We live in very interesting times, for sure - reaching the heights we have never envisioned, making the progress we have never dreamt of, leaving the limits behind and reimagining how we do, think about and solve things. We have excellent models - gpts and likes of that - ready at our hands, offering ready-to-use answers and it’s very convenient, I confess. But, [dramatic pause], doesn’t it seem that we are letting go of all the knowledge behind the answer and the value with that?
Many people today think that books, blogs and other mediums that can channel human thoughts, experiences, ideas have become obsolete. Partly, this is caused by the overabundance of AI-generated content, significantly reducing the quality of the sincere human value behind the writing. And partly because both, writing and reading takes a lot of time and if majority has shifted to chat interfaces, for whom should we write or why should we waste time reading?
As humans, we don’t only learn from WHATs, but more than that - WHYs. Very often, the real lesson isn’t in the correct solution itself, but in the mistakes that led us there, or in understanding why alternatives failed. Learning means not only knowing what’s right, but also why it’s right and why other paths weren’t.
While AI provides quick, convenient solutions, it often skips the reasoning, mistakes, and personal experiences that make learning meaningful. Books, blogs and other human-written materials show the reasoning - false starts, the mistakes, the doubts, and the alternative routes that didn’t work out. And more than that, we feel the connection with the authors, who have gone through the same.
So, while AI may give answers right away, books, blogs, etc… and human interaction and its results in general shape how we think and act. That’s why fully AI-generated content feels like garbage right away - because there is zero human value behind it. You cannot shortcut experience.
As an illustration, take a look at one of the best reads about the troubles of debugging HERE and tell me you would get all of this experience from a 2-paragraph emoji-decorated GPT answer.
I’m not an AI hater, and I’m not trying to persuade you against using it. If this is what my blog looks like, then I’ve done a poor job writing it. My main point is to advocate being careful with it, not to make genuine human voices feel lost or obsolete.
After all, journey on the way to discovery is as and sometimes even more important than the destination, right?
Thanks to Tornike Onoprishvili for reading drafts of this.