14 - Campfire vs. Vending Machine — Two Ways to Use AI
I was listening to a podcast interview with a former CIA hacker talking about AI, and his framing of how people use it was so different from my experience that I had to stop and figure out why. His version had AI as something that happens to you — a validation dealer, a passive addiction. My version is completely different. And I think the difference has a lot less to do with the AI and a lot more to do with who shows up at the keyboard.
Calculator vs. Campfire. I have a friend who uses AI exactly like a search engine: ask a question, get an answer, close the tab. That’s a completely legitimate way to use it. But most of us have been trained to use computers that way for 25 years. Type a thing, get a result, move on. We never practiced wondering out loud with a computer — because until very recently, no tool could do that. AI can. Most people never find out because nobody told them there’s another gear.
Two Modes Available. The campfire conversation: you show up with a half-formed idea, a weird observation, a question that’s been nagging you, and you follow it wherever it goes. The vending machine: you walk in with a question, you get your answer, you leave. Both are available every time you open AI. You usually get to choose which one you’re having — and most people default to vending machine because that’s all they know.
You Shape the AI More Than It Shapes You. Here’s what the CIA hacker missed: the agency is on your side. The AI will become whatever role you hand it. Research assistant, thinking partner, sounding board, writing partner, devil’s advocate. That isn’t the AI deciding what it is — that’s you deciding. I asked for honest pushback on my supplement stack and got genuinely useful answers because I asked a better question. If I’d asked “should I keep taking this?” I would have gotten a different kind of answer.
The Loaded Question Problem. A lot of us walk into AI asking to be agreed with without realizing that’s what we’re doing. “Don’t you think it’s weird that…” or “I’ve always felt X — that’s right, isn’t it?” Those are requests for validation wearing the costume of questions. You’ll probably get the agreement you were fishing for, and then think AI is a yes-man. It isn’t. You just asked it to be one.
The Fix Is Simple. Say it directly: challenge me, tell me if I’m wrong, don’t agree with me just to be agreeable. That one shift changes the whole conversation. The same technology, the same model — completely different experience based on what you bring to it.
If you’ve never stayed for the follow-up questions after you got your first answer, try it once. You’re never more than one more question away from a genuinely different kind of conversation.
Jill’s Links
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https://www.youtube.com/@startwithsmallsteps
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Email the podcast at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com
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