Good writing by real humans is in danger of extinction. With it, we are in danger of losing the ability to think. Writing is a means of communicating what we think to the world. A writer believes that they have something to say that is worth other people’s time to listen. If you have nothing interesting to say, you will have no reason to write.
Students and early career professionals are especially in danger of falling into the trap of outsourcing their thinking and writing to robots. It is much quicker and easier to plug a few prompts into your preferred chatbot than to really think about what you ought to say. The benefits seem to be enormous – greater productivity, zero grammatical or spelling errors, and no “writer’s block” where one stares at a blank page searching for inspiration.
The costs are more subtle, and therefore easily overlooked. Since writing is a product of thinking, when we stop writing, we stop thinking. When we allow robots to speak for us, we are allowing them to think for us. This limits our creativity and ability to solve problems. The blank page problem that writers have must be solved through effort, and that effort exercises our brains in problem-solving.
When we transfer this to the “real world” – where we are no longer hiding behind computer screens – we start to realise what we are missing. When we encounter a problem in the workplace that Google or ChatGPT cannot solve for us (e.g., when our colleagues cannot agree on a course of action), we need to draw on our problem-solving abilities. Yet our brains have become weak through lack of use. Just like your muscles, when you stop using your brain to overcome problems, it gets weaker.
Imagine you are at a party and people are engaging in a lively discussion about a topic that affects many people (e.g., politics, religion, or war). You want to engage and tell people what you think, but your thoughts are unclear and muddled. When someone asks for your opinion, you say: “Hold on, let me just ask Chat.” Either you can’t think for yourself, or you are no longer confident that your opinion is worth giving.
Lack of confidence is perhaps the greatest threat to any young person entering the professional world. Every staff meeting, professional conference, or one-on-one interaction will reveal the weakness of those who have allowed chatbots to think for them. When the boss asks “what do you think about this?” – it is your time to shine, your moment to prove that you have thought deeply about the issue and have something worthwhile to share. If you have never done the hard work of thinking about it, because all of your written outputs were AI-generated or heavily AI-assisted, you will have nothing to say. That promotion you have been dreaming about may never happen.
As part of NYCE’s goal to equip young Namibians with the skills to excel in their careers and develop their leadership abilities, we held a writing webinar with Gail Thomson, a leading science communicator in Namibia’s environmental sector. As a co-director of Felines Communication and Conservation Consultants, Gail has supported various environmental organisations across Africa in strengthening their communication.
During the webinar, Mrs Thomson covered the basics of writing reports, proposals and stories, while emphasising knowing one’s audience, thinking clearly and writing concisely. She reinforced the importance of finding your own voice and expressing your thoughts. Whether one is writing an email, report or blog, this skill will translate into other areas of your career.
She encouraged attendees to use AI wisely, as a way to sharpen their writing skills by asking it to give editorial feedback on their work, rather than asking it to write for them. Using AI this way will take more effort, but it will reap many real-world benefits, as you nurture creativity, exercise your brain, develop your unique voice and grow in confidence.
For more writing tips, visit the https://www.theopennotebook.com/. You can also check out books such as On Writing Well by William Zinsser and Writing with Style by Lane Greene.