Why do I write what I write?
“Everyone in my class uses chatGPT to do their assignments. I am the odd one out!”, proclaimed my twelve-year-old. “School kids relying on generative AI? What has this world come to?”, I silently wondered, while reassuring the kid that she was doing the right thing by utilizing her brain cells than artificial intelligence, for homework. I emphasized to her the importance of hard work and the satisfaction of creating something on one’s own. Though it was an answer to her harmless question, I knew, I was trying to put my interrogative mind to rest.
I strive to squeeze in an hour every day, amidst my busy schedule, to write articles. The joy of creating content is unparalleled, but the process is painful. Mental labor is more strenuous than physical. Still, I choose to do it every day. And when I see many content creators use artificial intelligence to ease the pain of creation, I feel let down. I feel hard work is totally underrated and those using genAI have an unfair advantage. As I answered my daughter’s question, I pondered if I was being too cynical in concluding that true happiness lies in creating original content. I recalled that, I had used chatGPT for a boring assignment in MBA class, a fact that I conveniently kept away from my daughter. Is it all that bad to use AI tools in this era? How about stuff that we write out of compulsion, which are of minimal value to us? Some assignments, for example, are so full of theory and are nothing but reproduction of content from various text books. Why waste human intelligence for this kind of mundane, non value added work?
Every piece of writing serves a purpose. There are three fundamental goals that drive my writing gambit.
- Become an author
- Have an outlet for my emotional ebbs and tides
- Be perceived as an established leader in my area of expertise
I write every day on Medium, to achieve goal #1. What started as an amateurish attempt to overcome writer’s block, has transformed into a beautiful daily ritual. This is the first activity I engage in after opening my eyes. I know that, publishing my first book is going to be an uphill journey. But with every story or post that I write, I am eliminating the hurdles on this path — lack of time, self doubt, lack of good content and everything else that has been holding me back for years. I believe that, with every passing day, I am inching closer to my dream. This ritual involves not only the brain but also the heart. Seeking the aid of artificial intelligence to achieve this goal is like outsourcing my dream to someone else. Absurd and meaningless.
#2 is not a deliberate goal. I stumbled upon it while pursuing goal #1. The day I realized that dumping my personal experiences and life lessons on paper is a great way to declutter my mind, I embraced this method wholeheartedly. Spilling my fears, anxieties and discomfort on paper has helped me tackle them more objectively. Writing down the worst moments of life is the best way to destroy the bad memories associated with them. It is a stress buster and a pain reliever. No AI bot has a role to play in this deeply intimate experience.
I write domain specific blogs, product research articles and leadership posts on LinkedIn and my other medium profile, to achieve goal #3. This goal is centered around my professional life. The virality of these articles determines my visibility and success in the professional arena. I cannot risk my image by writing anything in mind. The readers of these posts are well informed technology and product professionals. I have to create content that appeals to them and gives them newer learnings. While most of the articles capture curated elements from my career and leadership journeys, some of them are pure research based content. The kind of content that can be created by human intelligence and augmented by artificial intelligence. Today, I rely on Google to conduct my research, in addition to hands-on field work. But I guess, chatGPT can also be of aid here, and probably do the job faster than the traditional techniques I employ. It may help me focus on more value added content creation.
In summary, AI generated content need not be seen as a taboo. Depending on the purpose and the context of writing at play, gen AI can be used judiciously. The simple rule of thumb that I follow -
- HI for creation i.e. content that is novel, original and personalized
- AI for discovery i.e. finding and collating content that already exists in the world wide web
This is my philosophy and these are my views on writing. It suits me. Yours may be different. As long as you have clarity on why you write what you write and where you draw your energy from, choose the writing options that suit you. As long as you do not let AI suck all your creative juices and leave you with a void, leverage tools that work in your favor. And remember, it is human intelligence that created artificial intelligence, and will create bigger wonders in the days to come, if we let it bloom and flourish.
