By the Ocean
Cloudy 68 Degrees
7:32 a.m.
There are certain trends where it seems the smart thing to do is to go the other way. The current trend we see of “thinking less” seems to be one of them.
I remember back in music school when I’d play something for my teacher that I thought was pretty great. After hearing it, he’d spend the next few minutes readjusting my understanding of the journey that we were on.
By the end of the lesson, he’d pointed out that I’d aimed my skill at achieving a goal that was irrelevant. My “content” was great. But the context made it worthless.
In other words, I’d missed the point completely.
Oops.
The number of “amazing” tools that humans seem happy to outsource their thinking to right now is creating a similar situation.
When a client comes and says, “We created these 4 pieces of content [with A.I.] and would like your take on them…” I always have to take a moment and figure out how to deliver the bad news gently: “My take is that they suck.”
Technically, the work is done. But it’s a bit like building a skyscraper on a pile of sand. It doesn’t matter how quickly you can build UP if the structure of the foundation is idiotic.
Since none of these tools actually THINK, they end up delivering slop that has to be reimagined. But that’s just the beginning. Because the speed at which they can create this is so fast that it will trigger a clear response from the market.
Markets value scarcity. So what’s going to happen is, now that you can create content without any real work, insight or creative power, the value of content is going to go down. And because of the volume, every new piece of content will receive less attention than ever before. That’ll be fun!
You don’t need to be an economics wizard to know this.
What will become more valuable in this scenario?
REAL THINKING.
- Real thinking is what makes volumes of content unnecessary.
- Real thinking is what sets the direction of the journey.
- Real thinking is what generates insight invisible to others.
Never underestimate the human’s desire to give away his power and self-responsibility. So you’ve got plenty of time to double down on real thinking. I don’t know where the bottom is on this, but I doubt we’re even close.
It’s not the tool’s fault. The tool just magnifies the human’s lack of ability to THINK.
Thinking is a muscle. If you don’t exercise it, develop it, challenge it, it goes away.
If you want a good trend to follow, the development of your strategic and critical thinking skills is going to be a more profitable investment than ever.
Don’t expect any rewards from the masses if you go this way. But down the road, when the idiocracy that’s being created makes you look like a certified genius, they might start to notice.