Becoming a 🦋

Last night I couldn’t sleep. My usual remedy is Boring History to Sleep on YouTube, a British narrator with the most soothing voice. Normally I’m out in ten minutes, but this time the story kept me awake and made me reach for my laptop to write this blog post.

It was about life in the Paleolithic era. Every day was survival: hunting, foraging, and avoiding becoming prey yourself. What struck me most was how sophisticated early humans were. They crafted weapons, read subtle signs in nature to track animals, and memorized thousands of plants and fruits knowing which mushrooms healed infections and which berries eased pain. Even getting honey from a tree was a deadly but if done well a very satisfying job.

Now imagine if we were to travel to the past and dropped a Costco or Whole Foods into that world. Telling them, “You don’t have to risk your life for honey anymore. Sugar comes in a dozen varieties, stacked on shelves.” I picture them confused, even panicked. Generations of hard-earned knowledge suddenly irrelevant. What would give their lives meaning then?

That’s how I’ve felt watching AI sweep into the creative world. I ignored the rumblings at first, maybe because I didn’t want to admit how fast things were changing. It reminded me of the Industrial Revolution, when machines shrank labor demand in farming and pushed workers into cities. Communities of skilled farmers saw their craft devalued almost overnight.

Like them, I worry about my own craft. Not just losing jobs, but losing my knowledge and my originality that makes something feel human. I use ChatGPT to clean up my grammar here, but the messy voice underneath is all mine. I like leaving the mistakes. They remind me it wasn’t a machine that wrote this, it was me.

My fear is that if we hand over too much, AI will start dictating not just what’s polished but what’s worthy. AI as a the tastemaker of art and design is my biggest nightmare!

That’s why I keep making art, because if someone from the future knocks on my door and says, “Your design skills aren’t needed anymore. Take your universal basic income and relax.” I will know I have something that I can hold on to thats mine.

My hope is to remind others not to lose the drive to create what can only come from the soul. Now is the time to tap into our most creative selves and stop making excuses.

Take that art class, dust off the guitar, sign up to that ceramics class! This is your sign to make something, no matter how small or silly. The world needs your creativity more than ever.