Finding Contradictions
Where You Left Off
You've written two pieces, both developed with the help of your Gem. The first established your argument. The second extended it in a new direction. Now comes the most powerful step in the process.
Platform option: Everything on this page also works in ChatGPT Custom GPTs. The workflow is the same: reuse your assistant, keep adding context, then test with targeted prompts.
Adding Both Pieces to the Gem
Paste both pieces into the Gem conversation. Now the Gem has everything: the original source articles, your first piece, and your second. It can see the full arc of your thinking across the week.
If you're using ChatGPT Custom GPTs, paste both pieces into the same Custom GPT thread so it can analyze them together.
Progressive context: This is the principle that powers this whole sequence. The Gem started the week knowing only two articles. Now it knows two articles and two pieces of your writing — your actual arguments, your voice, your emphasis, your blind spots. The same AI, the same instructions, but fundamentally more useful because of what you've given it to work with.
The Power Move: Ask for Contradictions
This is the most valuable prompt in the whole sequence. The Gem can now see patterns across your two pieces that you probably can't see yourself.
“Read my two pieces together. Where am I contradicting myself? Where is my argument weakest?”
“What assumption am I making in both pieces that I haven't examined?”
“If someone wanted to argue against my position, what would be their strongest move?”
You can use these exact prompts in ChatGPT Custom GPTs.
The Gem's answer won't always be right. But it will almost always be interesting — it'll identify tensions you didn't notice, or assumptions you didn't realize you were making. That's your material for Piece 3.
Finding New Sources
Use the contradictions and tensions the Gem identified to guide your source discovery. Because the Gem knows your actual argument gaps — not just your topic in general — it can suggest much more targeted search terms.
- “Based on the weakness you identified, what kind of source would help me address it?”
- “Give me specific search terms I could use to find scholars who have written about this tension.”
- “Is there a field or discipline I haven't considered that would have something to say about this?”
Remember: Verify everything the Gem suggests. It can hallucinate authors and articles. Use its search terms, but do the searching yourself.
Write Your Third Piece
This piece addresses the contradictions or gaps the Gem identified. This is often the strongest writing of the week because it's genuinely self-critical — you're engaging with the limits of your own argument, not just adding more support for what you already believe.
From a Week to a Larger Body of Work
You just did something powerful: you used a Gem to build a connected body of work across a week. Three pieces, each one informed by the ones before it, each one sharper because the Gem had more context to work with.
The Intellectual Map sequence takes this same principle further. Instead of three pieces, you feed the Gem your entire body of writing. Instead of finding contradictions within a week, it finds patterns across your whole collection. Instead of suggesting what to write next Tuesday, it shows you what argument you've been building without realizing it.
The core principle is the same: More context produces deeper insight. A Gem with two articles and three pieces gave you a productive week. A Gem with your full body of writing gives you something closer to a map of your own thinking.