I wrote a blog post using AI a few days ago. I did the initial research and came up with the basic structure and a set of bullet points. Then I gave it to Claude to write it up for me - polish the sentence structure, pull out data and references from the internet, and fix some numbers. It generated a nice-looking blog post. Here it is.
When I published it, I did not feel the excitement or the energy of publishing something that I used to get before. Later I realized something was completely missing. Let me explain.
Writing for me has always been about structuring my thoughts, getting clarity, and coming to an understanding with myself. When I think of something and I have multiple directions of that thought going on in my head, I like to write so I can consolidate those directions into something that I can accept as my own understanding of that particular topic. This time, when I did it with AI, that effect was not there. I did not get to align my thoughts. I did not get that clarity. I did not get the structure in my head, and it was completely unsatisfactory. Writing is a thinking process for me. When I outsource the writing to AI, I am basically outsourcing my thinking. Well, I cannot accept that.
I realized there’s no point in writing with AI when you don’t get the desired side effects. Yes, it may add another item to the list of my blog posts, but at the end of the day it does not give me what I wanted from it. I’ve realized I should not be writing anymore using AI. At least not my personal blog posts. However, on the other side, technical writing for my projects could be done with AI, and that seems fine to me. Because these writings - documentation and project announcements - generally don’t require structuring of thoughts or getting alignment, they are more about sharing information about a particular thing, which can be easily and more efficiently done with AI.
When I want to structure my thoughts around a topic, I would prefer not to write with AI.