Why Outsourcing Your Thinking to AI is a Bad Idea.
ChatGPT has made it easier for anyone to write about a subject they may not understand with a simple prompt. Is this good for the world?
Over a year ago, Paul Graham wrote an essay about how technology shapes our thinking. In it he writes about writing and thinking. These are two subjects I have written about as well. One cannot exist without the other.
Writing is an extension of your thinking. You write to clarify your thinking; make it more concise; share knowledge. And great writing is not easy to do. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of writing and a lot of reading and a lot of thinking. And you need to do this on repeat to get your point across. I write every day with a pen in a journal. This is my method of trying to master this craft.
But what happens when you stop writing to think and instead have tools like ChatGPT do the writing for you? Are you still thinking? Are you even thinking with clear intentions? We need to have the skills and knowledge to prompt the service with the right questions. But if you are allowing it answer for you what does that say about your own ability to think??
I have my own problems with these tools as well. They decrease the value of creative work by making it easy to create with a prompt. No wonder artists are getting mad. I would be too if someone claimed to be a great artist because they told a machine to make a piece of “art” in the style of what I do. I’ve made a living creating music cues for a video game company. There is a bit of nihilism involved when a computer can create faster than you at a tenth of the time needed. Prices decrease when value decreases.
When it comes to tech, the speed at which it creates content isn’t what bothers me. Technology was always heading towards an outcome like that. What bothers me are the number of people who will no longer feel the need to work at their craft. They instead choose to outsource their thinking and their work to a machine. What a bummer.
It doesn’t matter if it’s tech-nihilism causing people to leave the workforce. Or if it is people who outsource their thinking to their tools. Both of these paths lead towards danger. And that danger is the inability to think.
What happens to the world when everyone uses a tool like ChatGPT to outsource their writing? They may enter a prompt to get a written response, but these people aren’t thinking about the subject any longer. My fear is that deep thought will become a scarcity in society. And yes, I know many people would argue that has already happened. But when you come to depend on these types of tools for far too long, who becomes the master in this type of arrangement? I foresee the tools winning out in this race.
Graham argues we became less dependent on our bodies for work after the Industrial Revolution. And over the decades, if we wanted to remain in shape or get in shape, we needed to work at it in an active way. Go to the gym; a run; a bike ride; lift weights. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you are working out and getting in shape. Will we need to start doing something similar for our own thinking? His answer is yes.
If people want to remain deep thinkers they will have to be active about it. And the best way to become a clear and concise thinker is to write. And write a lot. I know I need to write much more. And to write more, I need to think more. And my thinking needs to be clear and focused.
In the end, my own essay about writing is more of a call to action to myself. Write more often. Share your writing. It’s something you have been wanting to do now over the past couple of years. The only person holding you back, is you. So go have a deep think, write about it, think some more, and write some more.