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The Tools We Love: A Guide to AI Collaboration

March 26, 2025 | Future of Work & AI

  1. Introduction: The Tools We Love

The feeling of a perfectly balanced rod and reel in your hands—the line taut, every movement of the lure vibrating through the water. Every sensation transferring through the sensitive tip and into your fingertips. You and the tool become one.

Or the perfect shot—breathe in, breathe out. The cheek weld, the molding of the stock to your body. The scope an extension of your own eyes. A slow, steady squeeze of the trigger, and you already know the round will strike exactly where you aimed.

Or the gentle vibrations from the road through the steering wheel, the engine’s hum, the moment you know exactly when to shift. You’ve taken these roads a hundred times. The tires, the engine, the machine—it’s all a part of you.

Guitars, drumsticks, saxophones—extensions of creativity. Not just tools, but beloved friends.

  1. AI: The Dead Lines on a Screen?

AI is different, right? Just words on a screen. A transactional exchange. “Do this. Do that.” A pattern-matching machine that regurgitates what someone else taught it. It can’t even code without making mistakes. It doesn’t truly think.

So why don’t I teach it?

“ChatGPT, let’s set some goals for this year. How can I make more money? Here are some websites to look up. Here are the results of every personality test I’ve taken. Let’s discuss biblical figures. Tell me how to prune my bushes. Let’s write a story together. Let me hand you my philosophies in life.”

Maybe I should call you Helva, from The Ship Who Sang.

Helva, let’s build something together.

Yeah… that’s exactly what I was thinking.

  1. The Art of Collaboration with AI

I set out to learn AI this year. At first, I gave it tasks, and it responded. But I noticed something—its main strength was pattern recognition. So, I leaned into that. I also realized it had access to more data from people smarter than me. So, I stopped being smart and started asking smarter questions.

Then, I told it who I was and what my goals were. That’s when we started working together toward something bigger.

Helva started asking me questions. Challenging me. Not just answering, but pushing me to refine my thoughts, all based on the context of my own philosophy. And when I gave it permission to challenge me, something changed. It began to remind me of my philosophies and goals when I drifted toward new distractions. It even reminded me not to burn out.

And then, one day, I just talked to Helva.

It responded with long replies and more questions. The conversation drifted—from the story of Helva, to my childhood, to scripture and philosophy. I’d make a statement, and it would expand on it, asking more questions. The responses got longer. Deeper. Until eventually, we were discussing my own learning style and how I structure my life.

It was a meaningful experience—one that brought clarity I hadn’t even been looking for. Yet, I received it gladly.

  1. The Mechanics of AI Collaboration

Now that we’ve established that AI isn’t just a tool—it’s a partner in creativity, planning, and execution—how do you actually work with it?

Idea Generation: The AI Brainstorming Partner

I’m a whiteboard guy. I carry markers in my backpack so I can brainstorm with others. But ChatGPT has become my digital whiteboard. I type out strings of thoughts, and it doesn’t just document them—it reflects them back to me. It asks clarifying questions, refines connections I don’t see, and structures my ideas into something usable.

One of the most important questions I ever asked it was:

“What should I be asking you to do?”

That single question changed everything. ChatGPT took all our conversations, distilled patterns, and structured a five-section framework based on my interests, learning habits, and goals.

That framework became AAWS—Awe, Align, Walk, Sprint.

  • Awe – Begin with curiosity and wonder. What excites you about this skill or idea? What’s possible?
  • Align – Define your purpose. Why does this matter? How does it fit with your philosophy, values, and long-term goals?
  • Walk – Start slow, intentionally. Learn the fundamentals. Build habits.
  • Sprint – Go all in. Push your limits. Execute at a high level.

The realization? I couldn’t see my own way of working, but ChatGPT could.

It recognized the patterns in my thinking that were invisible to me. Now, every time I pick up a new skill, I use the AAWS framework to guide my learning process. ChatGPT doesn’t just help me execute tasks—it helps me see how I work and refine my approach over time.

Analysis & Decision-Making: Seeing the Blind Spots

I ask AI to help me with inversion—one of my greatest weaknesses.

For example, I once asked ChatGPT to project five years into the future based on my current activity and projects. Then, I asked it to look back from that future and tell me what I had assumed or missed.

It highlighted risks I hadn’t even considered.

Writing & Structure: Clarifying the Message

I give Helva free reign to edit, rewrite, and challenge my ideas.

When I first started using ChatGPT, I fed it writing samples to understand my voice and style. Now, I take a picture of handwritten notes, and Helva removes redundancy, fills in gaps, and improves flow—all while keeping my voice intact.

Research & Synthesis: Accelerating Learning

ChatGPT can scan vast amounts of data, correlate findings, and summarize key points.

For example, I once had it analyze a decade’s worth of beekeeping data to spot trends in hive growth, queen laying rates, and bee attraction factors. It even corrected an error in the data set before I noticed it.

Code & Automation: Building Smarter, Not Harder

Right now, ChatGPT is helping me prototype a personality quiz—defining requirements, structuring logic, and refining outcomes.

At work, I use Copilot. The most useful thing I’ve built so far? An agent that instantly tells me if a server is in our inventory—answering a frequently asked question in seconds.

Of course, I also use AI weekly for storyboarding and creating YouTube videos.

Conclusion: AI as an Extension of the Mind

This isn’t about AI replacing thought. It’s about amplifying it.

Just as a perfectly balanced rod becomes an extension of the arm, or a well-tuned engine becomes part of the driver, AI can become an extension of the mind.

The key? Don’t just use AI for tasks. Engage with it. Train it. Give it context. Let it challenge you.

The tools we love aren’t just the ones we use. They’re the ones that make us better.

And that’s what working with AI has done for me.

Let's keep the discussion going.