Why Analogies Are Persuasive
How I explain ChatGPT to people reluctant to use it
Two weeks ago, an entrepreneur friend came to me with a problem. One of her star employees was reluctant to use ChatGPT “because its outputs can be inaccurate.” My friend was worried this employee would fall behind and asked me how I would incentivize the employee to embrace ChatGPT from a teaching standpoint. Here’s what I told her:
My Google Translate Analogy
The best analogy I have for helping those reluctant to use ChatGPT understand its value is comparing it to an early version of Google Translate. Google Translate used to spit out word-for-word translations that often didn’t make sense. (It was most useful for individual words and phrases.)
But over time, it became more intuitive and now larger translations mostly make sense. So you only need to make minor tweaks (if any) to convey a proper translation. For example, in Montreal, workers are constantly translating long-form content between English and French (because we’re a bilingual city). And Google Translate is a huge time saver since it gives you a base to work from in either language.
How ChatGPT Fits Into It
ChatGPT can be used to generate a similar base. Some people are reluctant to use it because it’s not 100% accurate but the goal isn’t to be lazy about relying on it to do all the work. Like Google Translate, you must use it intentionally to create a base and then build on it. (It’s a launch pad, not a crutch.)
The problem with refusing to use ChatGPT is other people will be building bases faster. And you’ll fall behind by reinventing the wheel every time you do something.
The other aspect of this is ChatGPT will continue to evolve (much like Google Translate did). It will become increasingly valuable as a tool, which means the sooner you adopt the behaviour changes around integrating it into your work, the easier it’ll be to reap the benefits of it going forward. It’s a classic case of the “do hard things now to make life easier later” mindset.
Too Long, Didn’t Read (TLDR)
If someone you know is struggling to integrate ChatGPT into their work, there are two incentives I would share. Tell them embracing ChatGPT will help them:
Generate bases to build on so they don’t fall behind
Adapt to unavoidable shifts in the workplace
I hope these tips help. Let me know what your tips are for getting started with ChatGPT—or any other new tech you deem critical to advancing your career.
Have a wonderful week,
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My greatest reluctance to use it is that I don't want to outsource the practice of finding the right words and concepts to share my human thoughts and experiences. I need that muscle to be strong. It's an important capacity to protect as a public speaker, because you can't rely on AI when you're face to face.
Love the topic and your approach to it.
I had similar issues with my co-founder. He’s a coder and was reluctant to use AI tool (the most popular rn is GitHub Co-Pilot) because it “can’t do anything serious/complex”. Thought he’d never actually tried it.
I had 2 arguments:
1/ Saving time. I said developers with less experience do the same tasks (even if only simple ones) much faster than he does. So he’s at a competitive disadvantage. Plus, maybe it can’t do anything complex fully but it sure can make it easier.
2/ The tool is evolving and by the time it CAN do “serious” things, he won’t be ready because he won’t have any experience with it. I added a bit of FOMO basically.
Still not sure it worked, but I think it’s the right path.