2022 was a good year for me. Yet it ended with the silent planting of seeds that, just two years later, grew into a full-blown existential crisis.
I have longed to be a writer all my life. Long before I turned to it for livelihood.
It took years of toil and practice to cultivate the craft. And, I took pride in the pain I endured towards mastering my craft.
People understand this at some level too. “Oh, you’re a writer?” “What exactly do you write?” “That’s quite a creative field!”
There’s a mystique around it. So much that we invented a new occupational hazard with no counterpart in other functions: ‘writers’ block’.
All was well. Until 2022.
In Nov 2022, ChatGPT was publicly released as a research preview.
Fast-forward to 2025, ChatGPT is now mainstream. So mainstream that it has effectively depressed the demand for human writers. So mainstream that AI use is being factored into the expected timelines (today’s content delivery timelines can only be met if GenAI tools are used).
“Previously, I had a requirement of 5 writers for my product launch,” remarked an entrepreneur as we were talking about his startup. “Now, I think 2 would suffice.”
Sure, writers will still be needed. But not in the same numbers. From producers of content they now are simply content curators.
A writer who doesn’t write
Being a writer was an integral part of my identity. That’s how I would introduce myself even in non-professional settings.
And, while romantic, it comes with challenges.
When your identity is tightly woven with a particular skill, you have effectively put all your eggs in one basket. Should that basket fail, you struggle to define yourself.
That’s why GenAI’s advent seems like a personal attack. You scaled a tough entry barrier only to find them dissolved later on. That art that took years of toil is now accessible to everyone with a tool.
Why is this?
When asked if he uses GenAI for writing, author and science journalist Anil Ananthaswamy responds:
“No. Not because I’m inherently against the idea, but because it undercuts the very reason I became a writer. I did so to pay attention to the world of ideas and experience the indescribable feeling of putting your thoughts into words as precisely and poetically as possible. ”
However, Ananthaswamy admits to using GenAI for images: “I have, however, used DALL-E and other diffusion models on occasion to generate images. Visual elements are not my forte. I can imagine a visual artist being aghast at the use of image generation models. ”
He makes a startling observation about our chosen work: “Therein I think lies a message: most of us do what we do because it means something to us, and we will be loathe to use an AI to do that particular task.”
Like Ananthaswamy, I had no hesitation in leveraging technologies that made my life easier: calculators, spreadsheets, analytical tools, etc. I only drew a line with writing.
Attachment is the root of…
Paradoxically, attachment to just one aspect to our identity can adversely affect our ability to adapt. People who don’t consider themselves writers have been very upfront about using AI. Significantly, writers who don’t overly self-identity as writers are better able to handle the transition too.
The resistance peaks with people emotionally invested in being a writer. It’s because they struggle to define their worth once their foremost skill doesn’t beget status any more.
Contrast this with the attitude of a senior colleague I once worked with. His approach to writing was simple: any content, no matter how bad the first draft, will become approval-worthy after 7 iterations. Get the first draft out quickly, run it through 7 iterations, and you’re done.
From the stakeholders’ perspective, the needle is continuously moving too. Why spend too much time on the first draft when it can be rejected too. And then, the iterations will start from a delayed timeline too.
From what I’ve observed, such detachment from your creative ego can actually boost your productivity.
Identity Beyond Work
If you identify yourself closely with your work, that’s great. But, for many people, work is simply a means to pay their bills.
As Simone Stolzoff, author of ‘The Good Enough Job’, argues: “the fundamental purpose of a job is to pay for our material existence.”
“Yes, jobs require you to give up some of your time, labor, and autonomy… A job can be a vehicle for changing the world or deriving fulfillment, but many people do not work to self-actualize; they work to survive. Although we love to romanticize those who have found a way to escape the rat race, there’s nothing wrong with having a 9-to-5. but many people do not work to self-actualize; they work to survive. “
Finding your identity beyond work has never been more important. Because, unlike in the past, the industry scenario doesn’t allow us to be attached to the same profession throughout our working years. In fact, it doesn’t even give the confidence that people will remain employed till they reach 60 years.
Reimagining your identity
“The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.” ― Alain de Botton
In a previous newsletter, I argued for the need to create a business narrative that stands the test of time. There I noted that many opportunities to chalk a new path are lost due to a narrow, fixated perspective of the past. The past needs to be infused with a fresh meaning for a new future to manifest.
The past is not carved in stone. It is what we make of it.
A company I was once associated with decided to reposition their organization from an application development company to a leader in digital transformation. However, the task looked daunting, despite the significant increase in organizational capability that justified the leap. It’s then we realized that our image as an application development company was self-imposed and shaped by historical habits.
What we were doing then, what we were continuing to do as we grew, and what we planned to do in the future was all the same: offer customers unlimited opportunities for growth using the power of technology. The technologies that we used may have evolved. But our contract with the customer remained sacrosanct.
Likewise, I think humans must aim for a strategic narrative that withstands skill disruptions too. People tend to overinvest in their skill-based identity, while renegating trait-based ones to the background.
- Writing is a subset of a much larger skill: thinking.
- Intelligence can be supplied by tech. Responsibility can only come from humans.
- Analysis can be easier with tech. Using the insights ethically is a human prerogative.
- Clever copywriting is possible with ChatGPT. Creativity is still a human reserve.
- Smartness is commonplace. Loyalty is rare.
How about reimagining our identity with traits such as the above? How about building our identity atop edifices that stand the test of time and tech disruption.
And, for a writer, the true craft may no longer be writing the words. It could be about being an enabler of human emotions. To this end, we probably serve the same purpose as philosophers.
In the immortal words of Will Durant: “So much of our lives is meaningless, a self-cancelling vacillation and futility; we strive with the chaos about us and within; but we would believe all the while that there is something vital and significant in us, could we but decipher our own souls.”
Musings by Madhav 
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