Call me old fashioned, but all this buzz about AI writing tools is misguided.

Short story short is this:

I do all my writing in Notion and have access to their AI tool. But I never use it. The trade off is this: Would I rather spend 10 minutes iterating on a single AI generated sentence, or 10 seconds writing it my way? Would I rather interrupt my flow or keep jamming out as fast as my fingers can type?

And the answer is always to keep on typing at the speed of thought.

Short story long involves a lot of money… and a lot of joy that can’t be bought at any price.

Synthetic diamonds, like AI writing tools, are all the rage these days. I heard an ad on the radio the other day that reminded me about the effort I spent shopping for my wife’s diamond ring.

To me, the diamond represents more than a few billion carbon atoms bonded together. Which is obvious… given the price and the sentimental value.

But it isn't a status symbol. It isn't intended to demonstrate our wealth or make her friends jealous.

The diamond is a symbol of our relationship.

And so, going into diamond shopping, I knew that size was less important than quality.

Many men opt for larger diamonds with no visible defects. However, these diamonds have minor asymmetries, invisible impurities,  and cracks.

All of which impact the brilliance of the diamond.

These diamonds symbolize the average American (I can’t speak for any other country) marriage:

On the surface it looks great. But below the surface there are cracks, unresolved problems, resentments, etc.

All of which impact the brilliance of the relationship.

So when I bought a diamond, I knew that I wanted to get the perfect specimen. Or as close as possible. Beyond what the naked eye could see. I wanted exceptional marks across the board. And I was willing to pay extra for it.

Because I knew that our relationship was built on a strong foundation and I wanted my wife to have a reminder of that— a reminder of our love—whenever she looked at her hand.

And if you’ll allow me to brag a little: It turns out that brilliance matters a lot more than size. In comparison to some of her friends who opted for larger but lower quality rocks, hers is a tier above. Exceptionally brilliant.

Now, it’s easy to get a perfect lab-grown diamond. But that is easy. Some might even consider it cheating.

And this is part of the game. It’s not enough for the diamond to be perfect.

It needs to be naturally perfect.

Our relationship isn’t “lab-grown.” We aren’t robots. And why would we want to be?

The beauty of the diamond is its natural brilliance. That seemingly random events and combinations of atoms could accidentally create something beautiful. That’s what makes the diamond valuable.

That the imperfections of two people could come together to build something greater than the sum of the parts, despite the troubles, hardships, and obstacles. That’s what makes a relationship valuable.

And that a human being could sit down to write, to create something out of nothing, that could inspire or teach someone.  That’s what makes your content valuable.

Yes, an AI can assemble words on a page, just like a machine can assemble carbon atoms into a perfect diamond. But that’s not what makes it valuable.

There is so much more beneath the surface that the eye can’t see. And whether it’s perfect or not, it’s human. It’s natural.

And that makes all the difference.

The internet is already full of more content than you can ever consume. We don’t need any more of it.

What we need are the momentary connections with the person on the other side of the page, the inspiration that you can provide them, and the joy you can receive from helping them achieve their goals.

If you view content as words on a page, you’ll certainly benefit from using an AI tool. Or you’ll be replaced by them. But if you consider the sum of the words to be more valuable than the constituent parts, then nothing can match You.