It’s not hard for me to admit that AI is a better writer than I am. It’s faster, more succinct, and understands grammar far more than the impression my high school English classes gave me. Except for all the em dashes. What’s with all the em dashes? On a daily basis I rely on Claude and ChadGPT (let’s just go with Chad) to make emails sound more precise and organized. They help edit proposals for clarity and make them much more understandable than what I could do on my own.
So beyond all the code and error log help AI gives me, I absolutely rely on it for help with my writing. So why am I sill writing these words on this website, free of Claud’s influence? Let’s just say this:
There are Reasons. In no particular order:
Because I like writing
Even though I’m not great at it, I do like writing. I like the way it can get the thoughts in my head down on ‘paper’ and makes my ideas feel just a little more concrete. I journal almost daily. It’s an exercise in exorcizing my brain, more of a stream of conscious than logical plot. I also post infrequently on my personal blog which is more for my own archive than anything else. I try to be more directed here on Spigot, to have more of a point, and to write with the idea that the reader should come away with knowledge or understanding. I’ve written a lot about the problems I’ve faced and potentially solved, and while it may not always be grammatically correct, I know from the comments section that someone else got a problem solved as well. And that’s an awesome feeling.
I really like publishing
There is something so very satisfying about hitting the Publish button once a post is done. If I were a journalist or this blog had even a small fraction of the visits it used to I might be more cautious. It’s a feeling of accomplishment to see words on a page on a website that I built, organized in a semi-organized fashion. And the hope that someone else out there finds it valuable enough to read too.
My experience is not in the model
I’ve been designing, building, maintaining, troubleshooting, and fixing websites for a long time. Sure there are things about those experiences that are universal to everyone in this industry, but my experiences are mine. Those experiences are not part of the AI training data. I’ve written about a small fraction of the expertise I’ve gained over the years. It’s important to share that experience when it’s appropriate and can benefit others.
Authentic content is valuable
It sure seems like pure SEO chasing content has seen its day. The traffic on this site is a tiny fraction of what it used to be and honestly that’s okay. It was never a massive benefit to have thousands of people see a blog post and never even consider hiring Spigot. But I can be of value to my local community, and publish content that only I could write based on my experience. It won’t draw thousands of views but it will establish expertise that just may sway someone to trust us to build a site for them. I’ve always written from my own experiences. We did have a short period of writing for SEO sake, and those posts ‘performed’ well enough but again – traffic for traffic sake…
It would be an overcorrection to think blogging is dead
It’s my belief that AI – specifically the current LLM based chatbots are not coming for all the jobs or will be taking over the world. And it’s also my belief that with every new major technology some folks freak out and declare the end for us all. I have a good friend who works at a content creation agency and he tells me they’ve never been busier.
So if you’ve stopped writing or blogging because there’s no longer a need to blog in the age of AI – I’d encourage you to rethink that. Go write and enjoy clicking Publish.