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LM: #381: AI makes writing harder, not easier
People wonder what will happen to writers and writing now that AI is so “good” at writing.
Since AI can crank out what they think is good writing, many conclude that there’s no longer value in actually sitting down and writing.
I have found that AI actually makes writing much harder, rather than easier.
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The paradox is a bit like what happened as labor-saving devices made it “easier” to keep a clean house or clothes. Maybe the first people with a vacuum cleaner had an edge, but eventually everyone expected their house to be that clean. Trace that trend back to the era of dirt floors, or remember that even Kings rarely bathed, while we shower every day.
If you don’t see the point in letting AI write for you – as I don’t – the things it can do for you just increase your standards of quality. That image of perfection is a bit closer. You find yourself striving harder and longer to try to achieve it.
AI makes it much easier to:
- Explore more potential examples for illustrating a concept
- Find the work of others who have talked about similar ideas
- Get multiple rounds of feedback in a single session, instead of waiting weeks for test-readers (if you can find them)
- Connect your ideas to more complex fields, in which you can achieve a level of proficiency that wasn’t previously practical
- Get a reaction to more nebulous ideas
When you’re striving for the impossible, these create more work, not less. It means you have to:
- Consider more examples, finding the one that subtly edges out others in appropriateness and emotional tenor
- Read more of others’ work to verify your point-of-view
- Mentally slice-and-dice your own writing at multiple levels of abstraction – from the macro-level down to individual words
- Read more source material to get a deeper understanding in subjects that would have been too complex to bother with
- Follow ideas that were previously too hard to turn into something useful on your own
For my upcoming book, that meant I achieved a level of expertise in the Italian Renaissance that would have been out of reach before. The alternative would have been enrolling in a Masters or PhD program, which would have led me to writing a book on history, not creativity. AI essentially sent me on a self-directed research trip to Italy!
Previously, you were limited by how much mental heavy lifting you could do in a given session. Now AI is there to spot you to get in more reps after you’ve reached your limit. (AI makes Mind Management more important than ever.)
As it becomes more feasible to achieve a higher level of quality, the ways we find writing to consume also increase the importance of that quality. Algorithms are so sophisticated, you no longer need hashtags (thank God). The number of people you can reach is getting bigger – if you can edge out the growing pool of competition. The media environments of recent years rewarded quantity, and now the premium is increasing on quality.
If AI is making writing easier, you are Not Gonna Make It. It should make it harder.
Aphorism: “What is called ‘computer literacy’ does not involve raising questions about the cognitive biases and social effects of the computer, which, I would venture, are the most important questions to address about new technologies.” —Neil Postman (1985)
Cool: What happens when AI starts a lemonade stand?
Best,
David
P.S. Thank you to Eliza Saif for having me on The Art of Thinking podcast.
