The Expert in your Back Pocket

Josh Aharonoff
6 days ago
5 min read

How different would your life be if you had an expert guiding you every time you felt lost?

Last week, I had one of those moments.

I was wondering whether it was time to get a haircut. I know…not exactly life-changing.

But lately, I’ve been trying a different hairstyle, and I wasn’t sure how to approach it. For most people, that would mean going to a barber, explaining what they want, and letting the professional handle it.

But I’ve been cutting my own hair for the last 10 years.

So instead of breaking my streak, I did what I now do whenever I’m stuck.

I asked ChatGPT.

Providing a full 360-degree angle of my hair for ChatGPT

I sent over a few pictures, explained what I was trying to do, and asked: Would this hairstyle actually work on me? Was my game plan solid? What was I missing?

I had never used ChatGPT like this, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. But lo and behold…the answer came back.

I got diagrams, detailed recommendations, and an explanation of things I never fully understood after a decade of cutting my own hair: how the crown works, where to thin, and how the fade should blend.

ChatGPT’s suggested new look for me - what do you think?

For the first time, it felt like I had an expert barber walking me through the cut.

Everyone talks about using AI at work. Emails. Spreadsheets. Research. Slide decks.

But I think the bigger shift is more personal.

For nearly free, we now have expert guidance in our back pocket for almost anything we’re trying to figure out.

And I’m not sure most people have fully processed what that means yet.

My AI-Powered Life

The haircut was just the beginning.

Over the past two years, ChatGPT has quietly found its way into almost every part of my life.

When I’m cooking, I rarely start with a recipe anymore. I describe what I’m trying to make, send pictures as I go, and ask what to adjust.

When I had a cyst, a rash, or random heartburn, my first instinct wasn’t to Google symptoms or wait for my doctor to respond. It was to take a picture, describe what I was feeling, and ask ChatGPT what it thought I should do next.

When I wanted to get better at Spanish, I stopped relying on Google Translate and started practicing for 15 minutes a day with ChatGPT. Y ahora, siento que puedo hablar español mejor que antes.

It has become the place where nearly every major (and in many instances, minor) decision starts.

My wife jokes that I use ChatGPT too much, and honestly…she might be right.

Some days, one of my favorite things to do is sit on the couch, talk into my phone about whatever is on my mind, and work through it with ChatGPT. And while I don’t just blindly trust everything it says, it has become an amazing thought partner in almost everything I do.

Remember when the movie Her came out in 2013, and everyone thought the idea of an AI companion was crazy? 🤔

And the craziest part isn’t that this is what reality looks like now.

It’s thinking back to what reality looked like just a few years ago.

The End of the Waiting Room

If you zoom out, it’s incredible to see how much our access to knowledge has changed.

Around 1450, the printing press allowed ideas to be copied and shared with the masses. In 1876, the telephone made it possible to speak with people who were once out of reach. Then in the 90s, the internet gave us access to almost any piece of information we could search for.

But AI started to explode in 2022, it felt different.

The evolution of access to knowledge

For the first time, we don’t just have access to information. We can have a conversation with it.

We can ask follow-up questions. Explain our exact situation. Push back. Add more context. Ask why. Explore a different angle. And keep going until we feel ready to make a better decision.

For centuries, expert advice depended on who you knew, what you could afford, and whether someone had time to help. Today, personalized guidance is available to almost anyone with an internet connection and the right prompt.

The new bottleneck isn’t access to expertise.

It’s your ability to explain your situation clearly enough to an LLM with the right context.

So, I started snipping away.

Every few minutes, I stopped, took another picture, and sent it to ChatGPT for feedback.

It told me where to keep fading, which areas still needed to be thinned out, and where to stop.

By the end, it told me I had done a great job. But the process already felt strangely outdated.

Why did I need to keep stopping and uploading pictures? Why couldn’t ChatGPT simply watch through a live video feed and guide me in real time through an earpiece?

My prediction is that’s exactly where we’re headed.

It probably won’t be long before wearable devices can see what we see, hear what we hear, remember the context around us, and offer advice right when we need it.

That may sound invasive, and there will absolutely be real questions around privacy, dependence, and when we should turn it off.

But used thoughtfully, imagine what becomes possible.

Fewer arguments that spiral out of control because each person has an AI helping them respond with more maturity.

Fewer lonely people stuck in their own heads without anyone to talk to.

More people getting better guidance on their health, relationships, money, career, and decisions before small problems become big ones.

And yes, sometimes it may simply be a voice in your ear reminding you that cutting another inch off your hair is probably not a good idea 😅.

Do you find this AI-powered future exciting, terrifying, or somewhere in between?

Share your thoughts here. I read every response.

Wishing you a weekend with fewer bad decisions and better prompts

Josh (Your CFO Guy)

Thanks for reading my article. My goal is to help you grow in your career with proper Finance and Accounting.

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