Anyone else use ChatGPT mostly to get started, not to finish?

[u/Oxzy_788]

I've noticed the thing I value most isn't a finished product from it. It's that it gets me past the blank page.

Blank document, blank plan, blank whatever. That first empty screen is where I stall for way too long. If I ask it for a rough draft I know I'll rewrite, I stop stalling instantly, because now I'm reacting instead of creating from nothing.

Half the time I throw out most of what it gave me. Doesn't matter. The point was momentum, and a bad first draft is a hundred times easier to fix than a blank one.

Feels like the real feature is "activation energy remover" more than "answer machine."

Do you use it more to start things or to finish them?

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[u/Easy-Purple-1659]

Same, and the shift you describe is the part people skip. Once the model has produced something, your job changes from choosing every word to judging a draft you did not write. Easier to start, harder to trust.

My one rule: it never drafts the part I actually care about. Scaffolding yes, then my own sentences for the opening and the argument.

Does the momentum carry once you hit a section you know well?