Summary

The author, Remington Write, reflects on the changing dynamics of content creation and AI curation, expressing a shift from seeking AI approval and monetary gain to valuing meaningful connections with fellow writers and readers.

Abstract

Remington Write discusses the evolution of their relationship with AI and content curation on a writing platform. Initially, their content was frequently curated, leading to a sense of validation and visibility, but this changed around October when AI seemingly stopped favoring their work. Despite this, Write has found solace and a new definition of success in the community of writers who engage with and appreciate their work. They acknowledge the shift from quantitative metrics, like curation and earnings, to the qualitative aspect of forming genuine human connections. Write concludes that while the financial rewards have diminished, the rich interactions with peers are more fulfilling and affirm their choice to continue writing authentically.

Opinions

The author initially enjoyed the recognition and views that came with AI curation but has since experienced a decline in AI-driven visibility.
Write is disinterested in tailoring content to AI preferences or writing to teach or motivate the reader, preferring to write stories that genuinely interest them.
The author feels that their work has not achieved significant viral success, despite their hope for such an outcome.
The loss of AI curation has led to a decline in earnings, making the pursuit of writing as a side hustle less viable.
Despite the setback, the author values the intrinsic reward of connecting with other writers and readers, considering it a form of success.
Write expresses gratitude for the support and engagement from the writing community, highlighting the work of several peers and encouraging others to read their stories.
The author maintains that writing authentically and receiving genuine responses is more important than chasing curation or financial gain.

I’m Not Sticky Anymore

My brief fling with AI has clearly run its course

Photo Credit — Wolfgang van de Rydt / Pixabay

Are you writing sticky content? The kind of thing AI zeros in on and pushes to the top of every page? If so, enjoy. My content used to be sticky. I’d feel that warm smug sense of satisfaction each time a story was curated. Each extra hundred views and reads calmed an ancient itch. Moreover, I’d feel vindicated because the type of content I create flies in the face of what nearly every “expert” tells me to write.

I seldom consider what you, the reader, consider valuable. I’m not even slightly interested in helping you succeed at anything. That’s between you and whatever gods you make midnight sacrifices to.

The stories I write are the stories I’m intensely interested in reading. And, until recently, AI seemed to agree with me. I seldom went more than a day or so before another story was curated. The little green bars on the graph soared. I understood that my refusal to play the game of showing you how to make money or sleep better or be more productive was going to keep me on the lower rungs of this ladder. I was ok with that.

Let Me Look in Your Windows

And I’ll read every beautiful word

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I was a happy little keyboard clacker, dutifully writing and publishing and promoting a new story — or two — daily. It was real work, but with every story I published ideas for six others would jump up and down begging to be next. In my darkest and most secret heart, I held onto a vain hope that one of these babies would strike a chord and shoot into the stratosphere. That never happened.

Ghosted by artificial intelligence

Did I change something, write something that AI thought tasted funny? I’ll never know. But one day, oh I’d say around the beginning of October, AI ghosted me. Almost immediately the green bar got shorter. Those happy emails informing me of curation stopped coming. I understood that the emails had been eliminated but that something akin to curation would continue.

If it has, it’s continuing without me.

After a fruitful 18 months or so that had me in that vaunted top 5% to 7% of writers, I’ve flatlined. Whatever hopes I’d had of building something that could be a viable side hustle have evaporated. A side hustle that demands daily work, real work, hours of real work to earn a two-digit return is not sustainable. Will I mend my rebel ways and start to churn out the goods, the stuff that AI really loves?

Low odds

I write because I can’t not write. I write what I write because I can’t not write that. I’m just not interested in coercing my brain and fingers to create “value” for some theoretical audience of strivers. Meh. So be it.

A marvelous discovery

That green bar remains a stubby reminder of its glory days soaring into the high three-digits (as noted, I was never a real presence here but did ok). The small token of appreciation that will grace my checking account early next month will be good to receive and then hand over to ConEd. I’m not minimizing the positives here even as I grumble and stamp my little feet.

An unforeseen positive that’s a direct result of all those months of hard work is becoming a part of this warm, supportive, funny, smart circle of writers who do write interesting stories and — to my selfish mind, better — read and appreciate mine!

An example? Here’s a real treasure from Tina L. Smith:

Also, I’m talking about you, Tommy Ueland with this gem:

And you, James Finn, with this incredibly warming response:

(Note — apparently they weren’t but that’s kind of the point here, right?)

Thanks also to Sumaiya Begum for this bit of welcome validation:

Then there was this one that had me tearing up a little from David Lee Andrew:

That particular piece generated a number of powerful responses including:

From Bebe Nicholson

From James Knight

From Aimée Gramblin

From Sydney Duke Richey

From Indira Reddy

And from Kim McKinney

There are many many more examples of these kinds of responses that come flooding in when I publish a new story, but you get the idea. In fact, nearly everything I publish these days generates these kinds of responses. Keep in mind that each of these writers also creates absolutely top-notch work themselves. I look forward to seeing their names at the top of my page and if AI loves them, I heartily endorse that love. I also suggest you check out their writing. You’ll thank me.

So quality is winning out over quantity in my part of the writing forest. What I’m no longer gaining in terms of curation and cold hard cash I’m more than being compensated for with these kinds of strong, meaningful human connections.

I guess I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. By my reckoning, this is success!