Future Work/Life is my newsletter in which I explore ideas focused on the future of work and how to design legendary careers. If you find it interesting, please share it!
What more is there to add to the current discussion about ChatGPT and generative AI?
I've been weighing this up over the past few weeks. You don't need another prompt writing lesson, I'm sure. But perhaps it's worth considering how to approach playing around with the tech. After all, in April 2023, it would be strange to write about the future of work and careers without mentioning AI.
Yes, we’re in a hype cycle, but AI's possibilities aren’t just something to consider for the future. They’re happening right now. Even without training, people in various industries and roles are experiencing productivity gains from using Chat-GPT to support their work. And not just minor improvements. Between 30% and 80% in jobs as diverse as programming, game design, strategy, and HR.
Compare that to the 25% improvements resulting from industrialisation in the 19th Century, and this is clearly a big deal.
Let’s make this feel real.
Take the low end of that range. Imagine that instead of working 8 hours per day, you could achieve the same in 5 hours and 36 minutes. You’ll cut 2 ½ hours off your working day! Put another way, if you stick to your 8 hours, you’ll achieve what would otherwise take 10 hours and 24 minutes of work. Whichever angle you look at it, we’re talking upwards of a 20-day swing over a year!
As I said, this is significant, so if you're not already, it’s time to do something about it.
Humans + Technology
In my book Work/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fear, I wrote:
As technology and automation change the nature of jobs over the coming decades, the defining contribution of humans to business and society will be characteristics like creativity, context and critical thinking.
As Lynda Gratton explained:
“Humans do two things that machines don’t. They show high levels of empathy, and they listen. When you speak to a machine, it doesn’t understand you. It’s not empathizing with you. The second thing that humans can do is be creative, bring in new ideas, and make new connections.”
For the time being at least, it seems unlikely that machines will be able to replicate our ability to make links between previously unconnected ideas.
So, to succeed in the future of work, you need to up your creative game.
And it’s no different when it comes to the use of ChatGPT. Let’s use those 3C’s to illustrate:
Creativity:
Using AI to enhance your business or career still relies on your ability to apply it in a useful way.
The best examples of businesses and applications built on large language models aren’t great ideas because of the technology. They're memorable because they’re solving a real problem. The creators have identified something people care about and approached it in a new way.
What unique insights do you have that could take advantage of these new possibilities to help create value? The basic principles apply here as much as any other area. How can you (whether through your job, product or service) help:
- Reduce risk
- Save money
- Make money
- Create new opportunities
Context:
You understand context, emotions, and nuances. An AI does not.
AI can not empathise. It is incapable of understanding the human impact of decisions we make. The data a machine draws on, however vast, can not replace your lifetime of experiences and relationships. The AI only infers context from what you tell it. It doesn't actually understand the consequences of its output.
That's one reason the results you receive improve when you’re very specific about what you need from it.
So with that in mind, here’s a helpful little acronym you should use to guide your prompt experiments this week: the FARGO framework.
FORMAT: How would you like the response structured?
AVOID: What mistakes should the model avoid?
RESEARCH: What information can you provide to help it focus on the right things?
GENERAL CONTEXT: What’s the general context behind your request (why are you asking)?
OUTCOME: What would the perfect response include and conclude with?
Critical Thinking:
A well-constructed prompt does not guarantee a useful answer.
You are still better equipped to make well-informed decisions than an AI model.
It’s tempting to think that a large language model with trillions of lines of data has all the answers. But as you’ve probably heard by now, they can hallucinate. Over the past few months, I’ve learned a lot from interacting with ChatGPT. Not least, training it with 100,000s words of my writing. It's already saved me time and triggered new ideas. But it’s still prone to bullshitting! Which is easier to spot when it’s your content, of course.
So always cast a critical eye over its results before making decisions.
Start the experiments today!
AI will help you grow your career IF you take action to understand its possibilities and limitations.
But you’ll only achieve this by combining its power with the best of what makes you a real-life human. Testing and tweaking. Taking the best in what it responds and casting aside the rubbish. AI is, and for the foreseeable future will remain, a tool that can be best wielded by those that practice and use it intelligently.
So don't hang around any longer. Start experimenting!
Have a lovely weekend,
Ollie
My bestselling book, Work/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fear, is out now. You can order your copy HERE (UK) or HERE (US).
Here’s what Lynda Gratton, London Business School professor and author of Redesigning Work and The 100-Year Life said about it:
“We all know that the old three-stage life course of full-time education, full-time work and full-time retirement is not fit for purpose. But we also know that to make the changes to a more flexible and adaptive multi-stage life, we need to be bold and courageous. In this inspiring book, Henderson shows the foundations for this courage and shares the stories of those who have created momentum and energy in their working life.”
