Hi everyone,
Since the emergence of ChatGPT, the most common question has been: which jobs will AI replace? There’s been plenty of discussion on this topic, and it’s certainly worth exploring. But I’m more interested in asking: What abilities will AI cause us to lose? And which abilities will we choose not to let AI replace?
“Writing”
“Good Writers” vs. “Those Unable to Write”
Paul Graham, in his latest blog post "Writes and Write-Nots", discusses why writing is irreplaceable and why he chooses to keep writing. The article primarily covers the following points:
Writing is difficult because clear writing reflects clear thinking, and clear thinking is incredibly challenging.
The difficulty of writing can be glimpsed in many academic plagiarism cases. Often, the plagiarized content isn’t the difficult part but rather the basic elements that anyone with foundational skills could complete. This reveals that some of these professors lack even basic writing ability.
AI has broken down the barriers to writing, making the pressure of writing disappear instantly. This divides the world into two groups: “good writers” and “those unable to write,” with no middle ground.
Is this a good thing? Paul Graham doesn’t think so. He cites a quote from Leslie Lamport:
If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking.
In the pre-industrial era, people became strong through labor-intensive work. Now, becoming strong requires deliberate exercise. Similarly, only those who choose to be strong can become strong today.
Only those who choose to write can excel at writing, and only those who choose to be smart can become smart.
Writing Is a Form of Communication with “People”
Writing has a clear purpose—whether it’s to persuade, communicate, convey subtext through information, or invite others.
“Others” include colleagues at work, company CEOs, clients, government agencies, family, friends, lovers, crushes, people you dislike, or those you want to build relationships with. Often, these roles overlap.
For example: a client = someone you dislike, a CEO = someone you dislike, a government agency = someone you dislike, a family member = a [fill-in-the-blank] person.
Writing isn’t just about long essays, novels, or prose. It also includes textual or verbal communication, presentations, summaries, and messages.
All of these can be done with AI, but the result is often formulaic. From my own unfortunate experience, messages written by AI fail to convey subtext. Subtext relies on factors like the emotional state of the recipient, their MBTI personality type, their preferences (strengths or flaws), market conditions, stock or crypto prices, recent interactions with the CEO, the company’s current situation, and the company’s priorities.
In contrast, a message I craft manually can truly incorporate: what the other person has been thinking lately, my goals, what I need to express, my intended outcome, market conditions, the company’s recent status, and our recent interactions.
The reason for incorporating this context is that we’re communicating with “people.”
People are complex, full of gray areas, often irrational yet sometimes highly rational, and emotional. To successfully persuade, communicate, invite, or convey subtext, we need traditional, hands-on writing—not AI-generated messages.
Through continuous writing, we can refine our communication with people.
Writing isn’t just a matter of word combinations and probabilities; it’s about the person reading or listening to what we write.
I don’t play the odds, I play the man.
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