I remember hearing once that smart folks are lazy, always seeking shortcuts to do less. It was (and still is) a validating quote for me.
Case in point, I was asked to take some survey data and turn them into pie charts. Not too difficult, right?
Here is what the original data looks like:
Well, when I tried to use the Pie chart feature in Google Sheets, I got this:
Definitely not what I want. So rather than searching the problem, I exported a CSV and dumped it straight into GPT-4, asking questions like I would to any junior consultant:
Yes, I got the exact pie chart I wanted! Except the client didn’t like the colors, and ask me to change them. Plus, questions 3 and 4 don’t work well as a pie chart. So I asked GPT, how else should I visualize this?
I even asked for a word cloud and I got it:
I could have asked GPT to give me different colors and fonts, but instead, I wanted the data in a usable format in Google Sheets to edit it myself. So I asked again:
I downloaded the CSV it hosted. Then I imported it straight into Google Sheets and did the rest of the work there:
From the time the inquiry was asked to me to the time I delivered, the turnaround time was about 8 minutes to get to a solution. Remember, I’m not a subject-matter expert with Google Sheets. I wanted to know what it would have taken to do this manually:
The amount of time it would have taken me to go from column to column, reformat the data, reimport, generate charts, and get the expected output would have been at least twice as long. Not to mention, I’d still need to generate a word cloud with a separate tool.
It’s such a small exchange, it’s so straightforward, it almost seems minuscule to some folks. But for me? I felt more efficient. I served as a problem solver. Plus, I got the job done and the client was happy. And I saved 10 minutes of my time.
It’s the reduction of cognitive load and the speed of output that truly makes GPT function like a motorcycle (yes, even faster than a bicycle!) for my mind. Here is a tool that can perform the work and teach me at the same time, both on demand, without ads (for now), headache free, and precisely related to whatever my inquiry is. Now that is powerful.