I love learning. Ballroom dancing, voice lessons, learning about technology. One thing though, intellectual learning, knowledge, and hands-on learning, go hand in hand for me. And I've been thinking a lot about how I want to grow in my career.

Because remember, we need the dough. Ballroom dancing is an expensive hobby. So I've been experimenting with how AI can help me do that. I believe AI is meant to augment our lives, not replace us.

And one of the things I've been questioning is, what do I really enjoy about my job? What actually makes me good at what I do? It turned into a great experiment in getting to know myself better. Not just professionally, but understanding what actually motivates me.

I don't ask AI what role should I pursue? What does my career look like five years from now? Because that would be kind of dumb. AI doesn't know me.

So instead, I give it examples. I share what I like, what I dislike, what frustrates me, what makes me curious, what makes me immediately think, absolutely not. AI responds with its own suggestions. I react to it, I argue with it, I tell it.

No, that's not what I mean. And then we try again. I also tell it, don't be boring, because it can be. It can do that, so be careful.

And strangely enough, now it understands exactly what I mean when I say, don't be boring. So that's awesome. And eventually in one of those conversations, I said something that stopped me. I said, I want problems with human frustrations and consequences.

That was it. And it reveals something deep to me. It really made me stop and think about it. I don't just want complexity.

I don't want ambiguity because ambiguity sounds interesting. I don't even necessarily care about industry. I want there to be a person somewhere in the system who is frustrated because something doesn't work. I want there to be consequences when one part doesn't connect to another.

I want to ask why, and then another why. I'm probably an annoying number of questions after that. AI didn't give me that answer. It gave me somewhere to keep talking until I could hear my own answer.

And I think that's become one of the most interesting ways I've learned to use AI. Not as the thing that knows me better than I know myself, but sometimes as the thing that stays in the conversation long enough for me to recognize myself. To me, that's one of the most useful parts of the process. My choices still belong to me.

My revelations still belong to me. I still have to use my own reasoning and judgment. I just have a sounding board now. And sometimes hearing yourself clearly is enough to change what you do next.

So, do you hear yourself? Do you have your own sounding board? Maybe you need to try AI that way.

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