Love this. I especially love listening to you read it. Might have to incorporate in my own substack. Thanks for the inspiration. Also, I enjoyed your explanation of comparative advantage. I hadn’t heard it that way before
Thanks Abdullah. Yeah, I've talked to several people who say that they only listen to my newsletter but don't read it. I think the audio version is pretty important.
Great post! This echoes the story of digital photography: people thought that digital photography would kill the photography industry because everyone could take their own photos. And everyone could! And everyone saw that their photos weren't as good as ones they wanted, but the ability of them to take photos made their desire for good photos stronger. 25 years later, there are still lots of photographers taking baby, family, professional portrait, and other pictures.
Great example. I'm glad to see there are some other ones out there. I'd add that the average person’s skill in taking pictures has gotten much better in the past couple decades.
I love this take, equal parts caffeine and common sense! You managed to brew together the paradox of progress perfectly: A.I. writes, kids write more; robots pour coffee, humans pour creativity. It’s funny how technology sometimes gives back the very humanity we thought it would replace. I’ll raise my $5 latte to that , preferably served by a robot with good playlist taste Stephen ! Fantastic work by your eldest!
Nice piece!
Love this. I especially love listening to you read it. Might have to incorporate in my own substack. Thanks for the inspiration. Also, I enjoyed your explanation of comparative advantage. I hadn’t heard it that way before
Thanks Abdullah. Yeah, I've talked to several people who say that they only listen to my newsletter but don't read it. I think the audio version is pretty important.
Nice article! It's in line with the same logic used in David Autor's work. :)
I've always thought that Autor was more of a pessimist than me. :-/
Great post! This echoes the story of digital photography: people thought that digital photography would kill the photography industry because everyone could take their own photos. And everyone could! And everyone saw that their photos weren't as good as ones they wanted, but the ability of them to take photos made their desire for good photos stronger. 25 years later, there are still lots of photographers taking baby, family, professional portrait, and other pictures.
AND.
There's a revival of darkroom photography not out of necessity, but out of interest: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/09/22/trumbull-revives-darkroom-launches-corresponding-photography-class/
So digital photography did lots of things, but not get rid of photographers.
Great example. I'm glad to see there are some other ones out there. I'd add that the average person’s skill in taking pictures has gotten much better in the past couple decades.
As a person trained in a darkroom on the rule of thirds and visual balance, I want to disagree, haha. But it's true.
I'm glad human creativity triumphed thanks to AI! Nice story.
A happy ending!
I love this take, equal parts caffeine and common sense! You managed to brew together the paradox of progress perfectly: A.I. writes, kids write more; robots pour coffee, humans pour creativity. It’s funny how technology sometimes gives back the very humanity we thought it would replace. I’ll raise my $5 latte to that , preferably served by a robot with good playlist taste Stephen ! Fantastic work by your eldest!
So many quotable quotes in this comment. Thank you, Kimberly!
Well done, Stephen. Is Cait on our distribution list? If not I will send it to her -- she's interested in the effect of AI on creative work
I don't believe she is. Quick, send this to her!