AI and the End of Talent
By Mark McNease / Editor

Having been given something I know was written by AI and asked what I thought of it, as if the person had written it themself, and responding with “That’s very well written,” I realized that the end of talent – the years of development, the craft, the skill, that unique something that makes a writer a truly good writer – may be upon us. I know a lot of what I read now online is not written by humans, but it’s only recently that I viewed it from the perspective of someone who has been writing for 55 years and who has always enjoyed the thrill of discovering someone who was truly gifted), and realizing that AI is getting so good that it can make talent obsolete.

I’m not a hater. I use Claude, and find it very helpful when I’m stuck on plot, or I need to figure out a transition. But there is a not-so-fine line that, when crossed, makes decades of learning and growing and honing and crafting almost pointless. And that, I think, is the true imposter syndrome: not to believe that we are writers when we’re not, but to believe we are good ones when all we have written are prompts. I started writing at the age of 10 because it was and remains a magical experience, a zone of imagination that requires skill and time and effort and finesse and revision and listening and more revision and the silence of the blank page. To find ourselves approaching a point where “anyone can do that” with ChatGPT or Claude makes it all nearly pointless. I still want to thrill to the discovery of a wordsmith and a talented writer, without wondering if they actually wrote it. Will I stop using AI as a tool? No. Will I let it make me irrelevant? I hope not.

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Welcome to the Second Edition of One Thing or Another, a collection of humor columns that takes a look at life, aging, and the absurdities of it all. It’s been a few years since the first edition, and even more since they were written. The Big Six-Oh is now the Big Six-Seven, and life is just as absurd as it was the first go-round.

From our culture’s refusal to use the word ‘old,’ to the sometimes comical consequences of aging in body and mind, if not always in spirit, you’re sure to enjoy this skewed look at life’s foibles for the ages. Collected from the author’s personal columns, these short essays will make you chuckle, recognize yourself, and sometimes grimace at the not-always-funny price we pay for simply staying alive.

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Getting older was supposed to come with wisdom. Nobody mentioned the absurdity.

In One Thing or Another: Life, Aging and the Absurdities of It All, Mark McNease takes a clear-eyed, warmly funny look at the indignities, surprises, and occasional revelations of growing older. With the timing of a seasoned storyteller and the honesty of someone who has lived enough to laugh about it, McNease finds humor in the everyday moments most of us are too busy — or too embarrassed — to examine closely.

From the small humiliations of a body that no longer cooperates to the baffling speed of a world that keeps changing without asking permission, these columns remind us that aging is something we’re all doing together. We might as well laugh.

One Thing or Another is the perfect companion for anyone who has ever caught their reflection and thought, when did that happen?

In case you’re wondering, I’m leaving Bluehost after more than 15 years using them to host my websites. To make a long story brief, the sites became so slow I couldn’t take it anymore. No advice or suggestions needed: I tried everything. Coupled with the price tag, I said let’s move.

I like Hostinger, where you’re reading this, and I’m ready to make a move. All my sites will be on here, as dedicated pages (Your Write Path, MadeMark Publishing, and Vivid Press.)

This may take a little while, but not too long – I’m among the more tech-savvy people I know, and moving everything over here shouldn’t take more than a couple weeks, if that. There’s a lot of work to do “behind the curtain,” so to speak, with redirects, emails and all that, but it will get done seamlessly and quickly. So welcome to where “all things are of the substance of dreams.”

Mark

I’ll be at the MadeMark Publishing table this year at Act2Book’s annual Flemington Summer Book Fest & Collossal Book Sale.

Authors, books, people, fun. We’re hoping for good weather, but if not, the rain date is Monday the 25th. – Mark