Self-discipline and AI

The discussion around AI has an interesting conundrum: on one hand, very smart people like Ben Thompson look at AI as decoupling good ideas from their execution. While other smart people like Cal Newport remind us that ideas are cheap and what really matters is good execution. The way that people seem to square this circle is to say that the skill that will really matter in the future is how to prompt AI to get what you want in order to execute an idea well.

I'm skeptical that this is the case. Or maybe to put it a bit differently, I'm skeptical that the important skill lies in just writing the right prompts for a tool like Chat GPT. Let's take for example, writing computer code. Many non-technical observers marvel at the fact that Chat GPT can generate code for entire apps on demand in response to the right prompts. This, however, does not mean that I am going to save time using this code. Boiler plate code and templates have been around for as long as the open internet, and I've used lots as starting points for projects over the years.

Inevitably though, I go through many templates before I find one that remotely fits my use case, and that is after lots of reading through code, trying to understand what's going on, and often simplifying by throwing unnecessary code away. In the end, I do save some time vs. starting from scratch, but not as much as you might think. And that is only because I have the understanding of what's going on in order to quickly sift through boilerplate code and see if it fits my needs.

Now back to AI and Chat GPT. The conundrum as I see it, is how does one build that skill and understanding in the first place if they have the 'easy button' of AI that they can keep pushing as a beginner? They might end up with a basic solution that passes exams or gets working prototypes up and running, but as soon as something breaks or needs to be adapted to a very specific use case, you might have to start from scratch all over again.

I think the answer is going to lie in self-discipline. Increasingly, it is going to be more and more important to do hard things even though you have an option that might feel easier at the time, because it will build the skills and understanding you need to succeed later.