How I Read in the Age of AI

Lately, I have been struggling with… reading, especially content online. The reason is: I don’t know if I can trust the content.

I had written about this in my blog The ‘Not because X. But because Y’ content is everywhere now – Is this the new “em-dash”?. I ended this blog with some open questions, as I didn’t have the answers myself, but I promised that I would work on my critical thinking skills and I refused to let it deteriorate!

So I did some work :))

A few days later after that blog, I saw this post from one of the AI experts whom I know via a masterclass I took some time ago. I felt, “finally, someone with influence said it!”

Now, even with the people I subscribe to, I don’t want to open their newsletters anymore. There is a fear of, ‘what if I spotted these structures in their content? Would it affect the way I view the content and therefore affect the way I digest it and turn the information into my own insights?’

Before, I just read. Now, I have to set up this layer before I read. How inconvenient! Hahaha

Then I started reading the blogs I wrote a few years back, and I did use some of these structures. But now since they are everywhere, my brain automatically thinks it’s better to reject it first before starting to believe it.

So, after struggling with this for some time, I decided to find a way to live with this, and this is how I do it:

1. We all have our point of view. No matter what you say, that you are open to ideas, etc. YOU HAVE YOUR OWN OPINIONS! Keep that in mind and keep that opinion.
2. Before reading something, I activate my own judgment, my own opinion about that topic. I spend a few minutes thinking about what I would say or write if I were the author, and then I start reading the article, post, or whatever it is.
3. The tricky part: I might not know what they write or say until I read it, so how can I activate my own judgment? I still can! By activating my own judgment about what constitutes good writing flow and that I might encounter these AI-generated structures. How should I approach them when I see them? What questions should I ask when I see them?
4. ‘The one thing…’ Before, I read for fun or to learn new things. Now, because I don’t know if the ‘new thing’ I’ll be learning is from a human or simply made possible by a bot or machine, I use this ‘The one thing…’ framework and fill it with my own learning. It sometimes could be just this: ‘The one thing I learned from this content is that this sentence […] is so beautiful.’ OR ‘The one thing I learned from this content is that I kept looking for AI generated content and it ruined my reading experience.’
5. The pattern. In step 4, I document how I feel and what I learn. Over time, I can see the pattern, and if the same writers or people I used to like a lot start to make me question their content too much, I will then ruthlessly unsubscribe from them.

People say ‘be open-minded,’ and I agree if you simply treat it as a general philosophy in life. Sentences like this are always true when said out of nowhere.

But in the age of AI, I believe your judgment is the new currency. You don’t have to be open-minded. Otherwise, you will get overwhelmed. Now, I am very strict with what I consume. I don’t simply watch things because they look interesting. I don’t read things because they sound clever.

 sit down and try to understand what I am missing to be better. Then I look for materials that will help me get there. I don’t need 10 motivational quotes about how to be peaceful while knowing deep down that there are a lot of things about myself I need to take action on and solve.

The more AI tools advance, the more actions you need to take rather than passively consume.

Finally, say NO and be really strategic with your time. People will want to help, and because ‘helping materials’ are everywhere nowadays, not accepting is the new accepting. Know what you need, and find it, go after it.

And TAKE ACTIONS!