With Teeth #3: The two questions I ask AI every time

Hey again,

Most people type something into AI, read the first answer, and decide the answer is good and go with it.

There are two questions I use on almost everything, and neither one takes any skill.

Start the way you normally would. Tell it what you want, even if it is only a line, so it knows what you are asking for.

Then ask the first question, before it gets to work.

“Are there any questions I could answer that would help you better complete this task?”

It sounds backwards, asking the machine what it needs. The point of it is to take assumptions off the table, because assumptions are where the mistakes come from.

Left alone, AI does not stop when something is missing. It fills the gap with a guess, and the guess comes back sounding as confident as a fact.

The questions it asks you back are the part that matters.

Say you asked for a page about roof inspections. It wants to know which area you cover, whether the inspection is free, and what happens on one. You answer those, and everything after that is built on your business instead of its imagination.

Then ask the second one when it finishes.

“Knowing what you know now, would you do anything different?”

Here is why that one matters. On a long job, AI thinks its way through a lot in the background. Somewhere near the end it can work out that something near the start should have been done differently.

It will not always go back and redo it.

So ask. On that same roof page, it might tell you the free inspection is buried in the middle and the reason to book now is missing off the top.

Say yes, and the next pass fixes both. A couple of passes gets you something you would actually use.

The rest is on you. Read what it hands back, agree with some of it, and throw out the rest.

Then ask again. There is no shortcut, and the way out is through, one pass at a time.

None of this is a prompting trick. You are having a conversation instead of asking once and taking whatever comes back, and that is the part almost everyone skips.

It also matters beyond getting a nicer-looking answer. If AI can produce it with nothing from you, it is generic, and generic is the thing nobody ranks for and nobody remembers.

So write them down. A sticky note on your monitor, right where you cannot miss it.

That is the whole system.

There are very few other things I have added to my day to day routine that have made more of an impact than these two simple questions.

Next time you use AI for something real, give it the job first, then ask that first question before it starts. Then watch what it asks you back.

Know another business owner who would get something out of these tips? Forward them this email, or send them to https://norzer.me/with-teeth/ to get the next one.

Have a peaceful day,

Ryan
Norzer