There is a reason why so much AI-generated content feels "beige." It’s technically perfect—the grammar is flawless, the structure is logical—but it lacks a soul. It feels patterned. It feels safe.
This isn't a bug; it is a feature. Generative AI optimizes for the "most likely" next word.
When you ask an LLM to write a sentence, it calculates the statistical average of everything it has ever read. It looks for the path of least resistance. It is mathematically designed to push outputs toward the middle of the bell curve.
If you ask for a story about a startup founder, it will give you a generic visionary in a garage. It won’t give you a founder who collects antique spoons and makes decisions based on astrology—unless you put that weirdness there.
The Mechanism of Mediocrity
Think of AI as a very talented improviser who has memorized every cliché in existence. If you give it a vague prompt like "Write a LinkedIn post about leadership," it will access the "Leadership" cluster in its latent space.
It will retrieve the most common, statistically probable platitudes: "empower your team," "lead by example," "embrace failure."
The result? Content that is smooth but frictionless. It slides right off the brain because there are no rough edges to hook the reader’s attention. It is the "average" of human thought, distilled into text.
The Fix: Be the Entropy
To fix this, we have to change how we use the tool. We need to stop asking AI to be the creator and start using it as the amplifier.
The fix is simple: Stop using AI for the spark.
You must provide the unique insight, the specific "weird" data point, or the contrarian opinion first. You need to be the source of entropy—the chaos that disrupts the statistical average.
A New Workflow for Originality
Don't say: "Write an article about remote work."
(Result: A generic list of pros and cons about Zoom fatigue.)
Instead, say: "I believe remote work is destroying mentorship because juniors can't overhear senior devs debugging code. Write an article arguing this point, using the metaphor of a 'silent newsroom'."
In the second prompt, you provided the seed:
- The Contrarian Opinion: Remote work hurts mentorship.
- The Specific Detail: Overhearing debugging.
- The Metaphor: Silent newsroom.
Now, the AI isn't guessing the average. It is taking your specific, jagged idea and using its fluency to scale it up.
Conclusion
AI is an engine for scale, not for taste. If you treat it as a replacement for your own creativity, you will drown in a sea of average content.
But if you treat it as a force multiplier for your own unique, human weirdness? That is when you break the pattern. That is how you use the machine without becoming one.
Top comments (1)
AI gives the safe average, not the sparks… inject your own weirdness first, let AI amplify it… tip: start with a jagged, specific idea, don’t let it guess!!