Ask a real person, not an AI
An AI is quick, and for many things it is enough. But it has never rented a flat, changed a job or sat in that waiting room. Some answers only come from someone who has been there.
What an AI is good at
Use it. It explains a concept, drafts an e-mail, sums up a long text and answers at any hour. If the answer is written down somewhere, an AI will often find it faster than a person.
What people can tell you
What it is really like
The job, the city, the visa queue, the first year of a business. Not the brochure, the Tuesday afternoon.
What people actually paid
The price that was charged, the salary that was offered, and what they would ask for next time.
What they would do again
Someone who took that decision can tell you how it turned out, and what they got wrong.
What changed last month
Local rules, a new landlord, a shop that closed. The kind of thing nobody has written down yet.
And when you ask a person, there is no meter running: no tokens, no plan, nothing to count. Our founder wrote about that in It's time to ask people again.
Questions an AI cannot answer well
- Is this salary normal for a nurse in Tirana?
- Did anyone else's landlord keep the deposit, and what worked?
- How do I tell my boss I'm leaving without burning the bridge?
- Is it worth moving to Germany right now, for someone like me?
These are examples of the kind of thing to ask. Some of them you would not ask with your name on them either, which is why Ask works with numbers instead of names.
What research says about asking people
Short takeaways from published studies, in our Mind library, each with a link to the study:
- Asking for advice makes you look more competent
- People say yes far more often than you expect
- Asking follow-up questions makes people like you more
- Feeling less connected predicts more chatbot use, and more use predicts more isolation later
How to ask people on Booking Minds
Open the app, switch to Ask at the top of the map, tap + and write your question. Whoever knows answers. If an answer helps you, tap Helped me, and the answers that helped most come first. Nobody sees who asked or who answered, and here is how that works.
Questions about asking people instead of AI
Where can I ask a real person a question?
In Ask on Booking Minds, a free app for iPhone and Android, members answer what they know. Everyone shows as a number. Other apps do it differently, and this comparison shows how.
What questions can AI not answer well?
Questions that depend on having lived something: what a job or a place is really like today, what people actually paid, and what someone would do again.
Are the answers written by AI?
Members can use AI for an answer. When they do, they tick I used AI for this and the answer says so. That relies on them being honest, and answers can be reported.
Are people more accurate than AI?
Not always. People can be wrong too, and we do not check answers. For health, law or money, ask a professional too.
Someone out there knows the answer.
Free to join, and free to use.
