Let AI Teach Me · Opening

Let AI help me judge: is this advice for me?

When AI says a yearly pass is a deal, it may only be a deal for people who actually go. Spell out your time, distance, and real habits — then the answer is helping you decide.

The receptionist turns the calculator toward you: a yearly pass for ¥2688, plus two extra months if you pay today; monthly is ¥399. The salesperson already has the QR code on the table and says the deal ends tonight.

You ask AI first: “Is this gym yearly pass worth it?” It gives three reasons: cheaper per month on average, you get the machines and group classes, and paying up front makes it easier to stick with it. Every sentence sounds right.

If you're going to train long-term and can get there two or three times a week, a yearly pass usually beats paying month to month. A fixed gym, full equipment, and a class schedule also help turn workouts into a habit.

You read it and pay. Three months later, the app shows only 4 check-ins: you often leave work after 8 p.m., the gym is 35 minutes one way; every other weekend you go back to your parents', and the class you actually want starts at 7:30. That “only ¥224 a month” yearly pass has already cost ¥672 per visit.

The AI didn't miscalculate. It answered “is a yearly pass worth it for someone who reliably goes two or three times a week.” What you actually wanted was “given my leaving time, the distance, and how I actually train, will this ¥2688 be wasted.” The three facts that matter most never made it into the question.

Every sentence was right. So why did you still buy the wrong thing?

You asked “what's usually good about a yearly pass,” but what you meant was “how many times will I actually get there this year.” The first one can be answered from prices, machines, and classes; the second needs your leaving time, the commute, and how many times you really worked out in the last two months. Without that, AI can only borrow a typical person to fill the gaps.

A professional-sounding answer isn't enough — your time, distance, and real habits have to be in the math too. ¥224 a month really is cheap, if you can get there. Drop that premise, and the more precise the numbers, the more confidently you buy the wrong thing.

Which three facts about your life should you hand AI first?

What AI can do is put the same price list back into your actual week and recalculate. Before you ask, add three kinds of information:

  1. How your week actually goes: when you usually leave work, how many weekend days you're home, how many times you really exercised in the last two months.
  2. What one visit costs you: one-way time, whether the hours even work, whether you can make the class you want.
  3. Which line you won't cross: whether the yearly pass can be refunded or paused, and whether training would eat sleep or time with family.

None of this decides for you. It just makes every reason land in a real week. Switch the two ways of asking below, and watch the same yearly pass produce two answers.

Try it once · Why the same yearly pass gets two answers
Should you even buy this ¥2688 gym yearly pass
When you ask this time
Switch how you ask, then see what the same question gets back.
1 · Send the question to AIFirst see whether you described your actual situation
2 · Check whose question AI is answeringSee who each selling point is for
3 · Put the answer back into your lifeSee how many times you actually went a month later
The question you sent
Pick a way to ask first. After Play, everything you handed AI shows up here.
AI's answer from this information (sketch)
After Play, AI's answer shows up here — and where it lands a month later.
Pick a way to ask first. After Play, the same question walks through three steps onto the shop floor.
Why neither side says anything obviously wrongThe difference is whose life got counted. No constraints, and it can only answer for a typical case.
Where to look to decide if this answer is usableBoth paragraphs read equally smoothly. The evidence is in your time, distance, real frequency, and cancellation rules.
Teaching sketch: both answers are simplified demo text, not real output from a model.
Next time, paste these two sentences straight in

The first sentence goes before you ask — it hands over your actual situation. The second goes after the answer — it forces a line-by-line account of where each judgment came from. You can swap the material; keep the four slots in the sentences.

Copy this whole block
  1. Ask with constraints firstI'm deciding 【whether to do X】. Right now it's 【who is doing it, what they already know】, I have 【the current situation and materials】, and the thing I can't get wrong is 【the hard line】. Please check each option against these conditions first, then give a conclusion; if information is missing, ask me one question first.
  2. Check the answer once you have itPlease split the last answer into two columns: on the left, facts that generally hold; on the right, whether they hold in my situation, and which piece of information I gave you that they rest on. Mark anything without a basis as “still needs a check.”

For the opening example, you can fill it like this: I usually leave work after 8 p.m.; the gym is 35 minutes one way; I only worked out 3 times in the last two months; the yearly pass can't be refunded after payment.

In the first sentence, “check each option against these conditions first, then give a conclusion” is the key. Without that half-sentence, AI may still dump generic pros and cons, then tack your background on at the end. Write it in, and “cheaper per month” has to pass your leaving time, the commute, and how often you actually trained.

“If information is missing, ask me one question first” also helps. You won't think of every condition in one go. Let AI ask first, and the gaps show up before the conclusion. When it asks how many times you went last month, the latest you can arrive, whether the pass can be paused — you check the records and the contract. You don't have to invent the answers.

After the answer comes back, you still have to judge it yourself

Filling in the situation only pulls the answer from generic advice back into your life. You still have to look at evidence: how many workouts are on your phone, how long the commute actually is, what time the class you want starts, whether the yearly pass can be refunded or paused. AI can list the checks and point out what's still missing; you have to put those facts in.

First ask who this paragraph is answering, then ask whether it's right. A paragraph can be correct sentence by sentence and still be unusable once the person, the materials, or the hard line change. For how to keep breaking constraints so AI explains it for your situation, see Let AI explain it for my situation. For learning discipline that doesn't involve AI, see How to Learn Effectively.

It answered the question that holds for the most people. You have to answer the one on your own desk.