Have you ever been hypnotized?
I have.
Well, I acted like I was anyway.
During my senior year of college, we had a hypnotist perform at an event at my college. I didn’t believe it was real, so when he asked for volunteers, I went on stage.
I knew he couldn’t hypnotize me, and he didn’t.
Yet to avoid seeming like I was the only one who wasn’t doing what he asked, I caved. I acted like he had me in a trance, and I did everything he asked the other students and me to do.
Peer pressure is powerful.
Not only then but now too.
If “everybody” is doing it, you should too.
I caved.
After writing 100% of my blog post, I caved to the pressure to use AI.
Everybody is using it.
It can make your writing so much better.
You’ll complete tasks more quickly.
I thought it did make my writing better, but I felt like a fraud.
AI didn’t do all the writing. Everything started with me, but then to “improve” it, I let ChatGPT do the heavy lifting.
I thought my writing was good. Some agreed.
I was playing the part. I was hypnotized by the sexiness of it.
My friend and speaking colleague Mark Schaefer saw through it. Last week at breakfast, he told me, “It’s obvious that your posts are ChatGPT-ized. They really aren’t that good.”
In his new book, How AI Changes Your Customers, Mark writes about Cognitive Offloading:
“We turn to ChatGPT instead of struggling to come up with our own ideas. We get summaries instead of reading for ourselves. We request rewrites instead of human revisions. The friction that once led to insight – the long walk around the block to solve a problem – is bypassed. And without that friction, we risk losing something essential: depth, synthesis, struggle, and originality.”
From now on, what you read here will be all me – 100%. I might use AI for a resource, statistic, or quote, but it will be all my thoughts – hopefully with depth, synthesis, struggle, and originality.
Thank you, Mark!
