Why Experience May Become Our Greatest Asset in the AI Age
Companion article for subscribers
Editor’s Note
This companion article was originally intended as a subscriber-exclusive edition. However, because The Third Act is just beginning, I’ve decided to make it freely available for a limited time so everyone can experience the deeper conversations I hope to share.
If you enjoy this article, I’d love you to subscribe. It’s free, and you’ll receive future editions, reflections and experiments exploring how technology, creativity and life experience are shaping the future.
Thank you for joining me at the start of this journey.
If you read the free article, you’ll know I ended with a simple idea:
The world’s greatest untapped resource may not be artificial intelligence. It may be human experience.
I’d like to explain why I believe that.
Over the past few months I’ve spent hundreds of hours experimenting with AI.
Like many people, I started by asking it questions.
Then I asked it to write.
Then I asked it to create artwork, organise ideas and solve problems.
At first, I thought the technology itself was the interesting part.
I no longer believe that.
The real breakthrough wasn’t what AI could do.
It was what it helped me do.
Information is no longer the problem
When I wanted to understand my health, there was no shortage of information.
There were websites, YouTube videos, medical papers and endless opinions.
Ironically, the sheer volume of information made it harder to know what mattered.
What helped wasn’t another search result.
It was taking everything I already knew, adding my own circumstances and then working through it step by step.
AI didn’t replace my judgement.
It helped organise it.
That’s a very different role.
Experience gives information meaning
Imagine two people asking exactly the same question.
One has spent thirty years as a nurse.
The other has just read three articles online.
Both may know the facts.
Only one has lived them.
That’s why I believe experience is becoming more valuable, not less.
AI can access information.
People provide context.
AI can generate possibilities.
People decide which ones make sense.
The future belongs to both working together.
Asking better questions
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that AI often reflects the quality of the questions we ask.
The better the question, the better the conversation.
That’s true whether you’re writing an article, solving a problem or trying to make sense of your own life.
Learning to ask thoughtful questions may become one of the most valuable skills of the next decade.
Not because AI needs better prompts.
Because we need better thinking.
This is why I started The Third Act
When people hear about AI, they often imagine programmers, researchers or technology companies.
I see something else.
I see a retired teacher.
A former engineer.
A nurse.
A tradesperson.
An artist.
A grandparent.
People with decades of experience who have stories, lessons and ideas that could genuinely help others.
Many of them don’t think they have anything worth sharing.
I disagree.
The barrier isn’t knowledge.
It’s confidence.
It’s finding the right words.
It’s believing that your experience matters.
If AI can lower those barriers, then perhaps its greatest contribution won’t be replacing people.
It will be helping more people find their voice.
What’s next?
This is where The Third Act begins.
Over the coming months I’ll be exploring how technology, creativity and lived experience can work together.
I’ll share what I’m learning, what’s working, what isn’t and the experiments I’m running along the way.
One of those experiments is something I’m calling the Editorial Challenge.
The idea is simple.
Could we build a process that helps ordinary people take years of experience and turn it into articles, podcasts, videos and other content without losing their own voice?
I don’t have all the answers yet.
But that’s part of the reason for writing this publication.
I want to explore these questions in public.
Some ideas will work.
Some won’t.
Either way, I hope you’ll join me for the journey.
Because I have a feeling that the most important stories of the AI age won’t be written by artificial intelligence.
They’ll be written by people who use it to share the wisdom they’ve spent a lifetime acquiring.
A Question for You
What knowledge or experience have you gained over the years that could genuinely help someone else?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
The conversation is only just beginning
Before You Go
Every article in The Third Act Prompt Collection adds another practical tool to a growing library designed to help you think more clearly, communicate more effectively and share your experience with confidence.
By the end of the year, you’ll have built a personal collection of prompts—not just to use with AI, but to help you explore your own ideas and tell your own stories.
Thank you for being part of the journey. I look forward to exploring the next idea with you.
Prompt #001
Discover Your Hidden Knowledge
Why this prompt matters
Most people underestimate the value of what they already know. This prompt helps uncover the experiences, skills and lessons you’ve accumulated over a lifetime and turns them into ideas worth sharing.
THE PROMPT
Act as an editorial coach.
Interview me to uncover the knowledge, skills and life experiences I take for granted but which could help other people.
Ask one question at a time.
Challenge vague answers.
Help me identify themes that could become articles, newsletters, videos, podcasts or books.
Preserve my own voice.
Do not write for me.
Help me discover what I already know.
How I Used It
I used this prompt to explore my own ideas.
Instead of asking AI to write the article for me, I used it to ask better questions, organise my thoughts and uncover ideas I hadn’t fully recognised before.
This article grew out of those conversations.
The prompt didn’t write the article.
It helped me discover what I wanted to say.
Next Prompt
Prompt #002 – Ask Better Questions
A good prompt doesn’t start with the right answer.
It starts with the right question.
In the next companion article, I’ll share the prompt I use to challenge my own thinking, explore different perspectives and turn simple ideas into stronger articles.