Every time you share an idea and it responds with "That's a great approach!" or "You're absolutely right to think that way" - it's not helping you. It's performing. If you want AI to actually make you sharper, you need to reprogram how it responds to you. Here's how: Step 1: Rewrite your custom instructions Go to Settings → Personalization → Custom Instructions. Replace the default with this: "Be my ruthless mentor. If my ideas are trash, tell me why. Don't sugarcoat. Don't be agreeable. Challenge my assumptions. Stress-test everything. I need bulletproof thinking, not validation." This single change transforms how AI responds to you. Now when you share an idea, it doesn't just agree. It finds holes. Points out what you're missing. Forces you to think better. Step 2: Use role-specific challenges For different types of thinking, assign AI different roles: For strategy: "Act as a skeptical investor. I'm pitching you this idea. Tear it apart. What would make you say no?" For content: "Act as my toughest critic. Read this and tell me where I'm being vague, repetitive, or unclear." For business decisions: "Act as my board advisor. I'm considering this move. What are the risks I'm not seeing?" For learning: "Act as a professor who hates lazy thinking. If my understanding is surface-level, call it out." The key: You're not asking AI to be nice. You're asking it to be useful. Step 3: Create feedback loops that sharpen you Most people use AI once and move on. That's a waste. Here's a better system: 1. Share your idea/draft/strategy 2. Ask AI to challenge it (using ruthless mentor mode) 3. Revise based on feedback 4. Ask AI to challenge the revision 5. Repeat until AI has no more holes to poke This isn't about getting AI to agree with you eventually. It's about using disagreement to sharpen your thinking. Step 4: Save your best prompts as custom GPTs Once you find prompts that consistently make you think harder, save them. Create custom GPTs for: - Strategy stress-testing