Learning with ChatGPT: a brief guide

Welcome to a brief explo­ration of how ChatGPT can serve as a valu­able learn­ing companion. If you’re unfa­mil­iar, ChatGPT is a con­ver­sa­tional AI devel­oped by OpenAI, designed to assist with a wide array of tasks. While it’s not a sub­sti­tute for in-depth study or pro­fes­sional guid­ance, it offers a unique avenue for inter­ac­tive learning. The aim of this post is straight­for­ward: to guide you through the process of using ChatGPT as a tool for study­ing new ideas effectively. Whether you’re look­ing to under­stand com­plex the­o­ries or simply want to explore a new topic, this guide will offer some prac­ti­cal steps to enhance your learn­ing journey.

Why use ChatGPT for learning?

You might be won­der­ing, with the plethora of edu­ca­tional resources avail­able, why turn to a con­ver­sa­tional AI like ChatGPT for learn­ing? The answer lies in its unique advantages:

1. Accessibility. ChatGPT is avail­able around the clock, offer­ing you the flex­i­bil­ity to learn at your own pace and on your own schedule.
2. Personalized guidance. Unlike static resources, ChatGPT can tailor its responses to your spe­cific ques­tions, help­ing you nav­i­gate through the nuances of a topic.
3. Interactive engagement. The con­ver­sa­tional format encour­ages active par­tic­i­pa­tion, making the learn­ing process more dynamic and less monotonous.
4. Quick exploration. Whether you’re look­ing for a sum­mary of a com­plex theory or need help brain­storm­ing ideas, ChatGPT can assist in a timely manner, allow­ing you to cover more ground in less time.

While ChatGPT isn’t a replace­ment for formal edu­ca­tion or expert advice, it serves as a com­ple­men­tary tool that can enrich your learn­ing expe­ri­ence in a con­ve­nient and inter­ac­tive way.

Asking the right questions

The use­ful­ness of learn­ing with ChatGPT can often be influ­enced by the ques­tions you pose. I’ve found that the speci­ficity and fram­ing of my queries have made a notice­able dif­fer­ence in the qual­ity of the responses.

For exam­ple, instead of asking a gen­eral ques­tion like “Tell me about emo­tional val­i­da­tion”, I opted for a more tar­geted approach:

Please explain the main ideas of the book “I Hear You: The Surprisingly Simple Skill Behind Extraordinary Relationships” by Michael S. Sorensen.

This yielded a con­cise sum­mary based on a rep­utable source, giving me a solid foun­da­tion on the topic.

Similarly, when I wanted to delve deeper, I asked:

Can you tell me how these ideas com­pare to the Nonviolent Communication framework?

This spe­cific ques­tion led to a nuanced dis­cus­sion that enriched my under­stand­ing of both emo­tional val­i­da­tion and Nonviolent Communication.

Here are some tips that may help you in for­mu­lat­ing effec­tive questions:

• Be specific. A more focused ques­tion often yields a more focused answer. For instance, asking for a sum­mary of a spe­cific book can pro­vide a well-structured response.
• Ask for comparisons. If you’re famil­iar with a related con­cept, asking for a com­par­i­son can offer new insights. For exam­ple, com­par­ing emo­tional val­i­da­tion to Nonviolent Communication helped me see the nuances of each.
• Request examples. Asking for real-world exam­ples can make abstract ideas more tangible.

The way you phrase your ques­tions can influ­ence the qual­ity of the infor­ma­tion you receive, so it may be ben­e­fi­cial to think through your queries carefully.

Deepening understanding through examples

While the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge pro­vides a solid foun­da­tion, exam­ples often serve as the bridge between theory and prac­ti­cal application. In my expe­ri­ence with ChatGPT, asking for exam­ples has been a par­tic­u­larly effec­tive way to deepen my under­stand­ing of com­plex ideas.

For exam­ple, when I wanted to under­stand how to apply emo­tional val­i­da­tion in my per­sonal life, I asked:

Imagine sit­u­a­tions where I can use it in con­ver­sa­tions with my girlfriend. Present lines I could say, which sound casual, but actu­ally wrong, and lines that do val­i­date my girl­friend’s emo­tions well as described in the book.

ChatGPT pro­vided both types of lines, help­ing me dif­fer­en­ti­ate between what works and what doesn’t in real-world scenarios.

Here are some sug­ges­tions that may assist you in using exam­ples for deeper understanding:

• Request context. Asking for exam­ples within a spe­cific con­text, like I did with con­ver­sa­tions with my girl­friend, can make the con­cept more relatable.
• Compare and contrast. Requesting both cor­rect and incor­rect exam­ples, as I did, can clar­ify what to do — and what not to do.
• Ask for action steps. Examples that come with action­able steps can serve as a prac­ti­cal guide for apply­ing the concept.

Incorporating exam­ples into your learn­ing process can offer a more nuanced under­stand­ing, making it easier to apply the knowl­edge in real-life situations.

Seeking balanced perspectives through criticism

While it’s valu­able to under­stand the merits of a con­cept, it’s equally impor­tant to be aware of its lim­i­ta­tions or criticisms. This bal­anced approach can pro­vide a more rounded under­stand­ing and pre­pare you for thought­ful dis­cus­sions or applications.

In my own expe­ri­ence, I asked ChatGPT:

Could you pro­vide some valid and research-based crit­i­cisms of the con­cept of emo­tional validation?

The response included var­i­ous points that helped me see the con­cept in a more nuanced light, such as the poten­tial for rein­forc­ing neg­a­tive behav­iors or the risk of becom­ing an emo­tional crutch for someone.

Here are some tips that may help you in seek­ing bal­anced perspectives:

• Ask for criticisms. Explicitly request crit­i­cisms or lim­i­ta­tions of the con­cept you’re studying.
• Request sources. If pos­si­ble, ask for research-based or expert-backed crit­i­cisms to ensure the infor­ma­tion is credible.
• Consider the context. Understanding the lim­i­ta­tions of a con­cept can help you apply it more judi­ciously in real-life situations.

By actively seek­ing crit­i­cisms or lim­i­ta­tions, you can gain a more bal­anced and com­pre­hen­sive under­stand­ing of the topic at hand.

Visualizing concepts with Mermaid diagrams

Sometimes, a visual rep­re­sen­ta­tion can make com­plex ideas easier to grasp. ChatGPT can assist you in sum­ma­riz­ing books or explain­ing key con­cepts of a frame­work, and present those sum­maries in a Mermaid dia­gram format. These dia­grams can then be edited using spe­cial­ized online tools like diagrams.net.

For exam­ple, I asked ChatGPT:

Please sum­ma­rize this book “Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams” for me. Give me key take­aways as for the entrepreneur. Present it in a table and/or mer­maid diagram.

The result­ing Mermaid dia­gram code pro­vided a con­cise and orga­nized visual sum­mary of the book’s key points.

Mermaid dia­gram code gen­er­ated by ChatGPT

I pub­lished the result­ing dia­gram on my blog: Not just book summaries: how I use ChatGPT to ask personal questions and receive coaching advice.

Here’s what it looks like after some styling in diagrams.net:

Here are some tips that may help you in visu­al­iz­ing concepts:

• Request summaries. Ask ChatGPT to sum­ma­rize a book or key frame­work that you’re inter­ested in.
• Specify format. Make it clear that you’d like the infor­ma­tion in a Mermaid dia­gram format.
• Edit and customize. Use online tools like diagrams.net to fur­ther edit and cus­tomize the dia­gram to suit your needs.

Using Mermaid dia­grams can be a pow­er­ful way to visu­al­ize and better under­stand com­plex ideas or frameworks.

Interactive learning: spaced repetition cards

Spaced rep­e­ti­tion appears to be an effec­tive method for mem­o­riz­ing new mate­r­ial, as sug­gested by a study titled “Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis”. One way to imple­ment this tech­nique is with spaced rep­e­ti­tion cards, and ChatGPT can assist in cre­at­ing them.

I asked ChatGPT to “come up with Spaced Repetition Cards for me to remem­ber key ideas and usage exam­ples of emo­tional validation”.

The cards that were gen­er­ated included both the­o­ret­i­cal aspects and prac­ti­cal exam­ples, along with action steps for apply­ing the concept.

Here are some sug­ges­tions that may help you use spaced rep­e­ti­tion cards effectively:

• Request summaries. Ask for con­cise sum­maries of key points to include on the front of the card.
• Include examples. Use real-world exam­ples on the back of the card to make the infor­ma­tion more tangible.
• Add action steps. Incorporate action­able steps to help you apply the con­cept in your daily life.

I use Mochi Cards as my spaced rep­e­ti­tion software.

Cards cre­ated with the help of ChatGPT

Creating spaced rep­e­ti­tion cards with ChatGPT can be a prac­ti­cal way to rein­force learn­ing and encour­age the appli­ca­tion of new knowledge.

Applying knowledge in real-world scenarios

The real value of learn­ing often becomes evi­dent when you apply it in real-world scenarios. ChatGPT can pro­vide action­able steps to help you put your new­found knowl­edge into practice.

For instance, when I cre­ated spaced rep­e­ti­tion cards for emo­tional val­i­da­tion, they included action steps like “Practice active lis­ten­ing today. When some­one talks to you, give them your full atten­tion and resist the urge to for­mu­late your response while they’re still speaking.” Another action step was, “The next time you find your­self in a dis­agree­ment or sen­si­tive con­ver­sa­tion, apply the Four-Step Validation Method.”

Here are some tips that may help you in apply­ing your knowledge:

• Request action steps. When learn­ing a new con­cept, ask for action­able steps. For exam­ple, you could ask, “What are some prac­ti­cal ways to apply this con­cept in daily life?”
• Seek context. Ask how the con­cept can be applied in dif­fer­ent sce­nar­ios to gain a broader understanding. For instance, “How would this con­cept work in a pro­fes­sional set­ting versus a per­sonal relationship?”
• Follow up. After you’ve tried apply­ing the knowl­edge, con­sider revis­it­ing the con­ver­sa­tion with ChatGPT to refine your under­stand­ing or trou­bleshoot any chal­lenges you’ve encountered.

Incorporating action steps into your learn­ing process can make the infor­ma­tion more imme­di­ately useful and relevant.

Asking for additional resources

While ChatGPT can pro­vide a wealth of infor­ma­tion and prac­ti­cal advice, it’s often ben­e­fi­cial to sup­ple­ment this with addi­tional resources for a more com­pre­hen­sive understanding. ChatGPT can rec­om­mend books, arti­cles, or other mate­ri­als that are rel­e­vant to the topic you’re exploring.

For instance, after dis­cussing emo­tional val­i­da­tion and Nonviolent Communication, I was rec­om­mended fur­ther read­ing to deepen my understanding. These rec­om­men­da­tions can serve as a start­ing point for more in-depth study or research.

Here are some tips that may help you in seek­ing addi­tional resources:

• Ask for recommendations. After dis­cussing a topic, you can ask ChatGPT for fur­ther read­ing or resources. For exam­ple, “What books would you rec­om­mend for learn­ing more about this?”
• Specify interests. Make your inter­ests or objec­tives clear to get more tar­geted recommendations. For instance, “I’m par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in apply­ing this in a busi­ness context. Do you have any resources for that?”
• Cross-reference. It’s always a good idea to cross-reference any rec­om­men­da­tions to ensure they align with your learn­ing goals and are from cred­i­ble sources.

Supplementing your learn­ing with addi­tional resources can pro­vide a more rounded and in-depth under­stand­ing of the sub­ject matter.

Conclusion

Learning is a mul­ti­fac­eted jour­ney, and the tools we choose can sig­nif­i­cantly impact the effec­tive­ness of that journey. ChatGPT offers a unique blend of acces­si­bil­ity, per­son­al­iza­tion, and inter­ac­tiv­ity that can serve as a valu­able sup­ple­ment to tra­di­tional learn­ing methods. From asking tar­geted ques­tions and seek­ing bal­anced per­spec­tives to visu­al­iz­ing com­plex ideas and apply­ing them in real-world sce­nar­ios, this con­ver­sa­tional AI can be a useful tool in your learn­ing arsenal.

While ChatGPT is not a replace­ment for formal edu­ca­tion or expert advice, it can pro­vide a con­ve­nient and inter­ac­tive way to explore new topics, rein­force exist­ing knowl­edge, and even chal­lenge your under­stand­ing through crit­i­cisms and addi­tional resources.

As you con­tinue your learn­ing jour­ney, con­sider incor­po­rat­ing some of the tips and strate­gies dis­cussed in this guide. They may help you make the most of this ver­sa­tile tool, turn­ing your inter­ac­tions with ChatGPT into pro­duc­tive and edu­ca­tional experiences.