About a year and a half ago, I started being more active on different platforms. The goal was simple, share experiences, news, memes, whatever I felt like, and connect with people in the software and startup world from different corners of the globe.
I've always enjoyed writing. But thanks to impostor syndrome, the pressure to sound "professional", and that english is not my native language, I started filtering my ideas through AI, mainly ChatGPT. I’d write a raw draft, then polish it up and translate it with AI. And it felt like magic, the ideas were mine, but the result was perfectly written, not a typo in sight. Awesome! Right?
Well... not quite. I slowly started noticing something, even though the message was what I wanted to say, it didn’t feel like me, the words were too polished, the vocabulary was different of what i normally use on the day to day, the main ideas were there, but definitely the guy that wrote that wasn't me.
So, I stopped using AI for my posts. I went back to the old school way of doing things, just writing, directly in english, with my own words, editing manually a bit, fixing little things here and there, but more close to a first raw version of my ideas. And what I didn’t expect was how quickly the reach grew, more impressions, more engagement, more people commenting, talking to me on DMs, and actually connecting.
Moral of the story? In this AI driven, hyper curated world where everyone tries to be "professional" and politically correct, we’ve kind of lost our voice and essence, especially on social media. We started to identify when something was written by AI. We read a paragraph, realize it’s just more of the same, and scroll on.
I’m still figuring things out, but I try every day to show up here the same way I am in real life, less smoke and mirrors, more honesty.
Authenticity is going to be the real differentiator in the future we’re walking into.
I don’t want to meet a bot, I want to meet the human behind the screen. So here’s to the imperfections that make us humans, cheers!!
Top comments (4)
The best way to stand out in an ocean of AI generated content is with personal stories, jokes, writing the same way we talk, and being authentic instead of writing to impress.
That's right Cesar, thanks for the comment!
I am so glad that some people still use their own voice/prose to create content. Thank you.
Thanks much Jeff!