The AI Debate: Quantity Isn’t the Only Way for Creatives to Find Success

Yes, AI can help creatives crank out more work, faster. But you can find success by putting out fewer high-quality works, too. Exceptionality might be a harder path, but it’s still a valid one. That’s why I don’t believe AI will truly win out.

Which would you rather take?

I say this as someone who is incredibly prolific WITHOUT AI tools. That’s not bragging. That’s just numbers. I’ve published thousands of pieces on my own and even more for clients. I have nearly a dozen book projects all spinning in draft or concept. If you hadn’t noticed, I don’t repeat my posts. There’s a reason for that. I flat out don’t need to.

So, I understand the more-pieces-means-more-money argument, especially in the context of multiple streams of residual income. But people like Leonardo Da Vinci, Margaret Mitchell — some artists give as little as one piece to the world. Yet with that one piece, the world is changed. And changing the world is, to me, such a better definition of success than financial security, however nice financial security might be.

So, I will continue to post new work however often it is ready. But I will always sacrifice numbers for quality, because quality and original exceptionality are the core of the art itself.

Share often if you can do it. But I’d rather see one post from you that changes my life than a thousand that barely make me blink.

[Transcript summary]

Hey, everybody. Wanda Thibodeaux of takingdictation.com, here. So, I have been doing a ton of thinking about AI, especially over this past year, and some of that is just to keep on top of my industry. But I do want to increase my income, just like anybody else, too. So, that’s part of the discussion.

But one thing that has been bothering me about this AI discussion is this idea that AI is going to be some magic bullet that is going to increase your value by increasing your ability to increase your quantity. And the response that I have to that is, look at things like “To Kill a Mockingbird” or the David. Those are very rare things, right? And they weren’t replicated in a sequence, where you where you had a ton of it, just one right after the other. They stand out because they are exceptional, not because they were just churned out. So, AI, I don’t think will ever win, because the human effort and talent that goes into producing those exceptional, one time works, you can’t replicate that. So — and the idea that you have to always do quantity to have value, then I would say, well, what is, what are those magnificent works of art — what value do they have? If you always have to producing more and more, more, then what value do they have? They have a ton of value. Why? Because of that effort and the human talent that went into it. AI will never be able to substitute that. So, if you are an artist and you are worried about that, don’t worry so much about how much you can churn out. Worry about what you are putting in. Focus on that, and I promise you, you’ll win. Take care, everybody. Bye.