Ideas vs Facts: Choosing the Right Mode
Two modes, two jobs: Ideas helps you think and create from an open brief; Facts answers from sources you trust. Knowing which to pick is half the work.
- basics
- product
A single chat box pretending to be good at everything is a quiet source of bad answers. Brainstorming and fact-finding are different jobs with opposite rules: one rewards imagination, the other punishes it. Trying to do both in the same mode means one of them is always being done wrong.
That's why there are two modes — Ideas and Facts — and why picking the right one is half the work.
Ideas: think and create from an open brief
Ideas mode is for when the answer doesn't exist yet and you're trying to make it. Drafting, naming, planning, reframing a problem, exploring options you haven't thought of. Here you want the model to range freely, propose, and improvise. Invention is the point.
Reach for Ideas when you'd say things like:
- "Help me outline a talk about…"
- "Give me ten angles on…"
- "Rewrite this so it sounds warmer."
- "What am I not considering here?"
The mediator does its job up front — a few tap-to-answer questions, then a clear, well-scoped prompt you can compare with what you typed — and the conversation that follows is generative by design.
Facts: answer strictly from sources you trust
Facts mode is the opposite discipline. The answer already exists, in a document or a source, and your job is to extract it faithfully. Here improvisation is a bug. You don't want a plausible figure; you want the real one, with a quote you can check and arithmetic that's exact.
Reach for Facts when you'd say things like:
- "What does this contract say about termination?"
- "Total the figures in this CSV export."
- "Does this report support the claim that…?"
- "Summarize these three documents — and cite where each point comes from."
In Facts mode, "the sources don't say" is a correct answer, quotes are checked against your sources, and calculations go to a built-in calculator.
A simple rule of thumb
| Ideas | Facts | |
|---|---|---|
| The answer… | doesn't exist yet | already exists in a source |
| You want the model to… | invent, explore, draft | extract, verify, stay grounded |
| Made-up detail is… | sometimes the point | always a defect |
| Best for | creating | checking |
If you're making something, choose Ideas. If you're checking something, choose Facts. When a task has both — say, drafting a proposal from a real brief — start in Facts to pin down what's true, then move to Ideas to build on it.
The mistake isn't using AI for the wrong task. It's using the wrong mode for the right task.
Two modes, two jobs. Knowing which you're in is the difference between an answer you can trust and one you only hope is right.