Putting the “Play” in Playing with AI

Here’s a short story to demonstrate what I mean:

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Last week, I tried explaining to a friend why some cheese is kosher and some isn't. As I started covering the difference between animal rennet versus vegetable rennet, I realized that this friend knew nothing about the science of dairy, and I took it upon myself to address this unacceptable knowledge-gap. 

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So I did what any reasonable person would do: I resolved to build a full slide deck lecture on how milk is turned into every dairy product. Cheese, yogurt, butter, cream - the whole operation. 

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Serendipitously, I had recently heard about Google’s Notebook LM on a podcast and decided to see if it could help me here.

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Within 4 minutes, I had STUNNING slides. Factually accurate. Visually gorgeous. Sufficiently thorough. 

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Then I gave the lecture. To my friends. In my living room.

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The next week, I had to make slides for a new sales presentation at work. And I thought - oh yeah, those dairy slides were actually epic and effortless to make. The ‘workflow’ I'd stumbled upon on Saturday transferred directly to Monday.

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This happens to me constantly.

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I got good at graphic design in middle school by making memes on Snapchat and Photoshop. No intention of becoming a designer. I just wanted to make my friends laugh.

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Those skills still pay dividends today.

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I have a computer science degree, so people constantly ask me how to learn to code. The answer is always the same: pick a project that sounds fun. Something you're intrinsically motivated to create. Then just learn whatever you need to learn to make it happen.

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The same applies to AI.

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Whether it's using AI to make a presentation, a YouTube video, a song, a design, something funny, or a birthday card for your grandma - find something that just sounds fun to make. Use interesting new tools without any worry about whether this will be useful professionally.

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Focus on the fun. Put play first. 

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Most people treat AI like a vending machine. Work task in, output out. They never develop intuition because they only use the tools under pressure, with deadlines, when stakes are high and creativity is low.

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The people I know who are genuinely great with AI all have a hobby project. They're using it to write a screenplay, plan a garden, learn chess openings, or figure out why kosher cheese requires a rabbi to physically pour the rennet into every vat.

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So here's the challenge: this weekend, use AI for something that has nothing to do with your job. Follow curiosity. Build something dumb. Something funny. Focus on nothing other than entertaining yourself.

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Put the play back in playing with AI and the skills will follow.