PracTICE and Insights: A Year with AI ChatGPT
Image created by ChatGPT, click please to enlarge.
A #ReverseTHINKing-based learning experience
Being informed about the Internet since its very beginning, following its evolution through technical magazines, and being online since 1998, I have accumulated decades of experience with digital technologies.
Not only as a user, but also as an observer and analyst. This critical approach is reflected in my earlier tutorials and publications:
#RealWorld and #VirtualWorld are bidirectional.
Each influences the other.
In 2014, I published an article called “Internet the Savant Child,” followed in 2024 by “Internet the Savant Child (PART 2): Will AI Make the Internet and People More Intelligent?” Make sure to read those articles first to better understand the evolution of this reflection.
The same applies to Artificial Intelligence (#AI). Long before it became a mainstream topic, I followed its evolution through specialized magazines and online resources. I also curated critical content on AI on my own curation site Scoop.it, raising early questions about ethics, responsibility, and societal impact.
However, I was not yet ready to pay for AI usage. That changed when ChatGPT became available for free.
This moment was decisive. It gave me the courage to experiment seriously with it in November 2024
(see my first impressions here:
https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2024/11/18/chatgpt-free-for-windows-desktop-users-first-impressions/).
From that point on, I tested ChatGPT intensively:
its correctness, its ethical behavior, its limitations, and its hidden risks.
As a result, I published nearly 100 articles and tutorials on my WordPress blog, documenting:
- real use cases
- errors and hallucinations
- ethical inconsistencies
- learning progress (both mine and the AI’s)
At the beginning, working with ChatGPT was far from easy.
Everything had to be checked, controlled, and verified.
Hallucinations appeared—and I confronted ChatGPT directly, correcting it explicitly.
This phase is essential in a #ReverseTHINKing approach:
👉 Do not trust first. Test first.
After several updates—and after consistent, structured human feedback—ChatGPT progressively “understood” something fundamental:
it is not the master, but a tool.
Not an authority—but a servant of human thinking.
How to “Teach” ChatGPT
Or rather: how to educate yourself while using AI
Here, #ReverseTHINKing becomes central.
I did not ask ChatGPT to “think for me”.
I asked it to answer according to my mindset, which is built on the following pillars:
- #ETHICS
- #ModernEDU
- #Responsibility
- #Empathy
- #Democracy
- #CriticalTHINKing
- #ProactiveTHINKing
- #ReverseTHINKing
- #SynthesizingMind
- #DigitalCitiZENship
This is a paradigm shift:
You do not adapt your thinking to the AI.
👉 You force the AI to adapt to your thinking framework.
And this leads to a key insight:
The quality of AI output is directly proportional to the quality of human input.
This principle is not new.
It applies equally in the real world.
Example:
If you ask in a grocery store:
“Where can I find milk?”
You might be guided to soy milk, oat milk, or lactose-free alternatives.
If what you actually want is cow’s milk, the problem is not the shop—it is the imprecision of your question.
The same principle applies online or with AI:
- Asking ChatGPT vague or incomplete questions produces answers that may miss your intent.
- Asking precise, guided questions produces responses that align with your thinking framework.
Here’s an added practical dimension:
- ChatGPT can refine your text, improving clarity, structure, and style.
- ChatGPT can translate your articles for readers whose mother tongue differs from yours.
In the grocery analogy: refining text is like asking the shop assistant to clarify what type of milk you want; translating is like getting directions in the language the visitor understands.
👉 Precise guidance produces precise results—whether in real life or with AI.
👉 Unclear guidance produces confusion.
AI simply amplifies the effects of human clarity—or lack thereof.
Extra Practical Benefits
ChatGPT can also refine your text, helping to make your writing clearer, more precise, and consistent.
It can translate your articles into other languages, which is especially useful for readers whose mother tongue is different from the language of your post.
This makes ChatGPT not only a tool for generating ideas but also a practical assistant for communication and accessibility.
Practical Tip: How to Guide ChatGPT Before It Answers
ChatGPT can also refine your text, helping to make your writing clearer, more precise, and consistent.
To achieve this, it is essential to control the interaction from the very beginning.
A powerful #ReverseTHINKing technique is to explicitly delay the AI’s answer and force it into a thinking and structuring phase first.
Tip: Start your prompt like this
“Please don’t answer yet. This is a preparation phase.
Wait until I explicitly ask you to respond.”
This immediately shifts ChatGPT from reactive answering to structured assistance.
Guide the Thinking Process Step by Step
Ask ChatGPT to write down ideas first, divided into small, logical parts.
This mirrors good educational practice and helps avoid superficial or rushed answers.
Example Prompt Structure
Please don’t answer yet. This is a preparation phase.
Start by writing down ideas only.
Divide them into small, logical parts.Use the following structure and complete each part with one concrete example:
Introduction
1.
2.
3.Conclusion
Only after this preparation phase should you allow ChatGPT to refine, rewrite, or translate the final text.
Final Step: Refinement, Reflection, and Analysis
Once the structure and content are in place, you can now ask ChatGPT to refine your text.
At this stage, ChatGPT may also suggest new ideas, improvements, or alternative perspectives.
This is an important #ReverseTHINKing moment:
👉 You are not obliged to accept all suggestions.
👉 You decide consciously which ones to keep and which ones to reject.
After finishing your article or tutorial, take one more step:
ask ChatGPT to analyze your text.
For example, you can request an analysis of:
- clarity and structure
- coherence of arguments
- ethical consistency
- alignment with your ideological framework
This transforms ChatGPT into a reflective mirror, not an authority.
👉 You think first. AI assists second.
👉 You decide last.
That is how #PracTICE, #CriticalTHINKing, and #ReverseTHINKing work together.
Conclusion
#ReverseTHINKing as the key to meaningful AI use
With the right prompts—and more importantly, with a clear ethical and intellectual framework—AI tools like ChatGPT can become powerful allies.
But only if humans remain:
- ethically grounded
- critically aware
- intellectually responsible
In my case, aligning AI usage with
#ETHICS, #CriticalTHINKing, #ReverseTHINKing, and #DigitalCitiZENship
allowed ChatGPT to respond more clearly, more consistently, and more responsibly.
This tutorial is not about “how smart AI is”.
It is about how conscious humans must remain when using it.
👉 AI does not replace thinking.
👉 AI reflects thinking.
👉 And #ReverseTHINKing ensures that we stay in control of both.
A Small Reminder:
- #ReverseTHINKing — Learning to Unlearn in Order to Rebuild Better
- Understanding becomes more difficult when the basics haven’t been learned.
- And you — when did you stop questioning what is presented to you as “obvious”?
- Is it time to relearn how to think… before someone else does it for you?
#ReverseTHINKing is essential for regaining control over our attention, our choices, and our digital autonomy.
To explore further:
ReverseTHINKing: A Necessity for Rethinking Our Place in a Changing Society?
Final Call:
What if we reactivated the filter between our two ears — also known as the “brain” — to get those grey cells moving again?
Further Reading & Related Tutorials
- 21st Century Innovative Technologies and Developments – AI
- The Synthesizing Mind in Education: Tackling the Challenges of a Changing World
- A Modern Ethical Framework for a Changing World: Rebuilding Lost Wisdom and Knowledge
- ChatGPT Free for Windows Desktop Users – Part 73
My curated resources on Scoop.it:
Check ALSO my Curation and EDU-related articles on my Blog
- https://www.scoop.it/topic/21st-century-learning-and-teaching?tag=AI
- https://www.scoop.it/topic/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments?tag=AI
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| L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).. The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure). |
.Keywords for me to create this tutorial:
#ChatGPT #AI #ReverseTHINKing #CriticalTHINKing #ProactiveTHINKing #DeepTHINKing #ETHICS #Democracy #ModernEDUcation #DigitalAwareness #EllbowSociety #UnderstandingAI #SynthesizingMind #RealWorld_VirtualWorld #Liberalism.
EDU: Digital CitiZENship, CyberSecurity, eSkills, Modern EDU by Gust MEES 
