Writing when you have AI

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Writing before AI
And then came AI
The value of writing with AI

My relationship with writing is changing, and it's because of AI (again)

I always say that writing is the best way to organize your thoughts 🤔

It still is, but with AI there is another way, and, sometimes, it's more direct than writing 👇

Writing before AI

You have a doubt, a question. It's usually complex, you have a general opinion about the answer, but the ideas are scattered.

Welcome writing! Organize your ideas on paper 🏗️

That's how it always was. You can see it in my website, and this newsletter as well 💁🏼‍♂️

In the years past, I published a lot of no-tech writing. All questions and answers I had in my mind:

Those essays took a while. Not only of actual writing time, but also thinking and researching. And cleaning up drafts.

But the goal was always the same: reorder ideas, and find an answer 💡

And then came AI

The latest full essay I release is dated 25 April 2025. A while ago. Before AI.

That's not because AI is taking all my time away. Or because I have no more idea, or nothing to write about.

It's because the curiosity of finding an answer is satisfied/revealed with a chat with AI 👀

It works like this now:

I have a question
I ask AI about it
AI expands the nuances of the question
I explore them with AI
I realize the answer is way more complex than I thought

My question has been answered. My curiosity satisfied. And I also realize how complex an essay would get if I had to write it with all the nuances I discovered 🙌

So I stop there, no reason to put all this down in words anymore 💁🏼‍♂️

The value of writing with AI

There is a caveat on the above:

The questions AI can answer are more objective/practical stuff 🤔

If I am curious about some concrete process, principle, dynamic, or anything that has a clear response online, AI just finds it, and reports.

And that's enough to satisfy me, and give me the answers I need. And not write.

But AI cannot answer personal questions, report a personal experience, or produce fictional writing on my behalf 💡

As such, my writing is bound to shift more towards what I do, how I react, and possibly more fiction and stories (I already have a few, for example).

Just to be clear: writing is as powerful as before.

You should do it, no question. But now we also have a new tool, which is just as powerful in its own domain.

And you should use that as well 🤖

On the tech side, a lot more work into @typeonce/effect-machine, and now also @typeonce/effect-machine-devtools 👇