(Does this count as something for Julyreply?)
In 2023, I wrote an article called AI as a tool to lower the inertia of getting started. I mentioned how LLMs had helped me to get the engine running rather than writing the words for me and referenced another article which mentioned how ChatGPT had lowered the inertia
of starting to build something.
This seemed like a great idea at the time and for a few years after, I still thought it was. But it’s 2026 now and the landscape has changed dramatically (it was bad before but it keeps getting worse). People keep losing their jobs over this stuff, I’ve talked about how AI bores me, and this tech is being shoehorned into everything at the expense of everything. I’m not doing a 180 on the idea of lowering inertia but I’m questioning whether it should be used for that at all.
I also don’t see this as an solo epiphany. Plenty of people have said how stumbling to a start point is part of the process. I just didn’t buy into it completely when I should have. I think the thing that really clicked for me was a video I watched today by Adam Neely about Berklee going all in on AI in its music courses and why that’s a terrible idea. As part of that, Adam posted clips from Suno co-founder Mikey Shulman who said people didn’t like making music anymore and that music should be interactive and that it was crazy
that music wasn’t
as engaging as Fortnite.
I’d actually heard about this at the time but blocked it out after likely crashing out for 5 minutes (I don’t remember if I did but I assume I did). I love making music. I might struggle to get started but I have enough tools to lower that inertia and none of them are generative AI.
And with all of that, I realised that using AI as creative jumper cables wasn’t a great idea. If I need to get going, I can read a book, go for a walk, watch a video, play music, eat, drink, literally anything else. I don’t need this stuff. And truth be told, I don’t really get creative block anymore and even if I draw a blank, I just wait until it comes back. But like I said, I have tools and literary devices in reserve.
A bit of inertia ain’t so bad.
Buy me a coffee or a pledge!
