Your Best AI Prompt is a First-Principle Question

Is It Time We Learned 'A for Apple' All Over Again?

Every so often, when I share a piece of work created with AI on social media, a familiar debate sparks up in the comments. "This is clever," someone might say, "but AI can never replicate human emotion. It can't capture the soul of a story the way a person can."

And I pause. On one hand, they have a point. But on the other, I feel they might be looking at the wrong part of the picture. This whole conversation got me thinking about what truly moves us, what makes a story stick with us for years.

I believe human emotion isn't driven by the tool, but by the art of storytelling itself. We remember the iconic Cadbury ad with the girl dancing on the cricket pitch not because of the film camera it was shot on, but because of the uninhibited joy it captured in its story. We remember the 'Hamara Bajaj' jingle because it told the story of a nation on the move. The camera, the film stock, the editing suite - those were just the vessels. The story was the soul.

If those ads were to be made today, and a filmmaker chose to use AI to visualise that same, beautiful story, would it be any less impactful? I don't think so. The day isn't far when AI will be able to capture the subtle nuances of human emotion on screen. But to get there, we have to give it a fair chance. We have to be willing to experiment.

This isn't just a hypothetical for me. A few years back, I wrote a series of short stories on sensitive social issues like child marriage and the dowry system. My dream was to turn them into short films, to give them a voice. But the reality of budgets quickly set in. Shooting in a village, managing a cast, crew, and equipment - the logistical and financial hurdles were immense. For years, those scripts sat in a folder on my computer, gathering digital dust, their stories unheard.

Then, along came AI. Suddenly, I had a way to visualise those scenes, to bring those characters to life. Is it perfect? No, not yet. There are still improvements to be made. But for the first time, those stories are moving from text on a page to a living, breathing visual. A process that was once blocked by circumstance is now possible.

This experience taught me something profound. We are all, in our own ways, slaves to our comfort zones. We are programmed to solve problems in a certain way because, well, that's how it has always been done. The filmmaker in me was wired to think of cameras and crews. The programmer thinks in lines of existing code. The designer reaches for the same trusted software.

But the processes are changing, evolving with every passing day. Now is the time to go back to our basics. It's time for some first-principle thinking. To take a task and ask "why?" five times, digging deeper until we hit the core reason. Is the old way truly necessary? Can this be done differently? Can a new AI tool get me to the result faster, or perhaps, in a way I never imagined?

This is what I try to do almost every day. When I approach a new campaign or a creative challenge, I stop and ask myself: Why am I doing it this way? Is there another path? Am I choosing this method out of habit or out of necessity?

The answer often lies in being willing to feel like a beginner again. To take a blank piece of paper, pick up a pencil, and be ready to write 'A for Apple' all over again.

Let’s not be afraid to unlearn. Let’s not be afraid to step out of our comfort zone and embrace the new. Because in this discomfort lies all the growth.

Keep learning, keep growing.

P.S. If you're ready to start your own journey of discovery, you can grab a copy of my book, Prompt DOT AI. Or, if you’d like to get your team AI-ready, get in touch with me. Let's explore how this incredible new companion can change the way you work.