AI is spoiling the art of writing (I did not use AI for this article)
I am going to hand write all my posts.
In the last 6 months, I used AI a lot to write my emails. I would voice type my thoughts into ChatGPT and ask it to write it into a neat article. When I read it, I felt that AI has formed the words and sentences much better than I could. But I also realized that it lacked life. It also made me lazy because I would write the entire article in 10 minutes instead of 1 hour like I usually do.
(Above image is generated by Google Gemini Nano Banana Pro. I am a writer, not an artist. So I guess you will excuse me for using AI for the featured image ha ha).
When I hand write an article without using AI, I think slower. When I voice type the article, I think faster. And sometimes thinking slow is really important for deep insights. Not technical insights, but philosophical insights. The insight that comes from the soul that is devoid of technicalities.
Humans are almost at a point where they can assemble a human, but still the machine will lack soul. No one can put consciousness into a machine. It can mimic consciousness, but it cannot wake up and feel the way we feel. And if it does, it is not human anyway, so why do we care? I can never fall in love with a machine, and you can neither.
The whole point of writing online was to connect with other humans and establish a soul-to-soul link. The words are a path to that connection, and not the connection itself. What you are reading right now is not words, but my soul’s vibration. Some people will not tune into that vibration (the people who don’t read this) and some, like you, will tune into the same frequency of vibration. And tuning in like that makes you feel something. That feeling of something is what AI took away from my writing (until now).
So I have decided to get back into writing and slow thinking. Let the words flow, and the thoughts flow along with it, slowly. Not a 5-10 minute voice note to ChatGPT. Thoughts can never flow like words. Thoughts are turbulent, like a flood. Words are smooth and slow, like a silent river. The river was once turbulent when it started, but eventually it finds its equilibrium.
I feel my writing journey is the same. It was turbulent before (writing with AI) and now it is back into the flow state. In fact it was slow before I started using AI and I really miss those days of deep writing flow states. I am having fun writing this article without AI. When I write I am in a state of flow and writing is therapy. Writing is not about communicating your thoughts to other people. Writing is about thinking. Writing is a process of thinking slow.
Writing also helps you make better videos. Because you are forced to be slow, steady and patient while writing - unlike talking or voice typing where your thoughts are turbulent. Try talking to a friend, it will be easy to do. However, if you are talking on stage in front of 100s of people, you will struggle. That’s because you are afraid of being judged.
The only way you will not be judged is when you are proud of your work. And work that you are proud of is not built overnight. It is done with patience and thoughtfulness. Writing is patient and thoughtful.
Only when you build it slow, you can dominate the competition. The art of writing is reminding me to build things slowly and consistently, and not rush towards completion.
I have decided to write almost everyday again, not because I want you to read non-AI articles, but because I enjoy writing and I am sharing my words with love and soulfulness.
Even when it comes to world-class products, we often fail to see the years of development that went into the project before it saw the light of the day.
Here are examples of projects that took years before they hit the market.
Projects That Took Years Before Success
Apple - iPhone: 2.5 years of development before release (2004 to 2007)
Tesla - Model S - Development started around 2007 & launched 2012 (≈5 years)
SpaceX - Falcon 1 & Falcon 9 - First rocket failures between 2006–2008 before success. It took nearly 10 years before reusable rockets became reliable and commercially viable
Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Early internal development in 2000 - public launch in 2006 (≈6 years). Now their biggest business
Nintendo - Switch: Prototyping began around 2012 & launched in 2017 (≈5 years)
Netflix - Started in 1997. Did DVD business for 10+ years before streaming took off
Figma - Founded 2012 & first public release 2016 (≈4 years). The “real-time collaborative design in browser” idea required years of deep engineering
Ok, I have to admit, the above references were taken from ChatGPT, but hey, I just used it for research, not for writing this article.
If you have read until this part, I really want your comment or email reply because I want to know if you felt like this was from my heart and soul than a lifeless AI putting together the words. Your words will motivate me to write more articles manually.
Cheers,
Deepak Kanakaraju