AI will never replace the real YOU
Why “writer’s block” is not a problem, it's a calendar entry, guarded by silicon-based intelligence that knows exactly how you avoid your own work, and sometimes the muse needs a machine with receipts
Last summer, I was building an AI ghostwriter with the intention to offer purpose-led entrepreneurs a release valve on the pressures to create content.
...about 85% in, I gave up.
What started as genuine excitement ended up feeling just plain wrong.
Not cuz I wasn’t able to strong-arm the models into creating non-robotic-sounding prose.
It reached an astonishing level of impersonation.
(with forensic-grade analysis of one’s style of writing)
But there was something about it that felt performative.
Fundamentally misaligned with what I stand for.
Creative self-expression.
Deeply rooted human relationships.
The GREAT WORK of transmuting pain and struggle into art.
After months of work, I tossed the project in the bin by simply tuning into my why, the reason I started writing online in the first place:
To feel (process my emotions)
To think (clarify my reasoning)
To connect (find other creative rebels)
(Un)fortunately, none of that comes from tossing a half-baked idea into ChatGPT and making tweaks & edits here and there so it sounds more true.
I’m not shaming or condemning those who do
I get it.
I’ve done that.
And felt very little each time, deepened none of my neurosynaptic neuron pathways, and connected only on a para-social level.
This entire performance only triggered my struggle with finding true north on my moral compass.
The temptation is very real
Fueled by $ gazillion dollar marketing budgets and their proselytizers incentivized to make you believe you’re falling behind and you’re just not gonna make it without AI.
Remember the 50’s tobacco industry PR selling “freedom torches” to the suffragettes?
Remember the white coat MDs recommending Lucky Strikes?
Remember big Agriculture asking if you “Got Milk?”
Remember big Pharma convincing you that your depression is a result of your brain chemistry being slightly off?
Same playbook, different ambassadors
Take a sober look at the “creator economy”
Fear, uncertainty, & doubt about your livelihood.
People are leaving corporate water-cooler chats for “building a personal brand.”
(voluntarily, and not so much)
The pressure to make it on your own as a solopreneur and find your sense of purpose and meaning in a culture adamant on there being none is enormous.
Growth gurus shouting at you that all you have to do is show up on social media and start peddling your wares.
All you need is their stupid-simple playbook any monkey could follow to bring home $10K/month in under 60 seconds, and when that doesn’t work, it’s your lack of discipline or determination.
The (pre-cancer) Marlboro Man riding into the sunset, a billboard digital landscape equivalent
All of a sudden, you’re a lonesome cowboy.
Your faithful steed is the Warner Bro’s media company, minus the thousands of people on your team that make it work.
So you do what any warm-blooded mammal would.
You delegate and orchestrate
(to a VA if you’re resourced, or to an AI if not “yet”)
Just like most everyone else competing for thumbs up.
Becoming a one-man (and a dozen robots) band is no joke.
And if the day-to-day operational demands of running a biz weren’t enough, all of a sudden, you’ve got to become the CEO who can.
Clear your cache, do inner work, untangle emotional patterns keeping you in the loop, and please, for god’s sake, keep your sh*t together at all times.
Cuz otherwise, who’s going to hire you anyway?
Oh, and don’t forget to have fun.
Work is, after all, play.
Did you clear your chakras?
Did you tune in with your inner child, bro’?
Talk about mythic burdens of epic proportions, why don’t ya!
(Title inspired by This Emerald Podcast episode)
Sisyphus got nothing on us, modern humans (with ancient wiring)
Enough with the doom and gloom, Aleks
Just twist the knife already!
Right, much less-than-usual comedic bubble wrap I typically provide in my writing. (Are you ok?)
...let’s not lose sight of the importance of drama.
Catharsis is, after all, just as therapeutic as ecstasis
Both have their rightful place on the throne of apotheosis
Pain and struggle are part of the human experience.
(Did you read the fine print?)
It deepens your capacity.
It gives rise (and fall) to the civilization-scale project we find ourselves smack in the middle of.
(no pressure tho’)
I genuinely believe AI has a role to play in this adventure.
It just isn’t going to have the human experience in our stead.
It’s not going to replace YOU.
The blood, sweat, and tears.
The open flesh wounds.
The scar tissue.
Your capacity to think, feel, and connect.
We, humans, need belonging.
We, humans, need purpose.
What we apparently no longer need is a whole bunch of technical skills that our schooling system told us is what we should focus on, while making fun of the humanities.
Cuz now, a bunch of AI agents can do that job much better.
They can’t get you your morning cup of coffee (or green tea).
Yet?
But they/it sure can keep reminding us what we said we’re gonna do/be/have.
It sure can do a lot of the stuff our corporate-level exoskeleton did.
So, you see, I’m not against AI.
That’d be ridiculous of me, I’m a tech-minded geek after all.
(remind me to write an email about that one time I got electrocuted assembling a supercomputer and how I use AI as a chief of staff, chief operating officer, and chief developer, which aren’t really my strong suits tbh)
I am, however, firmly against using AI as yet another form of avoidance.
That’s why I’ll keep this Creative Rebels email list purely organic.
Farm-to-tablet, carbon-intelligence writing.
What I’m saying is that my writing block (a block of time on my calendar) is enforced by silicon-based intelligence scaffolding.
A system that knows my quirks, my avoidance patterns, my vision, and my mission.
Reminding me when it’s time to focus.
When it’s time to bleed my soul on the digital canvas.
P.S. If you, too, are tired of running from the unconscious patterns you’ve long outgrown and meet the parts of yourself running the show...
I’ve built a 50-minute imagination activation experience using Jung’s method for direct contact with the unconscious.
Use the “MAYMAGICK” code celebrating my daughter’s and our inner child’s birthdays on the checkout page, valid today until 23:59 UTC → [MAGICK MANSION: iOS]
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-- Your inner technology supplier
Aleksander Brankov
