Stop using AI for this

I’ve spent THOUSANDS of hours drawing, since I was in kindergarten. But life gets in the way, and I just kinda stopped drawing about 10-12 years ago.

But I've been drawing more than I have in YEARS - ironically, because of AI.

As you may have seen, I’ve gone very very deep down the rabbit hole of AI images and video over the last year. It’s been really fun, and I’m very proud of what I’ve done with it, but I also felt like something was missing.

Like I was losing connection with the details, because AI let me move so insanely fast that they just flew past me…. and it didn’t feel good. I’ve heard other people say the same about writing code, and I think it's a real thing.

So I figured, if drawing is what built my skills in the first place, why not try going back to that?

It took a minute to get back in the groove but let me tell you, it felt GREAT! And importantly, not on an iPad - on actual pen and paper.

It’s probably 100x slower than using AI, but that’s exactly why it felt so refreshing Because it gives you time to think about all the little micro-decisions that add up to the final product:

→ Should the outline be thin, thick, or varying weights?

→ Is the purple blue- or red-tinted?

→ Is it OK if the T is a little wilder than the other letters?

Etc etc.

You could say that’s “inefficient,” but I think that misses the point:

→ Working through all those little nuances and tradeoffs is where you LEARN mastery of your craft

→ Using AI is where you APPLY mastery of your craft

The important thing is to think of APPLICATION and LEARNING as two separate (but important) things.

The reason I get great results out of Midjourney, Nano Banana, etc is because I spent 1000s of hours drawing. That’s how I know exactly what kind of line weight, texture, film grain, rendering style I’m looking for, and how to give the model the right direction to get there.

But when you use AI for anything and everything, you’re fast-forwarding through the things that help you attain mastery of your craft.

Which is totally OK, as long as you’re doing it INTENTIONALLY.

Eg, when you have Claude make a landing page for you, know that you missed out on the skill development you would have gotten from making the page by hand, and have a plan to make up for it.

Again - I love AI, and I use it all the time. But I think in a couple years, it will be universally known that the skill atrophy from overusing AI is very real.

So whatever your thing is - writing, data analysis, coding, etc - make it a habit to spend some time doing things the old, slow way.

We’ve been operating under the assumption that delegating things to AI is always, unquestionably good because it’s “more effiecient,” and I think that’s just completely wrong.

Ironically, I think the biggest advantage in the AI era will be in where you choose NOT to use AI - because you’ll be polishing your skills razor sharp. while everyone else’s are getting duller.

PS - I don’t have room for any new clients, so I have nothing to sell you. But I always love hearing from you, so hit reply and say hello if you liked this… or even if you didn’t 😊