When I was a kid, math homework often turned into a balancing act. I could look at a problem, run through the calculations in my head, and get to the right answer. But when the teacher asked me to “show my work,” that’s where I’d stumble. The steps in between felt unnecessary, but I already had the solution!

Fast forward to a career in IT, and I realized that same mindset can be both a strength and a weakness. In technology, much like in math, arriving at the right answer isn’t always enough. You often need to prove how you got there and whether you’re troubleshooting an outage, optimizing performance, or walking a teammate through a fix.

Why the Process Matters

In IT, the “in-between” steps are more than just formalities:

• Transparency – Documenting your path allows others to retrace your logic, catch mistakes, or build on your work.
• Scalability – Clear processes let teams reproduce results consistently, not just rely on one person’s intuition.
• Learning & growth – Seeing how problems are solved step by step creates teachable moments for junior engineers and even reminders for ourselves later.

Getting to the end solution quickly is valuable, but without a trail of how you got there, teams can miss opportunities for shared learning and long-term improvement.

How AI Can Help Fill the Gaps

This is where AI becomes a powerful partner. Tools like ChatGPT can act as a “process coach”. It can help you break down the mental shortcuts you take into logical, repeatable steps. For example:

• You can explain a solution you already know, and AI can backfill the steps you might skip.
• You can simulate troubleshooting scenarios, asking AI to outline multiple approaches.
• You can refine documentation, turning quick notes or mental leaps into clear, structured guides others can use.

It’s not about replacing intuition or speed. It’s about translating what you know instinctively into a framework that others (and future you) can understand.

The Takeaway

The skills that helped me solve math problems as a child, like intuition, pattern recognition, and mental shortcuts are still strengths in IT. But I’ve learned that in this field, the process is just as important as the outcome. Leveraging AI can bridge the gap between instinct and documentation, making those invisible steps visible, repeatable, and valuable to everyone around you.