The cheerleader versus the one-day rule.
I've already written this post once, but I felt I hadn't done it justice. After all, everyone is just trying to get by and do the best they can, including AI, right?
Yeah, I hear you. There are a few, or more than a few, out there who disagree. That's cool, your prerogative and all that. OK then, let's get into it.
Think back to school, say secondary school, or high school if you're across the pond. Over the years you were there, you'd have been taught by a whole group of teachers.
Just like the pupils, and I'm trying to be fair to the learned brethren here, the teachers came in every shape and size. Tall, short, fiery, studious, exuberant and weird. Sorry, I'm just saying it like it is. The list goes on. They were all very different, but they had something in common: specialist knowledge and the ability to pass it on.
AI models are much the same. They all know a lot, and they all have very distinct 'personalities', or attributes if you're upset by anything that puts 'personal' and AI in the same sentence.
I can't speak for all of them, as I have my comfort zone. Right now I tend to move between Claude and Gemini. They're my yin and yang, and together they cover most of what I try to do online.
Many of my projects have started in Gemini, with one caveat. Always, and I mean always, get a second opinion, just not from your significant other, spouse, siblings or devoted mum and dad.
Why the second opinion? It's easier to show you. Say you woke up this morning with an epiphany. In that instant you had an idea for a business, and even the website name. "Hats For Cats". Perfect.
You run downstairs, turn on your computer, click on 'AI Mode' and type, "I'm going to start a new business selling hats for cats, what do you think?"
I'm going to go out on a limb and say the reply will have the word 'brilliant' in it. Not only that, Gemini will have come up with a marketing plan, branding options and a distribution strategy.
That's why you need the caveat. Gemini is a cheerleader.
Actually, let me give you a real reply. While writing this, and forgive me for thinking hatsforcats.com sounds like fun, maybe there are some legs in this idea after all. I've just typed "I want to start a business selling hats for cats." and hit return. Before I had the chance to cough up a furball, the reply appeared. Here it is, word for word:
Starting a cat hat business is a fantastic, highly viral niche that blends pet ownership trends with creative e-commerce. Real-world examples show strong viability
So how does this relate to me and my ideas? I'll always go to Gemini, if for nothing more than it makes me feel confident in my choices, at least in the first instance.
I digress. Somewhere there's a post, or will be, about how the 30-Day Challenge came about. Let's cut to the chase and give you the skinny on what happened just after my own epiphany.
I'd seen a Gary V post on LinkedIn, and at some point I thought it would make a good springboard for a challenge. Put the post to the test, come up with a viable business idea and, failing that, end up with a good chunk of usable content.
So I brain-dumped a very rough outline of the plan into Gemini, ironically with one rule: no mapping out the whole 30 days in one response. Within twenty seconds I had a full timetable stretching from day one to day thirty. Weekly reviews, culls, strategies, collaborations, pivots, even exactly how we could run 'blind' reviews of the first proposals. It was a lot.
It was definitely a case of "whoa there, big fella, cool your jets."
I'm not ungrateful, I was just a tad overwhelmed. I dare say some of that original blueprint will carry over into the challenge, and it will be better for it.
A word to the wise. Be specific about the outcome you want, and don't be surprised when the cheerleader runs ahead anyway.