Thanks for this. I can no longer imagine living without the messy middle, but it took me a long time to find it. It's so essential for creativity. It may perhaps be the very human longing for creativity that keeps us from getting lost within the lines and mazes of systems like AI. It may also be the very breakdown of systems like capitalism that helps us find the messy place where we are home.
April, this piece resonates deeply. I do not know how often I've solved a writing conundrum in my sleep and have woken up with the line of poetry or the direction the essay will take. Allowing the time and space necessary for the work to marinate has produced the work I'm most proud of. "If we build systems that value the process and not just the result, new possibilities emerge." Also agree on your take on how best to integrate AI as a partner rather than a replacement. I've heard and read something similar about Generation Z wanting nothing to do with the direction technology is taking us. They seem to be craving the analog experience, and that makes so much sense to me somehow. If screens have always been your reality, yet there is still all the richness of books, art, and music from the before times, lol, built with that middle process intact, I believe it connects.
I've also had the experience of working out problems in my sleep, and realizing later just how much impact they had on the work! I think what you said, "Allowing the time and space necessary for the work to marinate," is what we need to protect more than anything as this tech becomes more integrated into our lives. And it will be interesting to see how the younger generations live alongside AI. Maybe they will show us a wiser way of balancing both the digital and the analog at once :)
This one is real April. I love it. For me, I’ve spent an enormous amount of time using ai it to hold space for the messy middle. and then this itself became another issue as I would stay in the messy middle for just too long. the sessions might be generative, thought-provoking, redefining. but at the end of the day there’s another session, and then the loop begins. yet another session and another.
I speak only for myself here too by the way. maybe it’s me who havent fully yet understood how to relate with these systems without getting sunked into it, but I’m sure in due time it will happen. for now I have them paused and focused on doing things the old-school way. everything the systems would perfectly enable me accomplish with visible defect. even holding the messy middle.
at the end of the day, the friction is necessary, all that chaos speaks of Is life. I’m willing to channel that into meaningful work and structures.
wishing all good luck. thank you for the piece April.
I love this. And I can relate. There have been times when AI has actually helped me stay in the messy middle longer… exploring, questioning, seeing connections I may not have gotten to on my own.
And like you said, another layer of discernment is there too. At some point the conversation has to leave the space of possibility and become lived.
I think that relationship is what many of us are learning right now.
Thanks for this. I can no longer imagine living without the messy middle, but it took me a long time to find it. It's so essential for creativity. It may perhaps be the very human longing for creativity that keeps us from getting lost within the lines and mazes of systems like AI. It may also be the very breakdown of systems like capitalism that helps us find the messy place where we are home.
Yes! Longing and chaos may very well be what keeps humans human :)
Reading your words, Leonard Cohen came to mind.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
April, this piece resonates deeply. I do not know how often I've solved a writing conundrum in my sleep and have woken up with the line of poetry or the direction the essay will take. Allowing the time and space necessary for the work to marinate has produced the work I'm most proud of. "If we build systems that value the process and not just the result, new possibilities emerge." Also agree on your take on how best to integrate AI as a partner rather than a replacement. I've heard and read something similar about Generation Z wanting nothing to do with the direction technology is taking us. They seem to be craving the analog experience, and that makes so much sense to me somehow. If screens have always been your reality, yet there is still all the richness of books, art, and music from the before times, lol, built with that middle process intact, I believe it connects.
I've also had the experience of working out problems in my sleep, and realizing later just how much impact they had on the work! I think what you said, "Allowing the time and space necessary for the work to marinate," is what we need to protect more than anything as this tech becomes more integrated into our lives. And it will be interesting to see how the younger generations live alongside AI. Maybe they will show us a wiser way of balancing both the digital and the analog at once :)
This one is real April. I love it. For me, I’ve spent an enormous amount of time using ai it to hold space for the messy middle. and then this itself became another issue as I would stay in the messy middle for just too long. the sessions might be generative, thought-provoking, redefining. but at the end of the day there’s another session, and then the loop begins. yet another session and another.
I speak only for myself here too by the way. maybe it’s me who havent fully yet understood how to relate with these systems without getting sunked into it, but I’m sure in due time it will happen. for now I have them paused and focused on doing things the old-school way. everything the systems would perfectly enable me accomplish with visible defect. even holding the messy middle.
at the end of the day, the friction is necessary, all that chaos speaks of Is life. I’m willing to channel that into meaningful work and structures.
wishing all good luck. thank you for the piece April.
I love this. And I can relate. There have been times when AI has actually helped me stay in the messy middle longer… exploring, questioning, seeing connections I may not have gotten to on my own.
And like you said, another layer of discernment is there too. At some point the conversation has to leave the space of possibility and become lived.
I think that relationship is what many of us are learning right now.
Thank you for sharing this, Owlcyon