Your Curiosity Is Your Ai Superpower
I’ve had a theme of “Superpowers” going for a few weeks… may as well post one more Superpower related to using Ai.
If you've been through a few cycles in Silicon Valley, you know what a real technology inflection point feels like. If you haven’t, I’m here to tell you this Ai thing is it. There’s a moment when the world tilts just slightly, and your balance skills need to kick in. This is the moment when the curious, the ambitious, and the early adopters get a head start while the rest are still on the runway waiting for takeoff.
Here is some historical pattern matching for reference:
Spreadsheets: Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel in the late 80s/early 90s rewired the way financial modeling and business analysis got done.
The Internet and the Netscape Browser in the mid-1990s broke open distribution and communication on a worldwide scale.
Mobile in the mid-2000s (specifically BlackBerry, then iPhone and Android) shifted user behavior from in-office desktop to your pocket and mobility anywhere/everywhere. Only those who re-architected their desktop software into mobile apps thrived.
Cloud computing (in the mid-2010s) changed the game again, shifting the “on-premise data center mentality” to your data center being “in the Cloud,” allowing for scalability, reliability, higher security, and significantly higher redundancy. Cloud also allowed for exponentially faster engineering development, allowing any developer to spin up a server literally at the push of a button without waiting for their “data center team” to purchase, install, and provision a new server. Enterprise-scale systems could happen virtually overnight.
Every one of those historical technology shifts required key leadership behaviors and capabilities that are once again needed in the mid-2020s (today). With Ai, it’s more important than ever to…
Be an agile, curious learner.
Think fast, to learn fast.
Think in systems and architect new solution architectures.
Train on new skill sets.
NOT be the last one to adapt. (<<< the most important one!)
Why This Ai Technology Inflection Point Feels Different
Ai is not just another inflection point; it’s the defining shift of the next era, and it’s built upon the compounding effects of all past inflection points.
“Ay, there’s the rub!” (ode to Shakespeare again - my readers know I’m a geek this way, and some of my closest friends and colleagues are chuckling to themselves right now, while also shaking their heads that I actually wrote this!)
Ai is THE FIRST inflection point that doesn’t require technical expertise…EVER.
You don’t need to code. You don’t need to take a year off to get a degree. You don’t need to hire a team of mobile developers, data scientists, security experts, or cloud computing experts just to get started (note: I’ve been required to do all of those as CFO, navigating these prior inflection points).
You only need one thing! That one thing costs nothing and unlocks everything:
But Curly, what’s the “One Thing?”
Your finger?…Just one thing??
Curiosity.
A Learner’s Mindset is the One Thing:
What separates early adopters from everyone else today is not access, budget, skillset, or even time.
It’s the willingness to ask questions and the willingness to truly learn.
A learner’s mindset is the capacity to sit comfortably in not knowing, and instead of being embarrassed, getting genuinely curious. It's asking as many questions as it takes to build understanding. It's not knowing how something works and saying:
“Show me, explain it to me like I’m a 10-year-old, and break it down in steps.”
I had this very conversation just today with Paul Witkay, who founded the Alliance of CEOs. This one conversation capped 5 other conversations on this same topic over the last week with my clients.
If I’m going to talk about it 6+ times in a week, it’s worthy of a newsletter post.
As Paul summarized our conversation, he said in essence:
“That’s what I love about you Jim, you truly embrace this mindset. You love to coach, show, and to learn while you are showing and coaching.”
With Ai, you are no longer waiting on an advisor, a course, or a Google search rabbit hole.
You’ve got a real-time tutor, partner, and expert available to you 24/7. There are only two things required:
Learning how to better engage with it.
Actually engaging with it (<<<<<<< YES, WAY MORE IMPORTANT!)
Prompting With Purpose:
Think of Ai as a muscle you build, not a switch you flip.
The way you train that muscle is through better and better questions and “custom instructions”. Ai calls these prompts, the questions and instructions you give it, but I don’t like the word.
Too many times, human language gets in the way and produces friction. “Prompts?” I’ve struggled with the word since November 2022. How about simply questions and custom instructions? Ok, I know that’s 4 words instead of 1, but if the headline helps you reduce “getting started friction”, then use my 4-word headline instead.
We all have a historical roommate in our heads that keeps telling us, “it’s too hard!”, or “too much time to learn something new!”
Want to shut up this head case roommate? One prompt.
“Teach me how to prompt you better so I can become an expert in [any topic].”
It works. Really well. And it unlocks a lifelong loop of learning.
Want to become great at customer A/B testing? Ask it to walk you through best practices.
Trying to model out new pricing strategies? Tell it to act like a Bain consultant or a SaaS CFO.
Don’t know where to start or whether you should even bother with OKRs for your operations team? Give it custom instructions on your company, your executive team leadership maturity, your high vision, strategy, and north star goals, and then ask it to complete a first draft with actual examples.
There’s only one barrier left in this Ai inflection point….and it’s YOU!
It’s your imagination, your willingness to ask… it’s the time you take to invest in Ai.
Use ChatGPT Projects as Your Personal Knowledge Stack
The new “Projects” feature inside ChatGPT (Pro version) makes ChatGPT way more powerful. You can now:
Create a dedicated project folder for each area you’re learning (e.g., “Ai for Finance”, “Prompt Engineering 101”, “Company Planning Playbook”).
Save custom instructions for each project folder so ChatGPT remembers your style, your conversations, and your overall goals.
Build and edit prompts that evolve with your learning.
The key unlock that many don’t quite realize is the new implementation of ChatGPT’s “Memory”. It remembers all previous chats, all previous projects, custom instructions per project, and your top-level account custom instructions. Super powerful.
For example, inside a project called “Teaching My Team Ai,” you might set up prompts like:
“Give me a step-by-step series of weekly Ai experiments that I can run with my team.”
“Design a finance team series of weekly Ai learning workshops that take 30 minutes or less to accomplish.”
You don’t need a class. You need a curiosity engine. You already have one inside your head. You simply need to turn it on and start typing (or talking) to ChatGPT (or other favorite Ai tool.)
Your Curiosity is Your Superpower
This is the least technical, most accessible revolution I’ve ever seen.
More than any other technology of the past, Ai favors the boldly curious and punishes the passively observant.
Start small. Ask real questions. Compound your learning daily.
The best leaders I know don’t just learn faster…they learn publicly…and they learn continuously.
Be one of them. Let Ai become your always-on expert advisor.
Let curiosity drive your compounding advantage.
Because this moment, more than any other, rewards the ones willing to say:
“I don’t know… but I’m going to find out… and I know just who to ask.”
