Effort is a signal to yourself — Kelford Labs Daily

“One of the reasons why customer service is such a strong indicator of how we judge a company is because we are aware that it costs money and time to provide. A company which is willing to spend time after you have bought and paid for a product to make sure you are not disappointed with it is more likely to be trustworthy and decent than one which loses all interest in you as soon as the cheque has cleared.”

— Rory Sutherland, Alchemy

Here’s the reason I don’t use AI to write these newsletters.

Sure, I’ll use JoelPT to review them and tell me where I can be clearer, or where I need to better apply my own principles.

But I steadfastly (stubbornly?) refuse to have AI do the actual writing.

Because I think that the effort is a costly signal.

If I churned these out with an LLM, wouldn’t I be announcing, even advertising, that I don’t actually care about the content enough to be part of it?

Or maybe I’d be announcing that I think my readers aren’t clever or attentive enough to notice.

And maybe some wouldn’t. Maybe I’d get away with it for a little while.

But I don’t think I’d be able to escape the consequences for long.

And the worst consequence is that I think I’d get worse at demonstrating my value. I’d get lazy. I’d get complacent and impatient.

Because when I said above that effort is a costly signal, I didn’t just mean a signal to you, the reader.

I also meant a signal to me, the writer. There are a few studies going around suggesting that people who rely on ChatGPT are compromising their own abilities. That’s not to say they’re getting dumber or lazier, just that they’re getting somewhat worse at what they had previously done well.

So that’s why I don’t want to signal to my own brain, my own self, that marketing is something to be rushed. To be handled expediently. To be dealt with and gotten over.

Effort is a signal to ourselves and others that something is important. That something is valuable.

So if I were to use AI to do this writing for me, I’d be demoting its importance, diminishing its value.

To you, and to me.

And why would I want to do that?

Reply to this email to tell me what you think, or ask any questions!

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