AI writing is bad, so I built around it

ai writing tools

I have always wanted to write more, but I've never been able to get into the habit of going through the full cycle where I am happy with the output. I have stacks of notes and half-finished articles and thoughts sitting in my drafts folder. I think this is because I've always tried to write in a traditional way, like keeping a journal or writing essays. I've never really found a way to keep my attention on the boring parts of the process (restructuring, editing, etc).

When AI came around, I was infatuated with its ability to turn my ideas into full content and remove the parts I dreaded. I thought it was going to be the key to unlocking my creativity and helping me write more. The problem is, it didnt take long for me to realize that I hate the way AI actually does the writing. It generallly was able to produce content that was easier to read than my way of writing, but it just felt so hollow and meaningless. In fact, now adays I cant even stand reading any content that other have written that are clearly AI generated. I can't describe it exactly, but it just feels like I am reading an assembly of words that have been strung together in a way that makes sense, but lacks any meaning (which of course is exactly what LLMs technically do). I think about the book by Malcom Gladwell "Blink", where he talks about how we make quick decisions based on limited information, and how those decisions can be just as good as, if not better than, decisions made with more information. When I use AI for writing, I feel like it extrapolates my ideas in a way that is like "yeah, thats fine" but I read it again later and hate it.

I could get into the whole backstory and my journey to wrangle in my diagnosis of ADHD, and how it has impacted me, but you dont care and thats not what I am here to write about. The point is, I honestly love the way I think, even if ADHD makes me bad at following through. But now with AI I have this great opportunity to use it in a way that removes the hard part of writing for me while allowing me actually tackle the problems that prevented me from getting my ideas and thoughts out to the world (whether anyone cares is a different story).

So I started think about what I am actually uniquely good at, and what part of AI do I think is actually valuable for writing and came up with a startegy.

What I am good at: Coming up with unique ideas and perspectives. Where I often fail: Formating and structuring my thoughts in a way that is easy to read and understand.

What AI is good at: Pattern and trend matching, researching, and structuring Where AI fails: Coming up with unique insights, or having a genuine opinion on anything.

So I stopped prompting AI to write for me. Instead I built a CLI that runs a set of agents as background processes while I write. When I save the file, it kicks off and reacts, helping sort through my ideas in a structure I can go and write myself.

~/sites/writing/
├── voice.md              # style guide and voice instructions
├── agents/
│   ├── direction.md      # thread tracking
│   ├── research.md       # claim flagging
│   ├── structure.md      # evaluated and creates structural patterns
│   └── signals.md        # live web search on the topics I am discussing
└── workspaces/
    └── <article>/
        ├── bin.md        # raw thought dump — write here, no structure required
        ├── backlog.md    # off-topic ideas worth keeping, extracted by agents
        ├── peer.md       # agent feedback, auto-updated on every save
        ├── shape.md      # structured outline

write work    # start agents watching bin.md
write assess  # bin + peer notes used to create the shape.md

write work starts the watch loop. I open bin.md and dump all my thoughts, tangents, or whatever else comes to mind. Every save triggers a diff-based agent cycle:

  • direction.md tracks what I am actually arguing so I don't lose the thread
  • research.md flags claims that need evidence and pulls counterpoints I should address
  • structure.md looks at the structural shape of what I have and suggests an outline
  • signals.md searches the web for related work like HackerNews, Pragmatic Engineer, etc. so I know if I am actually saying something new/interesting

BTW, I added a cheap Haiku triage step that gates each cycle so I am not burning Opus calls when nothing substantive changed.

I inevitably go off on tangents in bin.md, and I don't want to lose a genuinely good idea just because it's off-topic. An agent extracts those into sparks.md with enough context that I can pick one up later as its own article.

write assess takes the raw dump, agent feedback, and research and produces shape.md. In here I have it organize my arguments, call out gaps, etc.

Even though the agents never write my drafts, they still need to understand how I write so their feedback feels like me. voice.md was built from my previous work and a list of things I want to ban the AI from doing that I dont like.

The output is a structured outline that I can start to build the content for. Its not perfect but it has certainly helped me get over the hump.