Another post about AI. How I wish I could ask it to take over the chore of writing this one.
Oh wait. No I don’t. Developing my thoughts and putting together a coherent narrative is exactly the work I want to be doing. Like a well-practiced machine that’s been fed good inputs — in my case, decades of reading — I’ve gotten quite good at it. That’s part of what makes AI frustrating in certain contexts. Not because it exists, but because it keeps showing up in the places I actually want to be.
𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗜’𝗺 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝗳
The work I love outsourcing to any tool — AI or otherwise — tends to share a few qualities: time-consuming, not particularly interesting, and the kind of thing that contributes nothing to my skills no matter how many times I do it.
𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
I’ve been a fan of AI transcription since it first appeared. In the early days, when one service charged a dollar a minute, I was all in — I put over $3,000 toward it in the first year and it was worth every penny. Time-consuming, tedious, zero skill development. It’s only gotten better in terms of price and speed. Still not perfect — I still check quotes and spellings — but it’s one of the clearest wins going.
𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴
This one might not be pure AI, but it belongs on the list. Being able to share my calendar availability and let people book directly has eliminated the five-to-seven-email back-and-forth that scheduling used to require. No guessing games, no negotiating, no effort — just a time in the calendar. Love it.
𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
Here’s where I wish AI would step up — but it’s not ready. Every year I spend hours updating my contacts and hunting down new ones. I’ve hired humans for this task before, and I was genuinely excited to hand it off to AI. Then it fabricated half the contacts. So: not yet.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴
If the work I want is the work that brings out my most human qualities, then I’m happy for any tool that clears the path to it. I’ll use AI — enthusiastically, in the right places — but what I’m really after is protecting the work I don’t want to give away.
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