What to ask the AI, and what to decide myself
An imagined conversation about planning two free hours on a weekend afternoon. Setting the suggestions you might ask an AI for beside the criteria you have to set yourself, and asking — before the answer arrives — what actually matters. A piece about the small space worth leaving between options and choice.
00 / The same afternoon
Two voices in front of two hours
Two hours are free on a Saturday afternoon. One person jots down what they would like to do; the other picks up a phone. On a single sheet of paper, a walk, a tidy-up and a rest sit side by side. What follows is an imagined conversation, written to think through the planning of ordinary life. It is not the actual output of an AI, nor an interview.
01 / First reactions
The one who asks for suggestions · the one who asks about criteria
A · the one who asks for suggestions
“Shall we ask the AI for a few two-hour plans? I'd like to see an option that mixes a walk with the housework and an option where we simply stay in, side by side.”
B · the one who asks about criteria
“Fine. But what counts as a good afternoon for us today? It might mean clearing the backlog, or it might mean resting with nothing in the diary at all.”
The same two hours, and yet the ending each of them wants is different. Before multiplying the options, you need room to write down today's purpose in a single sentence.
02 / Different reasons
A quick shortlist, and the thing we don't want left out
A · the one who asks for suggestions
“Building it from nothing on my own is daunting. What I want first is a frame to compare with — a low-travel option, a stay-at-home option, that sort of thing.”
B · the one who asks about criteria
“For me it's the gaps between the entries that matter. Whether the family wants a rest, how tired we happen to be today — none of that writes itself into a timetable.”
What A wants is a starting point; what B is protecting is the reason for the choice. Neither voice has to be deleted. “I'd like to see several options” and “I'd like to rest today” can sit inside the same question.
03 / The question in the middle
What to compare, what to check, what to decide
The part you can ask for is the sorting of possible options and an account of how they differ. The part to check is the information written into them. The part to decide is which of those differences counts for more. Whether the shortest route is today's best route is a separate choice altogether.
Generative AI can present wrong content in a confident tone of voice. NIST's risk-management guidance for generative AI sets out this risk as well. So if a plan involves opening hours or transport connections, this piece suggests checking the official information from the venue or operator separately.
It is worth distinguishing between supplying more conditions and verifying facts. Writing “keep the travel short” does not mean the details of the places in the answer have been confirmed.
04 / The sentence they rewrote together
Instead of “the best plan”
The two of them rewrite the question like this. “Today the aim is to rest, and we have two hours. Suggest an option that involves going out and an option that stays at home. For each, separate the pros and cons from the information we should check for ourselves.”
Once the answer comes back, they add one more line. “We're choosing this option because today rest matters to us more than getting out.” This is not a prompting technique that guarantees anything about the tool; it is an example of writing down, where you can see it, the reason behind your own choice.
Suggestions can be material for a conversation. But the seat at the table where that material is spread out and something is kept belongs to the person who has to live the day.
In the thing you want to ask an AI right now, what is the criterion you have to set for yourself first?
Source: NIST AI 600-1, §2.2 Confabulation · checked 21 September 2026
The imagined conversation and the plans are editorial examples. They are not the actual output of any particular tool.
21 September 2026 · On the Threshold of Learning 03 / 43 · Images: AI-generated