The Question Is More Important Than the Answer (AI’s Secret Power Move)

When you’re using AI, the quality of your question determines the quality of your answer.

Most people treat AI like Google on steroids—asking simple questions and expecting magical answers. However, copywriter Donovan Rittenbach uses a completely different approach that turns AI into a thought partner capable of revolutionary insights.

He calls it “Move 37.”

What Is Move 37?

In 2016, Google’s AlphaGo played against the world champion at Go (a game more complex than chess). During game two, the AI made Move 37—a play so unexpected that no human would ever consider it. Experts initially thought it was a mistake.

Instead, it revolutionized how the game is played.

Move 37 represents breakthrough thinking that comes from asking questions humans wouldn’t naturally ask. Therefore, when Donovan uses AI, he doesn’t just ask for answers—he asks AI to give him his own “Move 37.”

How to Get Your Own Move 37

During our AI for Business training, Donovan demonstrated this live. First, he explained the concept of lateral thinking—approaching problems sideways instead of head-on. Then, he asked AI a simple but powerful question:

“Give me a Move 37 on [your problem].”

In this case, the problem was: “Why should customers care about my business?”

The Breakthrough Answer

AI didn’t give a list of marketing tactics. Instead, it completely flipped the question:

Stop asking “Why should they care about me?”

Ask instead: “What do they already care about that I’m interrupting?”

This inversion reveals something critical: You’re not starting from zero. You’re entering an existing flow of attention.

As a result, your relevance isn’t about your merits—it’s about the gap or friction in what they’re already doing. So the real question becomes: What makes their current path inadequate enough that a detour through me is worth it?

The Shift in Thinking

Notice what happened here. The question shifted from:

• “Why hire me?” to “What’s breaking in your team that you keep having to patch?”
• “Why read this?” to “What questions keep resurfacing that you haven’t resolved?”
• “Why value me?” to “What are you trying to do alone that’s harder than it needs to be?”

You go from justifying your existence to identifying unsolved tension. That’s the power of a Move 37 question.

But Wait—It Gets Deeper

When Donovan asked AI to “blow his mind,” the response was profound:

“You’re asking the wrong entity. Mind-blowing insights don’t come from external voices. They come from collisions between incompatible things you already believe.”

In other words, breakthrough thinking doesn’t come from collecting more information. Instead, it comes from confronting your own contradictions.

AI suggested this exercise: Pick two beliefs you hold strongly that seem unrelated. Force them into the same room. Where do they conflict?

For example:

• “I should be authentic” + “I need to be strategic”
• “My time is my most valuable resource” + “I waste hours on social media”

The insight isn’t in resolving the tension. Rather, it’s in seeing that you’ve been operating as if both were true while keeping them carefully separated.

The Real Move 37

Stop collecting insights. Start confronting your own contradictions.

Your mind is already primed to blow itself. You just need to stop letting incompatible truths ignore each other.

How to Use This in Your Business

Next time you’re stuck on a problem, try this:

First, ask AI to “think laterally about [your problem].”

Then, ask for a Move 37—something nobody else is thinking about.

Finally, when you get an answer, ask yourself: What contradictory beliefs am I holding that are keeping me from seeing this clearly?

The breakthrough isn’t in the AI’s answer. Ultimately, it’s in how the AI’s question forces you to think differently.

Ready to master AI for your business?

This is just one insight from our complete AI for Business training with Donovan Rittenbach. Watch the full 51-minute session where he demonstrates live examples of writing sales copy, conducting customer research, and using AI as your “third brain” for real business results.

Watch the full AI for Business training here

Stay Groovy!