Using AI is a smart move when researching, growing a business or drafting blog posts. It can write a business plan in 30 seconds. But how long do we spend analysing the output?
What I’ve found interesting is that AI moves far faster than we do. Its frame of reference is global. Yours and mine is shaped by where we grew up and what we’ve lived through. We came from Wagga Wagga, Wisconsin, Vancouver or Madrid. We studied podiatry or plastering, Pilates or philanthropy.
You get the idea.
The trouble is that AI can produce sophisticated, impressive and highly specialised material in areas we know very little about, and we can be instantly seduced by how polished it sounds.
Stop.
Read it.
Think about it. Check it.
A simple three-step rule:
Read the output slowly
Verify the facts
Check that the tone, style and format suit your audience and purpose
More importantly, before you even start prompting, plan.
For example, I’m building an app. I’m not a programmer, so I’m not naturally familiar with the contextual references, technical assumptions and pain points that matter in that world. I had to research that before I even put pen to paper, so to speak.
I needed to think much more clearly about my audience, constraints, parameters, preferences and objectives.
That saves a lot of unnecessary iteration. It also cuts down the maddening clean-up later: Never use “actually”. It’s redundant. Remove “Why this works”. Urgh.
At every step, evaluation matters. I’ve caught myself skimming and running. Skim and run, then trip.
More haste, less speed.
Sit with the advice or output you’ve just received. That’s how you work out what to refine in your question, your instruction or your constraints.
It’s a new way of thinking, but interestingly, I’ve found it has sharpened my critical thinking too.
Hello! I’m Annie Smit, trading as Ascension Editing. This site offers writing tips for those interested in current Australian standard editing practice (as well as some UK and US preferences on English grammar and style).
‘All living languages exist in a state of tension between growth and decay. Languages change because playfulness and the desire to impress are universal human traits; they grow in response to technological innovation, cultural contact and social developments. Working against these impulses to the new are the forces of stability: inertia, the fear of being misunderstood, and the fixative effect of writing.’
‘Spelling is not important in itself, but it is a social marker enabling those who can spell to look down on those who can’t.’
‘Remember that literacy is an accident of birth and does not confer superior wisdom or virtue.’
Ascension Coastal 