Humans, AI and what we can learn from Substack
Nothing in this post is original.
Instead, it’s an attempt to channel a series of interflowing ideas that feel present at the moment.
As the saying goes: “people don’t have ideas - ideas have people”.
AI is forcing us to confront what it means to be truly human.
For those who have defined their humanity and unique place in the world through intelligence (and I’ve been one of them), this is a challenging moment.
If we’re no longer the smartest, if reason isn’t what makes us special any more, then what are we?
For the last decade, I’ve written code. I’ve loved it.
The craft. The challenge. The sheer joy of problem solving and creating simultaneously.
It’s like painting with maths. Composing music with sudoku.
But we’re entering a different age now.
And when I step back and think about it, is sitting at a desk for hours on end getting computers to behave for me in a specific way by typing specific incantations really what it means to be human?
I’ve always loved bringing people together with technology. I’ve loved creating things that make people’s lives better. I’ve loved the human side of building things.
This is the side that will remain.
It is the side I’ve doubled down on by going fractional and focusing on breaking down the artificial divide between tech and business.
It’s why I focus on startups, who are small and nimble and forward thinking enough to embrace change rather than resist it.
It is why I write on Substack rather than LinkedIn, or some other network that is rationally ‘better’ for my fractional business.
Because Substack offers genuine connection.
Real people, writing real things, and finding their audience, no matter how small or weird.
It shouldn’t work. But it does. Because it recognises something that is innately human, the desire for self-expression, for community, for meaning.
Let us, then, recognise what makes us uniquely human, and follow it.
And if we hear that voice telling us it can’t work, that it doesn’t make sense, that it doesn’t fit into the existing system?
Listen kindly, and keep going.