Michelangelo is getting ready to paint the Sistine Chapel. He’d rather be sculpting, and is struggling to come up with an approach to this massive undertaking.

Shakespeare is writing Romeo and Juliet, but is stuck on the part where Romeo visits Juliet at the window. He has no idea what Romeo should say.

Marie Curie is working hard in her lab. She’s discovered higher than expected levels of radiation in ore, but she’s not sure what’s causing them.

None of them used AI to assist them in their work. Work that persists for hundreds of years.

I gave a talk at Podfest last week that delivered an increasingly important message: don’t let AI do the work that you should be doing.

A chorus I keep hearing over and over again is, “you have to use AI or you will fall behind.” It’s not true. And most of the people who are telling you that stand to make money off of people using AI.

What We Need is Time and Space

Humanity’s greatest works were created almost exclusively before the advent of computers, let alone AI. Michelangelo, Shakespeare, and Curie can attest to it. So can Beethoven, Ben Franklin, Ada Lovelace, and Virginia Woolf.

What all of these people had wasn’t a glorified word association machine. They had time and space to really think about their craft.

That’s what we all need in order to not fall behind — way more than AI.

We need to make time in our schedules to create. To think more. To go beyond the first idea…without asking AI to do it for us.

We create time and space by using the tools we have at our disposal.

This Doesn’t Mean Don’t Use AI

You might think I’m saying don’t use AI, but that’s not the case. We just need to remember that AI is not the creator, the thinker, or the originator. AI is a tool for us to use.

I don’t use it for first drafts or shallow ideas, or even an early “thinking” buddy. I want all of that to come from me so my ideas are not influenced by AI.

Instead, I’ll use it for:

• Crunching A LOT of data and finding patterns in source material.
• Doing some research. Usually, that means surfacing primary sources for me to review.
• Red Teaming (or finding holes in) my deeper ideas or outlines. I’ll only use it on ideas and thoughts once I’ve poked all of the holes I can think of.
• Proofreading my work. I have some very specific prompts around how it should review my work, including a directive not to rewrite anything.

Each of these things saves me appreciable time, and gives me the space to create good work.

You Won’t Get Left Behind. You’ll Stand Out

Contrary to what “the experts” are telling you, by not using AI you will stand out — for two reasons:

1. You won’t sound like everyone else.
2. You’ll actually show up for your audience/customers/clients in a way that people who rely on AI won’t.

I ended that talk with a story about my daughter. Last year she had a goal of selling 600 Girl Scout cookies; I told her I wouldn’t help her until she sold 300 on her own.

So she went out door-to-door, every weekend, in the freezing cold. She worked booths. People stopped on the side of the road when they saw her because it was so rare to actually see someone going door-to-door.

She ended up selling 640 cookies…more than double the next-highest girl.

Nearly everyone knows someone who’s selling Girl Scout cookies. They’re a commodity. So how did she sell so many?

Because instead of doing what most people (read: parents) do — post a link on social media or leave a QR code out at work — she showed up. And she stood out.

That’s how we should use AI. Not to create bland content that blends in with everyone else. But to give us the time and space to actually show up.

And stand out.

Joe

PS — this year, Teresa is motivated to sell 1,000 boxes. She’s already started going door-to-door, and we shot a video for those people we can’t reach. If you want cookies and don’t have a Girl Scout in your life, you can get them here.