Stop Using ChatGPT for That One Thing It's Bad At

ChatGPT is the most capable all-rounder we have, which is exactly why people reach for it by default. That default wastes it on jobs it's mediocre at.

For long-document reasoning, Claude is better. For sourced research, Perplexity. For an actual image, Midjourney or Ideogram. Using ChatGPT for all of those works, but it's rarely the best tool in the room.

The cost isn't failure; it's a slightly worse result that you don't notice because you didn't compare. Compounding slightly-worse across a workday adds up.

I keep a mental map: ChatGPT for general writing and coding, then route the specialist jobs to the specialist. Five minutes picking the right tool beats an hour polishing the wrong one's output.

Versatility is a feature, not a mandate. The best chatbot is the one you don't use for the job it's worst at.