Heartstorming with AI



I sense a lot of people are forming a love/hate relationship (or maybe, it's just become a hate relationship) with AI when it comes to creative pursuits.

It intrinsically feels wrong to offload something so human to the machines. Being creative is so essential, so rewarding, that to use AI in any way evokes a primal knee-jerk reaction - as if we're trekking far too into the uncanny valley that our lizard brain keeps telling us "This is wrong. Go back."

Am I fan of using AI to generate music, books, movies, or art? No.

But do I enjoy using AI when I'm being creative? Absolutely, yes.

Whenever I use an LLM (a good one, at least), I notice a few things happen:

  1. Even before I send my initial prompt, my creative idea is getting more refined. It's like talking to the rubber duck and critically evaluating your own thoughts - but, it's even better because the AI rubber duck actually responds.
  2. Putting emotions into words can be very hard. Capturing complex feelings reveals a limitation to our language - it's why words coupled with music can be so much more powerful. We try to draw parallels through analogies, we speak through examples. We use a lot of words trying to get to the heart of it. Brainstorming/Heartstorming in this way with another person can be really annoying (depending on the person's level of patience). They'll want you to get to the point and, in rushing you, will miss the point. This is one area I think LLMs really shine. I can use as many words as I need and, in return, I either get a succinct response that captures accurately what I've been feeling - OR - I get something close, but off. In the latter case I can iterate ad nauseum (and LLMs don't get nauseated).
  3. As I read through the LLM's response, it usually takes me down a path I may dislike. This is great because it's stress testing my own ideas, and let's me calibrate and adjust the direction. What may have started with a vague ambition starts to become clear. The amorphous begins to take shape.

The LLM doesn't give me the idea but, like a good sounding board, I hear my own ideas bouncing off the board and I can adjust, refine, and even abandon.

I've used this approach at times when I had a problem to solve, with no solution in mind and other times when I have a clear solution but want to improve it, stress test, find the holes.

If you get a similar knee-jerk response at the idea of using AI for a creative pursuit, try this: Pop-open a good LLM and pitch your idea and what you're trying to solve with it. It could be a business idea with a real tangible problem, painting a picture that's trying to capture an emotion. Talk through your why. Provide context around its importance to you. Give it a deeper sense of you and your passions. Don't ask it to refine your idea, or make it better - instead, wrap it up with this prompt:

"Don't make my idea better or try to refine it. Instead, given everything I've told you, I want you to ask me questions so you can better understand my idea."

See where it takes you.

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