There’s a lot of talk about how the chatbots make you dumber.
On the one hand, that sounds like the usual moral panic that every new technology faces.
On the other hand… yeah, the codeghosts are like IQ vampires. It’s not just them, though. Any outsourcing of your writing ends up outsourcing your thinking.
Unless you write prolifically and daily, it can be hard to get how clarifying writing is. I don’t think I’ve understood something until I’ve either gone for a walk or written a thousand words on it.
If you aren’t writing, you aren’t thinking.
So get to thinking.
Hmm?
What’s that?
Oh, you don’t have the time to write hundreds of words a day?
If you think that, then you haven’t read I Wrote This On A Monday. The simple, practical exercises contained within will supercharge your writing speed.
It’s not about typing faster. I’m not that quick on the keyboard. But I’m a fast and clear thinker, which translates into a constant stream of words on the page.
The benefits of writing go beyond that, even in this era where chatbots are cheap and plentiful:
- In a world saturated with slop, human writing stands out,
- Writing gets your ideas flowing. I’ve come up with ideas for entire new products while writing to sell other ones,
- When you write instead of outsource – whether to a codeghost or a freelancer – you connect with your audience better,
- The simple pride that comes from doing honest, meaningful, creative work,
- Writing allows your personality to ooze through, and branding is mostly about personality,
- It’s often quicker to write something yourself than wrangle a chatbot to do it, once you factor in all the wrangling and editing,
- It helps you learn what great writing sounds like, which you need to know to prompt chatbots and edit their outputs anyway,
- Writing is fun, especially the way I teach you to do it,
- The skills you learn transfer. Learning to write faster teaches you how to create podcasts, videos and interviews faster,
- Your writing is probably smoother, more persuasive and more interesting than chatbot slop. And if it isn’t, it will be after you get some practice in,
- All creative outlets allow you to express something deep, meaningful and personal. When you write something instead of outsource it, it reflects something inside of you that needed saying,
- It’s better to automate the tedious, clinical and impersonal parts of your business than the meaningful, personal parts like writing.
Or you could keep getting the codeghosts to do all your thinking for you.
Unless you find that thought unbearable, in which case you should read I Wrote This On A Monday: