Prologue

I can't help it. In my head, calling this post "A Stranger in an Airport" is a nod to some old story or movie, but I can't remember which one. It doesn't really have anything to do with AI, but maybe it serves to frame the story. Then again, maybe it doesn't.

Welcome to Episode 1, where I'm going to tell the story of a fleeting encounter with a stranger (in an airport) and why his goals are surprisingly similar to my own and try to convince you that AI might be a path to help you achieve some of your own goals.

Timelogue

During a recent layover, I met a stranger at an airport bar; I’ll call him Andrew. He was traveling to visit his mother for her 90th birthday. Imagine the extraordinary changes she’s witnessed over nine decades. I hope to live as long and see just as much.

But his mother isn’t the only thing I remember about him. As we talked, we discovered a shared passion: entrepreneurship. As we dug into our philosophies (yeah, it was a long layover), he said something that hit me: his goal is to put parts of his life on Autopilot.

By Autopilot, he means creating systems that let him focus his time on what truly matters. He constructed his business so that the boring parts could run without him. His motivation came from wanting to spend time with his family (he was going to his mother’s birthday party, after all) and on his farm.

My motivation is making things. Whatever crazy idea comes into my head, whether AI-powered artwork in my living room or a “necklace” that can translate modern teenager into standard English, I want to make things.

What is your motivation? Why do you want to get time back in your day by automating or speeding up tasks?

Andrew's desire to streamline his life mirrors how AI can help us focus on what truly matters. We can all use AI to spend less time doing things we don't want to do and more time doing what we want. We can all use this tool to put parts of our lives on Autopilot.

A Real-world Example

So many of my examples of AI are technical, but I do often use it to help with other things like estimating my caloric intake or trying to fix a toilet.

I’m not a plumber, but I like to dabble. I recently had a toilet that wasn’t flushing correctly; I know enough about toilets to be dangerous so, I had a few options:

1. Call a plumber - Probably not going to do that, this should be something I can handle! Also, this might be expensive.

2. Tinker - This is right up my alley, try to understand the mechanism and figure out what’s not working. But this can take time, and I was short on that with some impending travel. This method (and the one below) can also result in my buying things that I don’t need.

3. Google - This goes hand and hand with Tinker. Sometimes you need a guide, either written or video, but it can be hard to find your exact issue.

4. Ask AI - Does AI know how a toilet works? Probably! I mean there are lots of resources on the internet, and that’s what it was trained on.

I opted to try asking AI (ChatGPT in this case):

Oh! I thought, the chain! Following the steps to “Inspect the Chain Length” I was able to resolve the flushing issue in less than 5 minutes. It isn’t always perfect at things like this, but it often is. In this case, the minor cost of this transaction with ChatGPT was easily paid for by the time it freed up, and the costs I avoided.

Some other ideas

I’ll close this episode by briefly mentioning several other tasks that I often use AI for.

• Proofreading - I typically don't let it write my content for me (see below for details) but I do use it for feedback. It's my friendly editor who is around 24/7!

• Pun Generation - Use it to go back and forth to generate puns or funny turns of phrase that you wouldn't think of or would normally use a friend for. Then try them out on that friend!

• Writing Augmentation - I said I don't typically let AI write for me. One exception is what I call Augmentation. This is where I start with an idea, and I want the text to be in a certain format. For example, my keynote for the 2024 KY GIS Conference was written in the style of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhikers Guide. I am no Douglas Adams, but with Claude I was able to make something that was WAY better than I could on my own, but it is still my work.

• Writing Code - There will be lots of future examples of this.

• Fuzzy Data Matching - When you can tell that two records are the same, but the database can't... try AI! For example, if you have lists of inconsistent school names (i.e., Nebraska, Nebraska Huskers, Nebraska St., etc.), you can use AI to reconcile those.

• Converting Images to Text - The example prompts in this newsletter were originally screenshots; I used ChatGPT to convert them to text and then to HTML. I did read them to make sure they seemed correct, though!

I personally find AI to be very useful. It isn't always perfect, and sometimes it's just flat-out wrong, but humans can be, too, which doesn't diminish its overall usefulness. Using AI allows me to work faster and enhance the quality of my output. For example, by using AI to assist with copy-editing this post, I minimize the hours I take from already busy humans, giving us all a little time back in our days.

What do you want to use AI for to reclaim some time in your life? Let me know in the comments!

Epilogue

I wrote this post. It started as a list of bullet points, then I formed it into some paragraphs and edited it (I use Grammarly to help me avoid all those pesky grammar rules, just like I have IntelliSense when I write code). Then, I used Claude and ChatGPT for proofreading and feedback before seeking input from human editors. This collaboration between AI and Human editors helps ensure the final product reflects my voice while benefiting from multiple perspectives.

Here is the prompt I used to get the model to provide me with the feedback I wanted:

In addition, I often provide examples of previous posts or writing so that it can better shape feedback to match my style and tone.