Things I can do without AI

Started as a forum post I made offsite, but I figure I'd make an expanded version of it here.

I should note I have a very negative bias against AI (especially with it's current usecases; replacing human labor, excessive cognitive offloading, inconvenience under the guise of 'convenience').

This list is just some of the things I (and you! the reader!) can do without resorting to chatbots & sloppy image generators

Make illustrations - I do what it says on the tin. If I'm not feeling it, doll makers / character creators & mockups

Writing something I'm struggling with - write a list of plot points (or arguments if it's an essay/blog) & make it good later

Make it good later is the big part; writing down your ideas doesn't have to be pretty or read smoothly. It's a draft, you can catch your mistakes on a rewrite.

Organize ideas - Note taking, personal knowledge management

Unfortunately AI bros have invaded PKB spaces, so my advice here is to just take your notes & not worry about optimizing. more importantly, make sure your notes make sense to you.

Socialize if I'm feeling lonely - post to a forum or server I'm in, or reply to someone's post

Fantasize about my favorite characters - fanfiction. If I want to interact w/them I write self insert (cringe culture is dead I PROMISE this is so much more fun than trying to get a chatbot to respond the way you want to)

I've been debating if I should just say "fuck it we ball" & post some of my self-insert fics as a demo of this as an alternative to chatbots

I think the real reason self-indulgent self-insert fics died is because of the 'DeviantArt Cringe' era. Self-inserts & self-insert fics were a major target in being labeled cringe. I'm not gonna fight fire w/fire here though so I'll leave it at it's sad people don't do it as much anymore.

Learn about a new topic - Wikipedia or a video essayist (I'll admit; I like video overviews).

tip: using wikipedia as a search engine really increased how much I use it. For example; on Firefox it's set as one by default & you can search it by typing '@wikipedia'

Ask a question - Reddit or a properly tagged Bluesky post

Bluesky is not that bad for asking questions. As long as you have the right keywords & tags to show up in a feed there's a chance someone will give you feedback.

Get inspiration - Save and bookmark things I like and/or take note of them for later reference

kinda bouncing off PKBs too. I sometimes like taking notes on wikipedia rabbit holes I go down.

Also good habit to take photos of things that interest you while you're out. You never know when that cool bird you saw will come in handy for design inspiration

Get placeholder assets - Creative Commons & other Freely licensed media

Ok but seriously I don't get why people don't just use CC & public domain media for placeholders. there's so many sites out there (wikimedia commons, Unsplash, pexels to list a few I use). Stock/asset sites aren't guaranteed to be AI-free sadly, but with decades worth of free to use assets I don't get why people still feel the need to use genAI. Plus, for games you can just take a screenshot of said game. And for funny stuff scuffed MSpainty stuff is always funny.

idk this just makes me mad because it's a usecase that's already solved long before genAI was mainstream.

Learn how to solve a problem or pick up a new skill - do the research, vet my sources, and note take for future reference so I actually understand what I'm doing