[Series Part 9] What is the power to see through a person's "true wish"? A 50-something "analog human" with 25 years of experience as a site supervisor is amazed by AI learning!
Introduction: Starting a business in your 50s and the AI challenge, the realistic current situation
Hello! I am yama-san, a former site supervisor of 25 years who is now an entrepreneur aiming for a "50% reduction in work through AI."
Don't you think starting a business and taking on AI in your 50s is quite a high hurdle? Actually, I was the same at first. (I'm still struggling now) There are times when I stop working because I'm busy, and times when I worry for hours over garbled text... But,I believe that this gritty process will give courage to my generation and everyone who is about to take on the challenge, so I am sharing it.
This time, now that my cumulative learning time has exceeded 13.5 hours, I will share my insights from going a step beyond AI operation and learning about "business thinking skills" to maximize the use of AI. Once you understand this, the worry of "I don't know what to leave to AI" will disappear, and I think you will see a "clear boundary" between AI and humans.
Realistic failures and learning: Ambiguity does not work for AI
Actually, when I first started learning AI, I struggled greatly with unfamiliar prompt inputs, unexpected errors, and garbled text. There were weeks when I held my head in my hands, thinking, "Why won't it work properly?" or when my learning stopped completely due to the busyness of my main job.
However, I have a major realization from those failures. It is that "AI perfectly requires logical instructions." Ambiguity like "do it nicely" does not work for AI. It was training to thoroughly verbalize what I am looking for. Now, I positively view even failures as steps to hone my "instruction ability."
A clear boundary between the "upstream (thinking)" and "downstream (work)" of a job
The key to mastering AI lies in the division of roles in work. Work can be broadly divided into two.
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Things AI is good at (Downstream: Work)
Execution (Do) and tasks, and finding the [correlation] that "A and B are likely to happen at the same time" from vast amounts of data. It is like a machine that quickly cooks according to a recipe.
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Things humans should do (Upstream: Thinking)
Finding issues from scratch and developing plans. Determining the [causal relationship] that "A leads to B," and making final fine-tuning with [intuition] based on experience.
If I were to use a construction site as an example,it is like a site supervisor (human) thinking about the setup (upstream), and heavy machinery (AI) digging a hole (downstream)I was able to imagine that if I can make this distinction, the efficiency of daily work will become much easier. The "tasting" and "fine-tuning" of the answers produced by AI are done by humans who know the correct answer.
More important than AI performance! The power to see through a human's "true wish (WISH)"
And I will tell you the biggest realization this time. Rather than competing on AI performance, it is more important to polish your "instruction ability (prompt)." For that, it is essential to havethe power to see through the other person's "WISH (true wish)".
AI can perfectly answer superficial "things you want (WANT)," but it is humans who feel the "true wish (WISH)" behind emotions and backgrounds. This **power to verbalize "what is the essence of the problem?" is the strongest weapon in the AI era**.
Let's look at the example of an elderly person.
WANT → I want reading glasses
↓ "Why?"
NEED → I want to read a letter from my grandchild
↓ "What is beyond that?"
WISH → I want to write a reply to my grandchild and stay connected
(Love, bond, purpose in life)
Why AI cannot reach WISH
[What AI can do]
→ Answer WANT "I will tell you recommended reading glasses"
→ Approaching the NEED "The prescription for reading is different from the one for writing letters"
[What is still difficult for AI]
→ Sensing the WISH "What this person truly wants is to regain their bond with their grandchild"
What do you think? Humans verbalizing this "true wish" and giving the correct instructions to AI. This is the greatest secret to making AI a powerful business partner.
Conclusion: It is the experienced 50-somethings who can enjoy the AI era!
When you hear "AI," you might feel anxious, thinking it's "for young people" or "too difficult to operate for work." However, through this learning experience, I became convinced that "the experience we 50-somethings have cultivated through the grit of the analog era—the ability to see through to the essence of humanity (WISH)—is our greatest weapon in the AI era."
Are you also struggling daily with endless tasks and complex problem-solving?
At times like that, instead of taking everything on yourself, try pausing to categorize: "Is this upstream thinking or downstream work?"
If you can find and verbalize the "true wish" of your customers or your company based on your own experience, AI will act as an excellent assistant to instantly clear away the tedious "work." By doing this, overtime hours will be dramatically reduced, and you should be able to create time for truly important work and your private life.
If you thought, "It's not too late to start in your 50s!" or "The talk about WANT and WISH makes sense!", please support me with a **"Like" or follow**. I will continue to take on challenges positively by combining experience with AI!
#WorkTechniques #GenerativeAI #ChallengeFromYour50s #Entrepreneurship #TechFlow