When it comes to finding a good metaphor, many people begin with a concept and often turn to ChatGPT for the best metaphor that will communicate that concept. For example, you need a better way to position your service, or an answer to an objection, or a clever opening to a speech. But, suppose you have a different challenge. Suppose you need to come up with a brief, clear, NON-metaphorical way to explain a wordy technical issue. It seems counterintuitive, but read how one clever professional actually used metaphors to find the NON-metaphoric solution to her problem.
The Challenge
Susan Weiner edits investment commentary on behalf of asset managers who send communications to their individual and institutional clients. She had one client who, in the draft of his newsletter, explained ChatGPT in highly technical and wordy terms. Although those terms were appropriate for communications among sophisticated financial professionals, Susan figured the ordinary folks among his readers might struggle to understand them.
In search of a short, more easily understood explanation, Susan reached out to ChatGPT. She used this prompt: “Explain what ChatGPT is in terms that a 10th grader could grasp.” She received the following response:
“Sure thing! Imagine ChatGPT as a super-smart computer program that can talk to you just like a human. It’s kind of like having a virtual friend who knows a lot of stuff and can help you with all sorts of questions and problems. This program works by reading and understanding the words you type or say to it. It then uses its huge brain, which is filled with information from books, websites, and other sources, to come up with answers and responses that make sense. It’s like having a library and a really clever librarian in your computer.”
“You can ask ChatGPT all sorts of things, like math problems, science questions, advice on what movie to watch, or even just have a friendly chat. It’s a bit like having your own personal digital assistant who’s always ready to help you out. So, if you ever need information or just want to chat, ChatGPT is here to lend a hand!”
The Solution: “Re-Engineered” Metaphors
Although Susan appreciated the ChatGPT responses, as she mulled them over, she felt the suggested metaphors were a little off for her client’s audience: too unsophisticated, and far too long for her client’s purposes. In addition, she didn’t want to simply quote ChatGPT, even with attribution.
Instead, she “re-engineered” those metaphors to get exactly what she needed.
First, she broke down, or distilled, the essence, the common 
threads, of the various metaphors that ChatGPT gave her to describe ChatGPT
- As a source of help (super-smart computer program, friend, librarian)
- With a huge pool of information (knows a lot of stuff, huge brain, library),
Then, she re-worked those threads into a new short, clear explanation. “I defined ChatGPT as ‘an AI-powered bot that can ‘chat’ with you to answer questions based on written information provided by you or fed to it by other sources.”
- “AI powered bot” (source of help) “that can chat with you” (friend, librarian)
- “To answer questions …sources.” (huge pool of information)
Short, clear and appropriate to her client’s targeted audience.
Shake Up Your Brain
Normally, we have the essence of a point in mind and seek out an appropriate metaphor for it. In Susan’s case, she teased out the common threads of many metaphors to get what she needed to be explained in the first place. A very different, and clever, use of ChatGPT.
“I didn’t use any of the words that ChatGPT generated, but they helped shake my brain out of thinking in highly technical terms. I plan to try this technique again.” Susan Weiner*
Anne Miller
Make What You Say Pay! – with Metaphors
*Susan Weiner, CFA, is an editor-writer for investment management firms and the author of Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients. Her website is InvestmentWriting.com
Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash
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