Telling AI to Write It Doesn't Mean You Wrote It

When you are a teenager, you say and do a lot of dumb things. But there is one thing I said when I was a teenager that really takes the cake. I think this is the dumbest thing I ever said as a teenager.

My high school partnered with a local travel agent who also happened to be a parent at the school to organize a 2-week trip to Europe, specifically Italy and Ireland, for just $900. And my friend, even in 2003, $900 was super cheap for a 2-week international trip. I didn't want to go. My dad urged me to go. He said he would even pay for it because it is a great experience and an incredible opportunity. And I responded, why do I need to go when I can just look at pictures online? 17-year-old Joe, you were so, so stupid.

Having rectified this terrible statement first by going to Ireland for 2 weeks in 2005, then Italy for 2 weeks in 2016. I now have fully experienced the incredibly stark difference between looking at pictures and actually experiencing the place for all it has to offer. And I am a better person for it.

And my friends, why am I telling you about this very stupid thing I said? Because I am once again thinking about how in 2026, we are substituting summaries and shortcuts for actual experience. And that's what I want to talk about today.

Hey everybody, and welcome to The Streamlined Solopreneur, where I help overwhelmed coaches, consultants, and service providers build systems so that their business doesn't depend on them. Each week I share one practical idea to help you beat overwhelm, get your time back, use AI conscientiously, and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life or your health. And today I want to talk about using AI to do things that we should do ourselves.

I'm once again hearing a lot of buzz around AI being good enough to write for us. And the common thing I am hearing is, well, it's my idea, so why does it matter if AI actually writes the words for me? But just like looking at pictures of Italy doesn't mean you've been to Italy, telling AI to write something for you doesn't mean you wrote it. Or even that is, it is a faithful execution of your idea.

And I know what the detractors are saying right now. No, you don't understand. I trained it on my voice, and I've got a bunch of agents going through and iterating, and I give it feedback. It doesn't mean it's yours. It is the average of what you've trained it on plus what it has been trained. And I get it. Writing is hard. Coming up with ideas is hard, but that's also what makes it worth doing.

And if you'll forgive my mixed metaphor here, I worry that we are becoming tourists in our own lives. Let AI write for me. Let AI create this image for me. Let AI summarize this thing instead of actually consuming it. This was my AI manifesto. Don't become a tourist in your own life. Don't let AI steal your life. And when you let AI write for you based on an idea that you had, you are letting it steal your life because I've said this in previous episodes. We don't need the best prose. We don't all need to be Shakespeare or whoever your favorite writer is. We do need to be able to communicate what we are thinking clearly. And if we let AI do that for us, we are not doing the thinking. We are not doing the organizing, and we are going to lose that skill.

If I had never gone to Italy, I would have never tasted wine from Florence. I would have never seen the Statue of David up close. I would have never had limoncello in Sorrento. I would have never gone to the Murano glass factory. I wouldn't have those incredible memories and so much more. I would have an idea of what Italy could be like.

What can we do to make time to do our own writing? Even if you do let AI copyedit your work, try this.

First, you want to make ideas as easy to capture as possible. I recommend using a voice notes app. I also have a shortcut on my phone and on my computer that when I come across an interesting link, I can send it to a read-later folder as easily as possible. But just capturing those ideas and putting them somewhere is step 1.

Then block 45 minutes of time when you work best, right? For me, it's the morning. For you, it might be the evenings. But you want to block 45 minutes of time when you are at your best and give yourself a hard constraint of 300 to 500 words. That's it. You don't need to write 2,000 words. You don't have to write some epic every time you sit down to write. Give yourself a constraint: 45 minutes, 300 words based on an idea that you logged earlier in the week. When time is up, take a look at what you have.

I'm willing to bet you get further than you think, but I'm also willing to bet you are clearer on the thing that you were writing about. Because yeah, there will be people. I read an article from Every— I think that's the name of the periodical— that pushes back on the idea that writing is thinking because people think differently and process things differently. And that is absolutely true. But that doesn't mean that we all shouldn't be able to think.

Even if we are not wording things in the best way possible, we are sitting down and doing the work and putting whatever thoughts we have down. We're churning through the idea ourselves instead of outsourcing that and getting the average of whatever the model is trained on back, or the average of whatever the model is trained on, plus its little watermarking thing now. We should care about the words that we're using because they are a reflection of us.

And so don't be a tourist in your own life, or don't settle for pictures when you can actually visit the place. If you are wondering if you rely on AI too much, cuz this is really what it's about, cuz the other thing I'll say here is I know people who let AI write for them, and then they read it, and they go, this sounds just like me. When everybody else knows it doesn't. They have deluded themselves into believing the output is good enough for them.

And so if you're worried about that, I have a quiz for you. It's over at quiz.lovehate.ai, and it will tell you if you are at risk from what I'm calling AI brain rot and what to do to prevent it. But just doing your own writing goes a long way. If you don't wanna type, dictate it, fine, whatever. That's the point is that you're actually thinking through that. You're not just coming up with an idea and then shipping it off somewhere and saying it's yours. Because if that were the case, I would be the owner of Facebook.

I thought about Facebook 6 months before Mark Zuckerberg did. I said, there should be a MySpace for college students, but I didn't do anything to make it happen. I just thought of the idea. I just had the picture. I didn't create the experience.

That's it for this episode of The Streamlined Solopreneur. If you know somebody who needs to hear this, share this episode with them.

Thanks so much for listening. And until next time. I hope you find some space in your week. Bye.