How I write

How I work with AI on this blog. The argument is mine. The polish isn't entirely.

There is a paragraph in almost every essay on this site that I rewrote eleven times.

Not because the words were wrong. Because the thinking underneath was still soft. The first version was a thought. The eleventh was a position. Most readers will never know which is which.

That’s the point.

This page is about how that happens.

The loop

I sketch the spine of the essay first. Hook, turn, beats, closing image. Usually on paper. Sometimes in a markdown file with one line per paragraph. No AI yet.

Then I argue with Claude.

Section by section. I draft. It pushes back. I rewrite. It edits. I delete a paragraph it suggested and replace it with one I like better. It tells me the new one is weaker. Sometimes it’s right. Sometimes I keep my version anyway, because it sounds like me and that matters more than it being technically sharper.

By the time the essay ships, neither of us could tell you which sentence belonged to whom. The argument is mine. The shape is mine. The polish, the rhythm, the structural surgery: those were negotiated.

What stays mine

The hook. Always. If the opening lines came from a model, the essay isn’t honest.

The thesis. The reason the essay exists at all. The thing I’m willing to take heat for in the comments.

The personal beats. The confession sections. The specific things I did, screwed up, learned. AI cannot supply experience.

What AI does

Most of the time, AI isn’t writing for me.

It’s arguing with me.

It points at a paragraph and says: this doesn’t go far enough. Or: you said the same thing three times in different sentences. Or: you started with conviction and ended with hedging.

Sometimes it’s wrong.

Sometimes it’s painfully right.

AI can generate text. It cannot decide what is worth saying.

Why this disclosure exists

Because the alternative is dishonest.

I’ve written essays on this site about AI replacing technical writers. I’ve written about taking yourself out of the equation. I cannot argue that AI is reshaping the craft while pretending it hasn’t reshaped my own.

The argument is mine. The polish isn’t entirely. You are reading the loop, not its absence.

If a specific essay used AI more heavily, less heavily, or not at all, the inline confession in that essay will say so. This page is the default.

What I will not pretend

I will not pretend the sentences are wholly mine when they aren’t.

I will not pretend AI use is a moral failing that requires apology. The craft has always borrowed. Editors. Copy-editors. Beta readers. Writing groups. Claude is the latest member of that lineage. It happens to be available at 2 a.m.

I will not pretend the loop produces lower quality. It raises the bar I’m willing to ship at.

I will not pretend any of this is settled. Two years from now this page may read as quaint. I’ll rewrite it then.