Thanks for sharing those great perspectives. As for me, I find that I’m compelled to write when an idea simply won’t let go of me. It could be any time of the day or night and it doesn’t have to be extensive; just delicious in its own way. Occasionally it’s a chain of thought that I find compelling, and I would welcome reading it even if somebody else came up with it and framed it in their own unique style. If it’s a worthy idea then it’s on me to take the time to polish it and hold it for delivery. Although I’ve done this on Medium, I haven’t had the courage yet to do it on Substack. I feel it had better be damn good in every respect if I plant it there.
"Although I’ve done this on Medium, I haven’t had the courage yet to do it on Substack. I feel it had better be damn good in every respect if I plant it there."
That was me, too, Paul! Substack has proven way better than Medium much faster for me in the end. I had to let go of my perfectionism, though!
You wonder whether the distinction between the types of writers becomes clearer in the short to medium term. Those of us who love writing will keep doing so, possibly shifting even further towards innovating in how we write and being more creative. Those who write because they have to, may slide further towards generative AI’s OK-ish style of writing. Yes, the letter will improve in the long term, but perhaps, by then, the two groups of writers would have diverged significantly.
Ah nice. I was just talking to someone about this earlier today - setting aside income needs (which is a big aside) there will always be people who love to write, and people who love to read. There's no reason AI has to replace this space ... I hope it makes space for more of it, eventually.
I've understood this great, though I can't deny that the presence of generative AI plunged me into a deep depression for at least the last two months and I've not been able to write again. Your article reminded me of the joy of writing for its own sake, though I still struggle at times with the sense of "what is the point of any of this?"
This really resonates with me! Writing is a passion and it’s a thrill to put what’s in my mind on paper/screen and match thoughts and words - a practice of poetry fuels the soul. Thanks for sharing.
I think your intentions of not using ChatGPT to write are very noble and virtuous. There is an additional reason that I think is worth considering. ChatGPT's writing is a regurgitation of everything already written on the internet. ChatGPT lacks the creativity to generate something new and different beyond what is already scraped from the Internet.
What will eventually happen with generative AI is that little by little everything will normalize and flatten out without us realizing it, until we fatally end up getting used to it. A large part of the written, visual, musical, and other creations will be the result of a regurgitation of everything that already exists in the immense data lake of the internet.
However, an authentic writer will always have the possibility of writing something new, disruptive, different, that evolves from the previous writings to born a new style, a new approach, a new perspective. And I think this is one of many differences that are very worthwhile to consider to write without using ChatGPT.
So, thank you so much for your excellent and interesting writings -authored by you-.
I spent several years as a columnist writing to deadline for business magazines in Japan, mostly for a semi-monthly magazine. Each MS was about 2200 words in English, on a subject of my choosing, and was set up in the context of a themed series that was to last about 1 year (24 issues, or a little more). Here are some of the pleasures of that:
• Coming up with a theme for the year (e.g., negotiations, metaphors in business, environment)
• Coming up with 24 or more topics fitting that theme
• Coming up with the architecture for the sequence of topics within that year
• Researching a new topic every 2 weeks, since mostly I was writing about issues I was aware of but was initially pretty ignorant about
• Taking a step back from what I'd read, and seeing if I could find a new angle for looking at the issue, new analogies to draw, etc.
• Coming up with the architecture for the individual article
• Putting words on the page, and in a rhythm and voice that my translator could convey in Japanese.
Thomas Mann is credited with saying that a writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than for other people. I certainly could feel the truth of that. But the grappling is also a joy. And sometimes it's more like inspiration: feeling like you have no idea of how to begin structuring something, staring at the ceiling for a couple of minutes, and then have an outline come pouring out of you faster than you can write it down.
I'd never give up ANY of those pleasures to a bot. And now that I'm teaching, I'd rather help my students discover those struggles and pleasures than teach them how to get an AI to regurgitate a stream of pre-masticated wood chips and sawdust from other people's work.
Thanks for sharing those great perspectives. As for me, I find that I’m compelled to write when an idea simply won’t let go of me. It could be any time of the day or night and it doesn’t have to be extensive; just delicious in its own way. Occasionally it’s a chain of thought that I find compelling, and I would welcome reading it even if somebody else came up with it and framed it in their own unique style. If it’s a worthy idea then it’s on me to take the time to polish it and hold it for delivery. Although I’ve done this on Medium, I haven’t had the courage yet to do it on Substack. I feel it had better be damn good in every respect if I plant it there.
"Although I’ve done this on Medium, I haven’t had the courage yet to do it on Substack. I feel it had better be damn good in every respect if I plant it there."
That was me, too, Paul! Substack has proven way better than Medium much faster for me in the end. I had to let go of my perfectionism, though!
You wonder whether the distinction between the types of writers becomes clearer in the short to medium term. Those of us who love writing will keep doing so, possibly shifting even further towards innovating in how we write and being more creative. Those who write because they have to, may slide further towards generative AI’s OK-ish style of writing. Yes, the letter will improve in the long term, but perhaps, by then, the two groups of writers would have diverged significantly.
"Those who write because they have to, may slide further towards generative AI’s OK-ish style of writing." Agreed. That's an important distinction!
Ah nice. I was just talking to someone about this earlier today - setting aside income needs (which is a big aside) there will always be people who love to write, and people who love to read. There's no reason AI has to replace this space ... I hope it makes space for more of it, eventually.
Hope you're right! Although I'd say we're the minority..
I'll take minority, as long as it's "fun niche" level and not extinction level. 😅
I've understood this great, though I can't deny that the presence of generative AI plunged me into a deep depression for at least the last two months and I've not been able to write again. Your article reminded me of the joy of writing for its own sake, though I still struggle at times with the sense of "what is the point of any of this?"
I can relate. The best we can do is fuel our joy of writing
This really resonates with me! Writing is a passion and it’s a thrill to put what’s in my mind on paper/screen and match thoughts and words - a practice of poetry fuels the soul. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading Stacey!
I think your intentions of not using ChatGPT to write are very noble and virtuous. There is an additional reason that I think is worth considering. ChatGPT's writing is a regurgitation of everything already written on the internet. ChatGPT lacks the creativity to generate something new and different beyond what is already scraped from the Internet.
What will eventually happen with generative AI is that little by little everything will normalize and flatten out without us realizing it, until we fatally end up getting used to it. A large part of the written, visual, musical, and other creations will be the result of a regurgitation of everything that already exists in the immense data lake of the internet.
However, an authentic writer will always have the possibility of writing something new, disruptive, different, that evolves from the previous writings to born a new style, a new approach, a new perspective. And I think this is one of many differences that are very worthwhile to consider to write without using ChatGPT.
So, thank you so much for your excellent and interesting writings -authored by you-.
I spent several years as a columnist writing to deadline for business magazines in Japan, mostly for a semi-monthly magazine. Each MS was about 2200 words in English, on a subject of my choosing, and was set up in the context of a themed series that was to last about 1 year (24 issues, or a little more). Here are some of the pleasures of that:
• Coming up with a theme for the year (e.g., negotiations, metaphors in business, environment)
• Coming up with 24 or more topics fitting that theme
• Coming up with the architecture for the sequence of topics within that year
• Researching a new topic every 2 weeks, since mostly I was writing about issues I was aware of but was initially pretty ignorant about
• Taking a step back from what I'd read, and seeing if I could find a new angle for looking at the issue, new analogies to draw, etc.
• Coming up with the architecture for the individual article
• Putting words on the page, and in a rhythm and voice that my translator could convey in Japanese.
Thomas Mann is credited with saying that a writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than for other people. I certainly could feel the truth of that. But the grappling is also a joy. And sometimes it's more like inspiration: feeling like you have no idea of how to begin structuring something, staring at the ceiling for a couple of minutes, and then have an outline come pouring out of you faster than you can write it down.
I'd never give up ANY of those pleasures to a bot. And now that I'm teaching, I'd rather help my students discover those struggles and pleasures than teach them how to get an AI to regurgitate a stream of pre-masticated wood chips and sawdust from other people's work.
This essay sounds excessively and needlessly narcissistic.
I guess you made today's quota?
Can you elaborate?