New research shows that the top use case of ChatGPT at work is writing.
Unfortunately I work in marketing, have the unique privilege of reviewing a metric ton of copy, and am a consumer of digital content. It’s unfortunate because so much of content produced on the internet is AI slop, so much of what I review is AI slop, so many LinkedIn posts, blogs, newsletters are AI slop.
The fact that I don’t use AI to write feels like a dirty secret, to be whispered not declared. But I want to declare it and try to convince others that we should return to actually writing (at least an outline!) with our own minds.
I don’t use AI to write because writing is thinking.
Outsourcing my thinking to a large language model denies:
Myself the opportunity to untangle a mess of thoughts, half baked opinions, and non sequiturs to form a coherent argument, evaluate my assumptions, anticipate objections, and build empathy for the reader.
Readers the gift of unique, thoughtfully communicated insight. And frankly I’m delighted when I come across a real human voice on the internet and I think most people do too.
Writing is thinking. Thinking dictates how, where, and in what way I make an impact on the world. Thinking is sense making. Thinking compounds the skill to think better, more clearly, and more creatively. To outsource thinking is to erode my own capacity to generate impact and meaning. I see no good reason to do that. Do you?
Conversely, if you find that you cannot coherently write about something that means you cannot think clearly about it yet. The antidote to unclear thinking? Write, even if incoherent, then step away and then come back to it. The documentation of a present confusion and the distance created by expelling it on the page is more than enough to gain insights previously unavailable.
And on an emotional note, writing is a damn delight. What a unique magic it is to catch a ephemeral, weightless, invisible thread and stamp it as real in the material world. What a fun game of cognitive catch it is to make an argument, have it be received, engaged with, and lobbed back.
Here’s my proposition: write the key points of what you want to communicate without using AI. Then plug it into AI and let it build out the complete sentences, paragraphs, turns of phrase, and variations on the theme. You can also have AI critique your key points, evaluate your assumptions, or ask questions of any sources of ambiguity.
Do it for yourself. Do it for your readers. Do it so a tiny tiny piece of the internet is human again.