When: before you have AI make anything that matters to you, when you want to collect your thoughts, and whenever what comes back isn't what you meant. It sits under every other pattern here.
Why it matters: AI has steadily got better at two things. It understands the intent behind whatever you give it, and it delivers better on that intent. So what you get out depends on how specific and precise you can be about what you want. Alignment is getting to that point: writing down what you want until nothing about it is ambiguous any more.
The steps
- Start with the goal. Say what you're trying to do. Sometimes it's to make something: code, a presentation, a 3D model of your home, a post. Sometimes it's just to collect your thoughts. Everything after this is read in the light of it.
- Say it. Say what you think, want or believe, and why, as far as you can. You don't need to know exactly what you mean yet.
- Ask to be challenged. "What perspective am I missing? Challenge me."
- Close the gap. A challenge that feels off usually means missing context: you know something it doesn't. Tell it, and keep going. The AI has no beliefs of its own, only what it knows and what you've given it.
- Ask for its reflection. "Reflect back your understanding of what I believe to be true, and why."
- Check it. Every line should ring true to you. If it has added something you never said, or overstated it, call that out and keep going until it does ring true. You do the validating, not the AI.
- Write it down. Record the truth as you know it now, and why.
- Use it. If you set out to make something, have it make it now that you're aligned. If you set out to collect your thoughts, what you wrote down in step 7 is the result.
What you get along the way: you find out what you actually think. Some of what comes back is a thought you had but hadn't put into words yet. Whose thought it was stops mattering, because you've checked that it's true for you.
What sets the ceiling: experience. You can get knowledge from AI, but it's experience that gives you the words to say exactly what you want. Someone who has never made a game says "make it move more naturally". A game developer talks about the animation transitions, acceleration, input responsiveness, collision behaviour and camera movement that add up to that feeling. The same goes for what "secure" means in software. So the better result is better relative to the experience you bring.
With another person: the same pattern works between two people, as long as both say plainly what they think, uncomfortable things included. The AI reflects you back and brings in knowledge. Another person brings lived experience in a field you don't have, so each of you gets something from the other, and it compounds.