If you like cooking with whatever you have in the house, ChatGPT is great at helping with recipes. At times it has recommended things that sound like they will not work. Follow the recipe and get pleasantly surprised. A recent example used sweet italian sausage in a southwest casserole. It turned out quite well.

I only started using ChatGPT in the past several months. I asked it to summarize how I've used it; how about THAT for a use? The closing quote at end below is exactly how I would have summarized it.

The output and results is only as good as the details in queries. I've gotten much better at being very detailed and descriptive in that regard, and also asking more open ended or multi-prong questions to better take advantage of the limited queries in the free model.

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From what I can see across your recent conversations, you’ve been using ChatGPT in a pretty pragmatic, “thinking partner” kind of way rather than for quick trivia or casual questions.

A few patterns stand out:

You tend to use it for decision support on complex, real-world purchases or configurations—things like boats or wine chillers—where there isn’t a single obvious answer and tradeoffs matter. You’re looking for comparisons, not just specs, and you often iterate on the same topic to refine the decision.

You also lean on it for technical or regulatory clarity, especially in areas like retirement planning, 401(k) rules, tax strategy, and employment/benefits questions. These aren’t surface-level questions—you’re digging into edge cases, limits, and how rules interact in practice.

Another big use is structured learning and training design. For example, building out a curriculum for an employee that blends general business law with healthcare-specific considerations. That’s more about organizing knowledge than just retrieving it.

There’s also a practical, problem-solving angle: figuring out how to do things or troubleshoot (device battery health, account changes, medical prep questions, boat maintenance, etc.). You’re using it almost like a more flexible instruction manual that you can ask follow-ups to.

Finally, you sometimes use it for interpretation and translation of expert information—like medical results or technical language—into something clearer and more actionable.

Overall, the common thread is that you’re using ChatGPT as a second brain for analysis, clarification, and planning, especially in situations where:

The stakes are moderate to high

The answer isn’t obvious

And a back-and-forth helps refine the outcome


If you wanted to summarize it simply to a friend, you could say:

“I use it less like Google and more like an on-demand advisor to think through decisions, understand complex rules, and structure plans.”

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
AI is perfect for those that are the typical instant gratification seekers, and generally inclined to work faster, NOT better! They are largely unwilling to put in the hard work to achieve goals and as a result, never really experience the true satisfaction of accomplishment and a job well done.

I say that's a pretty broad brush. I'm sure something similar was said when cars started coming out: "Automobiles are perfect for those that are the instant gratification seekers, and generally inclined to to get there faster, NOT better! They are largely unwilling to put in the steps to get to where they want to go and as a result, never really experience the true satisfaction of accomplishment and a journey well taken."

Pretty new to it but learning to see how it fits with my work in sales. Our work recently had a workshop on its utilization during a weeklong sales meeting to just getting us familiar with the various platforms and some of the benefits. For creating mock environments and projecting how various components can come together, AI is pretty powerful. Photography and video creation take up an enormous amount of time, especially when you're looking for specifics to show to a client, having AI available for us individual sales guys to generate hypotheticals and ideas is quite a tool. I know some analytic-types are pretty excited about some of the possibilities but, if your work revolves around creation, AI maybe a double-edged sword.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
AI is perfect for those that are the typical instant gratification seekers, and generally inclined to work faster, NOT better! They are largely unwilling to put in the hard work to achieve goals and as a result, never really experience the true satisfaction of accomplishment and a job well done.

That argument sounds confident, but it rests on a few shaky assumptions and overgeneralizations.

First, it treats “AI use” as a personality trait rather than a tool choice. That’s like saying people who use spreadsheets are lazy because they don’t calculate everything by hand. In reality, high performers in demanding fields—medicine, law, engineering, finance—are among the heaviest users of AI precisely because they care about better outcomes, not just faster ones. Speed and quality aren’t opposites; in many cases, AI improves both by reducing routine friction.

Second, it assumes that effort equals value. That’s not always true. There’s a difference between productive effort and wasted effort. If AI removes low-value tasks (drafting boilerplate, summarizing data, checking syntax), it frees up time for higher-order thinking—strategy, judgment, creativity—the parts of work that actually produce satisfaction and mastery. Many users report more engagement, not less, because they spend less time on drudgery.

Third, it ignores how AI is actually used in practice. For a lot of people, AI isn’t a shortcut to avoid thinking—it’s a thinking partner. It can challenge assumptions, offer alternative perspectives, and accelerate learning. Used well, it can deepen understanding rather than replace it. The “instant gratification” framing only really applies to shallow use, just like any other tool.

Finally, the idea that using AI prevents “true satisfaction” is subjective at best. People derive satisfaction from solving meaningful problems, improving outcomes, and using their time well. If AI helps someone get there more effectively, it doesn’t diminish accomplishment—it can enhance it.

A more accurate version of the claim would be: AI amplifies the intent of the user. Someone looking for shortcuts may use it that way, but someone aiming for excellence can use it to reach a higher standard, faster.

Use MS CoPilot in Word, I'll type up a document, and use everything I think should go in. Have a habit of being a little verbose, so I have it read and reduce the document down.

Does a pretty good job of wordsmithing me into not being to wordy....

I don’t use it. Just don’t have any use for it.

I used AI a few weeks ago for some math problems I needed help with, because I suck at math. I was converting fractions of percentages of months into decimals, i.e., 5/12 of 1% per month, etc.

IMO, it can make people lazy. A kid at work wanted to go back to school for an engineering degree; school gave him some diagnostic math work to complete. Binomials was one part. He asked for my help and I tried. He quickly found a website that would do it all for him; he didn't need my help anymore. How does one 'learn' if something else can simply do it for you?

Not really interested in using AI for my own purposes, but I do get exposed to it through browser interactions from time-to-time.

One of the first questions I'd ask Grok (based on a previous post of a "Grok-sanitized couple of paragraphs) would be: Is Grok unaware that ending a sentence with a proposition is generally regarded as poor form, or is this an attempt to sound more like a human being?

Just started asking it questions for work. It’s a good tool to summarize info and show me more exact paths to follow. Gotta verify it.

I used it to make a winning cookie recipe in a bake off. They were freaking AMAZING!

Red Velvet Cream Cheese-Stuffed Cookies

Cookie Dough Ingredients
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch-processed preferred)
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ tsp red gel food coloring (more vibrant than liquid)

Cream Cheese Filling
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Optional Finish
½ cup granulated sugar (for rolling)
Powdered sugar (for dusting after baking)


Instructions
1. Make the Cream Cheese Filling (First!)
Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
Scoop into heaping teaspoon-sized mounds onto parchment-lined tray.
Freeze for at least 30 minutes (or until solid).
2. Make the Red Velvet Cookie Dough
In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat butter and both sugars until fluffy (2–3 mins).
Add egg, egg yolk, milk, vanilla, and red food coloring. Mix well.
Slowly mix in dry ingredients just until combined.
Chill dough for 30–60 minutes (very helpful for handling).
3. Assemble the Cookies
Scoop 2 tbsp of dough and flatten in your palm.
Place a frozen cream cheese mound in the center, fold dough around, and seal edges.
Roll gently into a ball and then roll in granulated sugar.
Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (leave room to spread).
4. Bake
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Bake for 10–12 minutes. Edges should be set but center still soft.
Cool on the sheet 5 mins before transferring.
Optional: Dust with powdered sugar once cooled.

I only use it occasionally to save some time on various things that would take me more time using Google- nowhere near daily.

I've also started using it a bit at work to clean up some scientific figures I made in Photoshop. Again, just something to save me some time.

I ask it complex questions on all sorts of subjects.
Lab reports after my annual doctor visit for example. Just be sure to take any personal info out first.
All sorts of what if history, scientific, or other questions that interest me.

^^ Personal Info? You think there's ANY chance it's NOT capturing your IP Address??

I don't beyond whatever it is doing in the background of a normal Google search.

I'm sure I'll find a use for it someday. There haven't been any examples in the past few threads on this topic where I thought "I need that."

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
^^ Personal Info? You think there's ANY chance it's NOT capturing your IP Address??

VPN solves that...... AI isn't a monster, it's the companies running it that you have to watch, US based Grok with Musk behind it appears to be safe to use and what I use when in X since again it's imbedded in X, all you have to do when reading a post is hit the Grok button and it gives you a summary of the post and information on the subject.

Googles AI search feature that's imbedded in google searching. You get an AI synopsis of the search as well as links to sources and that's pretty good IMHO

OpenAI was started by Musk to be an open source AI but Sam Altman has turned it into a for profit business and Musk and Altman are in a Billionaire fight over it. Be interesting to see how it turns out...

Stand alone Copilot has been helpful for me.