Using AI to write sucks
It would be probably okay if you use AI to automate boring things you don't have energy or dedication to write. Commit messages, release notes, chart explanation, summary, FAQ, the list goes on. But when you tell a story about you, your experience, your feelings, then you need to bring your true voice out and handwrite all of your thoughts.
I made a mistake of asking AI to generate the draft for my blog post about my indie hacker journey and let it write almost all the sentences after that. And I couldn't even bring myself to enjoy reading it. It sounded so monotone, no feelings or expression whatsoever, like something that could only be regurgitated by a machine. I kinda lost motivation to blog after that.
Yes, I followed some gurus on Twitter about using AI to cut effort in blogging and looking back, it was so stupid to believe in that wholeheartedly. No one likes fast food, and I think no one would like empty contents generated by AI either.
I've read tons of influencers' newsletters and blog posts, and none of them has the monotonous machine-sounded voice that I got from AI. They are all expressive, sound assertive and confident, click very well with me, and touch my heart in a very indescribable way. I envy them for being able to convey their thoughts so easily without relying on techs (maybe English is just my second language also contributing to this).
That was when I realized: When it comes to feelings, it must be expressed by me myself, not through a proxy like somethingGPT.
I like how dhh blogs: no header, section, paragraph whatsoever. Just blocks of text. Probably he just jotted down whatever was in his head. Yet I fully understand and sympathize with what he wrote.
Maybe it's better for me to just write down what's in my head, instead of planning ahead of what to write, how to sound more sophisticated like a band 9 IELTS essay etc... and being burned out and procrastinating on blogging after that. Simplicity is the key and it has never betrayed me. No more advanced tech for writing with feelings. I use Ulysses to draft my thoughts out, arrange them in a seemingly logical flow, and put on Notion (which also serves as my CMS). I don't touch any AI feature and probably won't do anymore in the future.
Btw, this blog is 1000% organically hand written. No AI bullshit whatsoever. Well, I may use it to proofread my blog and correct some embarrassing grammar mistakes or word choices, but never again I let AI write blogs for me. Ever.
