I find myself using ChatGPT more and more within a given week. I primarily use their Mac and iOS apps to access the application (vs within the browser). Some of the use cases below are practical, logical, and downright helpful. Other times, well, you’ll see, they err more towards silly but they are still useful.

Getting personalized support for specific technology questions

I recently acquired aaronroy.com and aaronroy.net, so after years of using aaronmichaelroy.com as my primary domain, I was considering moving my content to a new TLD. Before going down the rabbit hole of what that project would entail, I was able to use ChatGPT to see what the project would look like and ask specific follow-up questions as I debated what direction I wanted to take.

My starting prompt:

I want to switch my website from aaronmichaelroy.com to aaronroy.com. I own both the domains already and have hosting already set up on aaronmichaelroy.com. What steps should I take to switch my website to aaronroy.com?

I appreciate that it starts the response with “Backup Your Website”.

I definitely needed some more clarification on the differences and benefits of add-on domains vs. parked domains. I was able to follow up my original prompts with:

Can you explain the difference between add-on domains and parked domains with examples? When would I want to use one versus the other?

What’s the difference between parked domain and a domain redirect? Why would I park a domain instead of just redirecting?

After weighing my options and how much time I felt like committing to this project, I ended up going with just parking my new domains.

Beyond helping me figure out hosting questions, I’ve also found ChatGPT useful to understanding “newer” options within the world of cybersecurity.

I was looking for a secure option beyond Yubikey’s to manage 2FA on a shared email account. With physical keys like the Yubikey for 2FA, best practice is to have a primary and a backup key set up for a single account so you don’t accidentally lock yourself out if you lose the physical key. I was unsure if you had to follow the same approach with a secure passkey. My prompt:

Do I need to create multiple passkeys for a single login account the same way I have a primary and a backup yubikey? 

Summarizing financial results and public filings

The ability to upload a document and get assistance in pulling out the key points (or a summary of patterns) is awesome. This is a totally new workflow unlocked for me with ChatGPT and has saved me a bunch of time.

Below, I uploaded the earning’s presentation from one of Teachable’s competitors and was able to have ChatGPT give me a first pass at pulling out some of the key numbers and trends from their public filings.

Supplying recipe ideas and help while cooking

ChatGPT is exceptional at supplying recipes combining random food items in your fridge and helping answer cooking questions on the fly. Being able to come back to prior chats and ask follow up questions such as “How long to cook X?” or “convert X from ounces to cups” is super useful.

Some prompts I’ve had success with:

Tell me a few stir fry recipes using chicken, asparagus and rice

Please give me 3 different sub 15 minute marinades that can be used with baked salmon 

What’s a crockpot recipe including vegetable broth, boneless chicken thighs and diced sweet potatoes? 

I’ve also found it useful in other ways around the kitchen, using it here to figure out how to clean a coffee grinder.

Generating stories on the fly for my daughter

I ran out of books within arms reach and needed a story on the fly to read before bedtime. Voila, ChatGPT to the rescue.

Coming up with random images for chats and use on the internet

This might be my favorite use case thus far. Why settle for a regular image ever again when now I can make custom images on the fly.

I’m a big fan of the Tour de France, so this French Donkey riding a bicycle with the Eiffel Tower in the background is perfect for my group chat with friends.

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Overall, I find myself transitioning more and more of the queries I would have directed into Google or Reddit into ChatGPT. What I find most interesting thus far are the new workflows these models enable vs. just replacing searches.

If you haven’t had the chance to play with ChatGPT, Claude (by Anthropic), Gemini (by Google), or Llama (by Meta) take a few moments and experiment because in a year, or even a few month’s time there likely will be a whole new world of use cases and actions to explore.