. And it will change the device that you carry in your pocket dramatically. Dramatically. You can have a screen.

The screen is less important when you get there. I've always said what I want is Jane from Ender's game.

Exactly. And this heavy thing you carry.

Yeah.

No way.

No, I just want something in my ear that pays attention to everything that I see and do.

It's going to be the iPhone shuffle.

Well, it could be that big because of those screens. Really? It could be AirPods. Yeah, I think.

But it'll be your phone. But it'll just be every. Everything's voiced. You don't get to. You don't look at anything. Play my music, play my whatever. Play my, you know, all that.

Well, I think as humans, we like screens. Like. Yeah. We are visual creatures. So. Yeah. So I think the Vision Pro, the glasses or whatever, that is going to be part of this too.

Yeah, probably.

Right. Yeah. But wearables is where this is going.

It's exciting time. We'd love to hear what AI stuff you're working on. Feedback at BusinessBrain show. And don't forget, we're always out there looking for your reviews. It helps us get this content out to more people that we want to help their business brains evolve. So go to BusinessBrain show review and leave us a review and you'll be entered to win a MacBook this year.

Absolutely. Yeah, man.

Yeah.

It's craziness here, what we have going on.

Awesome.

We love being a part of this conversation with all of you. So. Yes. Feedback at BusinessBrain Show. BusinessBrain show review and tell a friend about the show, would you please? I would love that. I would love that. Have a great weekend. See you next. See you later.