AI Didn’t Give Me My Imagination

I’m really tired of people thinking AI is going to solve everyone’s problems.

I use it. I build with it. It helps me get from an idea to something real faster than I could before. I’m excited about that.

But somewhere along the way, people started acting like the person using it barely matters. As if the idea, the decisions, and the understanding of the problem all came free with the subscription.

Someone recently asked me, “How are you this good at this?”

Then they said, “I picture you over there just like coding like a wizard coming up with shit out of nowhere.”

That made me laugh because I don’t think of myself as a coding wizard. I know how to build, and I’m always learning. But the thing I’ve always had is an imagination that will not shut the hell up.

My brain goes in a million directions. I see something in one part of my life and find a use for it somewhere completely different. I’ll be working through a problem and pulling from a job I had years ago, a website I used, something from sports, or a project I figured out at home.

From the outside, it might look like I’m coming up with things out of nowhere. From inside my head, there are a lot of connections happening.

You should see my DIY projects. I built a deck and pieced things together to make it look a lot more expensive than it was. Before I started, I had to picture what I wanted, figure out what I could work with, and find a way to get there.

That same process follows me to work.

I’ve spent time in healthcare, agencies, education, web development, and sports. Each gave me something I still use. I’ve seen different ways people work, where processes get stuck, and how much effort gets wasted doing something simply because that’s how it’s always been done.

So when someone brings me a problem, I have a lot to pull from. Sometimes the useful connection comes from a completely different industry.

I’m also constantly looking for the path with the least unnecessary friction. I’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember.

Even making a damn PB&J.

On my way to the kitchen, I’m already planning what I need to grab and in what order so I don’t walk back and forth six times. It sounds ridiculous written down, but that’s how my mind works. Why make the same trip repeatedly if I can think through it once?

Some people might call that lazy. I’m perfectly happy calling it efficient.

I’ll put effort into figuring out a better way because I know how much effort it can save afterward. At work, that might mean connecting systems, removing a repeated step, or questioning whether we need the step in the first place.

And I’m always thinking about the downstream ramifications. If we change this, what else does it affect? Who has to maintain it? What happens when someone actually starts using it?

Quite honestly, some of that comes from wanting to make my own job easier.

I want to think through a decision before I’m responsible for untangling it later. Something that saves ten minutes today can create hours of cleanup next month. The path of least resistance has to include what happens afterward.

That’s where conversations about AI can get tricky.

Someone builds something they couldn’t build before, gets excited, and asks me what I think. I start asking questions. How does this connect to what we already have? What happens when the information changes? Does it fit the way people actually work?

Then I worry that I’ve just shit all over their idea.

I understand the excitement. I’ve felt it myself. Being able to take something out of your head and make it real is a pretty incredible feeling.

But when someone asks for my advice, I bring everything I’ve learned, including the complications they might not have encountered yet. I’ve seen what happens after the exciting part, when people start relying on something and somebody has to keep it working.

I want their idea to succeed. Those questions are part of helping it get there.

What frustrates me is how easily that experience gets overlooked. I’ve spent years connecting ideas, solving problems, and dealing with what happens after something launches. That experience shapes the questions I ask and the decisions I make.

AI makes it easier for more people to bring their ideas to life. It also gives us more opportunities to move quickly on an idea before we’ve thought through where it leads.

I have to watch for that in my own work, too. Being able to build something quickly doesn’t automatically make it a good decision.

For me, AI gives me more ways to act on the thinking I was already doing. I can explore an idea, build something, see where it breaks, and try again faster. That changes how much I can accomplish.

I still have to understand what I’m trying to accomplish. I have to notice when an answer misses the point, when a process doesn’t fit the people using it, or when something that looks impressive won’t actually help.

That responsibility stays with me, even when AI does a lot of the implementation. I’m accountable for what I choose to use and put into the world.

So when someone asks how I’m this good at this, I think about all the experience behind whatever they’re seeing. The jobs, the projects, the things I’ve tried, and the habit of looking at a problem from several directions before choosing a way through.

I had that brain before I had these tools.

Now I can get more of what’s in it out into the world.