Originally published on Medium, August 2, 2023 | Refreshed for Live Your Hobby on June 8, 2025.
1. Why Revisit This Piece in 2025?
AI copilots now draft slide decks, summarize board packets, and crunch earnings calls in minutes. Tools are abundant; problem clarity and curiosity are the bottlenecks. This update reframes last year’s executive-level insights for solopreneurs and micro-SMBs who need fast, focused wins.
Read the original post: https://easusj.medium.com/leading-in-the-ai-era-the-importance-of-curiosity-and-problem-formulation-b0c0c1adb5be
2. A Tale of Two Generations
My dad left a VP role at Chase Bahamas in 2000 to start his internet consulting agency—just as the dot-com bubble burst. I followed a similar arc, swapping the corporate ladder for AI consulting in 2023. Lesson learned: conviction plus curiosity beats perfect timing.
Quick win: Write a 3-sentence “origin story” that connects your past pivot to your current AI goals. Use it in pitches, posts, and partner calls.
3. From Boardroom Buzz to Daily Practice
Capgemini reports 96 % of execs call generative AI a board-hot topic, yet only 10 % of the U.S. labour force actively tests ChatGPT-class tools.¹
The opportunity gap sits between talking about AI and framing problems it should solve.
Problem-First Checklist
- Diagnose – State the undesirable effect in one clear sentence.
- Decompose – Break into root causes (5-Whys works).
- Reframe – Ask “How might we…” from the user’s view.
- Constrain – Define budget, time, or risk limits.
Feed that prompt into an LLM; skip the hand-wavey “We need an AI strategy” slide.
4. Curiosity: The Goldilocks Zone
ModelThinkers’ “Curiosity Zone” sits between ignorance and overconfidence. Generative AI widens the band—anyone can sandbox new perspectives in minutes.
| Zone | Symptoms | AI Move |
|---|---|---|
| Ignorant | “We should do something with AI.” | Run a 30-minute GPT tutorial with your team. |
| Curiosity | “We know enough to know we don’t know.” | Use rolestorming prompts to test angles. |
| Overconfident | “Our old ML pipeline covers this.” | Benchmark against a public GPT to spot gaps. |
5. Practical Playbook (Aligned to LYH Pathways)
| Pathway | 60-Minute Action |
|---|---|
| Demystify AI | Ask GPT-4o to “explain our top customer complaint in 3 analogies a 10-year-old gets.” |
| Boost Productivity | Auto-summarize Q&A from Zoom transcripts → Notion using Zapier’s AI step. |
| Build Tech Stack | Create a custom GPT that drafts earnings-call talking points from SEC links. |
| Grow with AI | Use ChatGPT rolestorming to prep for cross-functional budget meetings. |
6. Conclusion
Curiosity and sharp problem framing turn AI from shiny toy into profit lever. Block one hour this week to run the four-step checklist on a nagging issue, then prototype a GPT prompt around it. Action beats intention.
Footnotes
- Capgemini Research Institute, Harnessing the Value of Generative AI, July 2023.
