ChatGPT: Your Non-Tech Guide to AI Awesomeness!

ChatGPT is one of the new breed of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that has hit the internet hard in 2023.

ChatGPT is very popular with software engineers like myself and it can be used for generating code – but what can non software people use it for?

This blog aims to give you some ideas on how ChatGPT can be used to save you time and make your life more awesome.

How get ChatGPT – it’s free!

You access ChatGPT here: https://chat.openai.com/ – you join with a Google account.

At the time of writing version 3.5 is the default one. That’s the one we want. You can pay $20USD a month to get version 4 which is more accurate. But for what we need it for – version 3.5 is fine.

What to do first:

You are presented with a screen with a field at the bottom like this:

So what shall we type? Lets ask it what it can do!

Prompt: Hi, I’m new to ChatGPT – what can you do for me?

It replies:

Hello! As ChatGPT, I can assist you with a wide range of tasks. Here are a few examples:

Answer Questions: I can provide answers to factual questions, help with general knowledge, and offer explanations on various topics.
Language Assistance: Whether you need help with writing, grammar, or vocabulary, I can provide suggestions and edits to improve your text.
Creative Writing: If you need assistance with a story, poem, or any other creative piece, I can offer ideas, help with brainstorming, or even co-write with you.
General Information: I can provide information on various subjects such as history, science, geography, technology, and more.
Personalized Recommendations: If you’re looking for book, movie, or music recommendations, I can suggest options based on your preferences.
Fun and Entertainment: I can engage in casual conversation, tell jokes, riddles, or even play word games to keep you entertained.

Please note that while I strive to be helpful and provide accurate information, I may occasionally generate incorrect or irrelevant responses. So, it’s always a good idea to verify important information from reliable sources. How can I assist you today?

Ok that sounds good – let’s give it a whirl on some of the more useful things I’ve found it can do:

ChatGPT can write your social posts

Pretend I have a side hustle selling braces for budgies. Lets ask ChatGPT to write a facebook post:

Prompt: I have a side hustle selling braces for budgies. Please write a facebook post with a call to action.

Response:

📣 Attention Budgie Lovers! 🐦

Are you a proud owner of a charming budgie? Looking to give your feathered friend some extra love and care? We’ve got just the thing for you! Introducing our exclusive collection of stylish and comfortable braces for budgies! 🎉

These adorable and adjustable braces are specially designed to provide gentle support and stability for your budgie’s wings, promoting proper posture and enhancing their overall well-being. Not only will your budgie look super fashionable, but they’ll also feel more confident and healthy!

💚 Why choose our budgie braces?

✅ Adjustable and comfortable fit ✅ High-quality materials for durability ✅ Promotes proper wing alignment ✅ Enhances budgie’s posture ✅ Stylish designs to suit any budgie’s personality

🎁 And here’s the exciting part! For a limited time only, we’re offering an exclusive discount of 20% off on your first order of budgie braces! 🎉

Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to give your budgie the care they deserve. Simply visit our website [insert website link] and enter the code “BUDGIECARE20” at checkout to claim your discount. 🛒

🌟 Share this post with your fellow budgie enthusiasts, and let them know about this amazing offer! Together, we can make our budgies the most stylish and happy birds around! 🐥💕

👍 Like our page to stay updated on the latest trends and tips for budgie care.

📢 Comment below if you have any questions or want to share your budgie’s fabulous style with us!

🌈 Spread the love, share the joy, and let your budgie soar in style! 🚀✨

#BudgieBraces #BudgieFashion #HappyBudgies

Ok that’s pretty good! It even inserted the emoji’s that the Youth like so much. You notice it’s made things up? It created a coupon for 20% and made up all sorts of things about improving a budgie’s postue and wing alignment. How did it know to do that?

Well, ChatGPT is really good at fabricating. It will get to a hole in it’s knowledge and make things up. For us this is really useful – but sometime it could be wrong. So – first rule of ChatGPT – Always review and edit its response!

First rule of ChatGPT:
Always review and edit its response!
DjangoAndy.com

You can ask ChatGPT to try again:

That post about Budgies and braces is a bit long – plus I don’t want to offer a coupon. My product is great why give it away?

Prompt: Thank you ChatGPT. Can you reduce the length of that post and remove the coupon offer?

📣 Attention Budgie Lovers! 🐦

✅ Adjustable and comfortable fit ✅ High-quality materials for durability ✅ Promotes proper wing alignment ✅ Enhances budgie’s posture ✅ Stylish designs to suit any budgie’s personality

🌟 Visit our website [insert website link] to explore our range of budgie braces and give your feathered friend the care they deserve! Let’s make our budgies the most stylish and happy birds around! 🐥💕

👍 Like our page to stay updated on the latest trends and tips for budgie care.

📢 Comment below if you have any questions or want to share your budgie’s fabulous style with us!

🌈 Spread the love, share the joy, and let your budgie soar in style! 🚀✨

#BudgieBraces #BudgieFashion #HappyBudgies

Ok getting closer. We can ask it again to go even shorter – or even to focus on one thing. Try it yourself! Ask it to refine it answers in your own ChatGPT!

Moving on:

ChatGPT can write you a cover letter for a job.

Looking for a job? Hate writing cover letters? Well ChatGPT 💕LOVES💕 writing them.

Find the job you want and copy the job desc into the ChatGPT input. Then in the same prompt write:

Prompt: Please write a cover letter for this job.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the result – but remember the First Rule! ALWAYS review and edit the ChatGPT response.

ChatGPT can improve your resume.

Paste your resume into ChatGPT and ask it to improve it.

Prompt: Here is my resume please improve it.

Now you may get the response truncated as ChatGPT can only return a certain length – so just do a page at a time.

You can also rewrite your resume to focus on something else. Eg if you are skilled in Management and Horse Care – ask it to rewrite your resume to focus on your Management Skills. Then ask it to rewrite it to focus on your Horse Care skills. We saving time yet? Awesome!

ChatGPT can write emails for you.

Prompt: Write an email to the council asking them to fix the potholes on Mockingbird lane. Be polite and courteous. Be concise.

Subject: Request to Address Potholes on Mockingbird Lane

Dear [Council Representative’s Name],

I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to kindly bring your attention to the issue of potholes on Mockingbird Lane that require immediate attention and repair.

Over the past few months, the condition of Mockingbird Lane has deteriorated significantly, with numerous potholes appearing along the road surface. These potholes pose a safety hazard to both motorists and pedestrians, and they are causing inconvenience and potential damage to vehicles.

I kindly request the council’s prompt action in addressing this matter by repairing the potholes on Mockingbird Lane. This would greatly contribute to the safety and well-being of the community and enhance the overall appearance of our neighborhood.

Thank you for your attention to this request, and I trust in the council’s commitment to maintaining our local infrastructure. I would appreciate being kept informed of any actions taken or proposed timelines for the resolution of this issue.

Warm regards,

[Your Name] [Your Address] [City, State, ZIP] [Email Address] [Phone Number]

That’s pretty good! A review and an edit of that and you are golden!

ChatGPT Tip – ask it to write in a tone

Notice how I asked it to be polite and courteous? Now ask it the same question but ask it to be “professional and upset”. The tone of the output changes. Give it a go!

ChatGPT Tip – ask it to ‘Be concise’

Sometimes ChatGPT write in a very flowery way. By asking it to ‘Be concise’ it reduces the words in the output. You can also ask it to ‘limit to 50 words’ or the like. It won’t get 50 exactly in most cases, but it will significantly reduce its output length.

Ask ChatGPT to write a poem!

Prompt: Please write a poem on how lovely Django Andy is to give me tips on using Chat GPT. Keep it to one verse.

Oh, Django Andy, with wisdom so bright,
Guiding me through Chat GPT’s digital light.
Your tips and insights, a guiding star,
Unveiling the possibilities, near and far.

Your words inspire, your knowledge so vast,
With each interaction, a moment to last.
In this realm of language, you help me thrive,
Unleashing creativity, making thoughts come alive.

Thank you, Django Andy, for being my guide,
Through Chat GPT’s vast landscape so wide.
With your assistance, I’ll continue to explore,
And unlock the wonders, forevermore.

That’s beautiful – thank you for thinking of me! Also ChatGPT is AWESOME at haiku’s!

Ask ChatGPT for Recipes

Ok this one is great – let’s get ChatGPT to help us make tonight’s dinner.

Prompt: Please create a recipe for me. I have 500g mince and a can of diced tomatoes. I have other ingredients also. Ask me what you need to make a meal in the slow cooker for 4 adults.

ChatGPT replies:

Sure! To create a delicious meal for 4 adults using 500g of mince and a can of diced tomatoes in a slow cooker, I’ll need to know what other ingredients you have available. Please let me know the additional ingredients you have on hand, and I’ll be happy to provide you with a recipe!

I reply with the prompt: I have sweet potato, potato, some herbs and spices and onions.

ChatGPT comes back with:

Great! With those ingredients, we can make a hearty Slow Cooker Beef and Potato Stew. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

500g beef mince
1 can (400g) diced tomatoes
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups beef or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons cooking oil

Instructions:

Heat the cooking oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the diced onion and minced garlic, and sauté until they become fragrant and translucent.
Add the beef mince to the skillet and cook until browned, breaking it up with a spoon as it cooks. Drain any excess fat.
Transfer the cooked mince, sautéed onions, and garlic to the slow cooker.
Add the sweet potatoes, potatoes, diced tomatoes (including the liquid from the can), dried thyme, dried rosemary, paprika, salt, and pepper to the slow cooker. Mix well to combine all the ingredients.
Pour the beef or vegetable broth into the slow cooker and stir everything together.
Cover the slow cooker and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours or on high heat for 3-4 hours, until the potatoes are tender.
Once cooked, taste the stew and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Serve the delicious beef and potato stew hot, garnished with fresh herbs if desired.

Enjoy your homemade Slow Cooker Beef and Potato Stew with your family and friends!

Nice! I have actually made the recipes it suggests (I asked for a Potato and Onion soup recipe) and the result was pretty good! Of course you have to review the recipe to make sure it isn’t asking you to do anything crazy, but otherwise this is a great way to get a recipe without the author’s life story – like so many recipe sites out there.

ChatGPT can summarize long articles

So I saw an article I wanted to read but it was so, so long. I pasted it into ChatGPT and asked it to summarize the article. The result I got was excellent.

ChatGPT is excellent at text transformations

Transformations are one thing ChatGPT really excels at. Copy a paragraph of text and ask it to say it as a pirate would. Or ask it to transform some text into how a Gentleman in the 1700s would talk.

Plus – it can translate text into another language.

Prompt: Please translate this into french: Horse are beautiful animals.

ChatGPT replies:

Les chevaux sont de magnifiques animaux.

It did a pretty good job – although I believe magnifiques means magnificent not beautiful. Nevertheless a great effort!

Ask ChatGPT to help you with Excel formula’s!

Prompt: In excel write me a formula to sum the number of cells that have the word ‘yes’ in them in column C.

The cool thing is ChatGPT write the explanation of how it got its formula:

To sum the number of cells that contain the word “yes” in column C in Excel, you can use the following formula:

=COUNTIF(C:C, “*yes*”)

Here’s how the formula works:

COUNTIF is an Excel function that counts the number of cells in a range that meet a specific criteria.
The range C:C represents the entire column C.
"*yes*" is the criteria used by COUNTIF. The asterisks (*) are wildcards that allow any text before or after the word “yes” in a cell. This means it will count cells that contain the word “yes” along with any other text before or after it.

Simply enter this formula in an empty cell, and it will return the sum of cells that have the word “yes” in column C.

Try:

Prompt: in excel write me a formula for pythagoras theorum

Conclusion

ChatGPT is a great tool that will really increase your productivity. It has saved me so much time in my business HorseRecords, both in coding time and also dealing with documents such as emails and marketing copy.

If you find out other cool ways to use ChatGPT – then please let me know!