More nonsense from my edge of the internet:
I’ll explain my use of AI all day, but I won’t apologize for it. Because it’s like someone inventing a sewing machine and you’re working at a sewing job and being like “Nah, I’m just gonna keep on handstitching over here.” Absolutely not. I’m gonna become competent at using a sewing machine, then become someone who can use a sewing machine at a professional level, better than anyone else. Because I was already doing something almost anyone can do. I was putting words together on a page to teach or explain something. And the reason I was hired and paid to do it by people with discernment and high expectations is because I am exceptionally good at it, through disposition and a hefty dose of intentional practice and development. Almost anyone can sit down at a sewing machine, but can they make you a passable pair of underwear? It’s much more complex than you think (speaking as a sewist and a writer). The analogy holds so well for me because sewists also know that 90% of sewing takes place off the machine. It’s planning, cutting, ironing (so much pressing). It’s finishing, turning, guiding. It’s fitting and revising. You unpick a seam because it isn’t completely straight. You troubleshoot your machine because it isn’t doing what you want. And, some things you make still have to be completely hand-stitched. The machine makes the job easier, but it doesn’t do the job.
P.S. You’re going to ask me about the environmental impacts and the capitalistic evil, and I do very much care about those things. But I’m also very tired of conflating systemic structures with personal responsibility. This is technology. It advances. And we could do it in a sustainable, community affirming way if we cared to, I bet.
P.P.S. No, I didn’t write this with AI.
Leave a Reply