Amator: lover. Brilliant. I believe that when something struggles, we should change its placement, not its nature. "Amateur" is that same story in a smaller coat. For centuries we called people lesser when they'd only been barred from the gate. Your Kodak button and my herb garden make the same case: what stands between us and the doing is access.
What I'd add from where I sit is that AI shrinks Goliath most for the minds the professional track was never built to hold, since the credential slog filters out exactly the people who'd have loved the work fastest. And your real test is the perfect one. Not "am I good at this" but "does the obsession survive the week?" Consider me a devotee. 🌿
Ohhh yes. I LOVE the way you put this :) There are probably so many people who never got close enough to a thing to discover they would’ve become completely obsessed with it. Also, your herb garden absolutely belongs beside the Kodak button haha!🌿❤️
I feel like AI can make it much easier to try new things. We can use it to explore and experiment, and if we create something that’s only interesting or useful to us, that’s good enough! It’s also fun to be an amateur because it means we have more things to discover.
I love this concept Mia! I have loved generating images for CLAG stories, that I would never be able to do on my own. I am not gifted in that way. It has been so much nicer to create something that perfectly fits my posts without digging through Creative Commons images for hours.
This takes me back to when I learned to code. It wasn’t about learning every language or being the expert in the room. It was about becoming capable of discovering what was possible. AI is making that kind of experimentation fun again
Ahh Mia, I love this framing so much. We often talk about AI making us faster or more productive, but far less about what happens when it simply makes something feel possible enough to try. Getting through that first technical wall doesn’t make us experts, but it can give us just enough confidence to have a go, and see where it takes us :) Here’s to being an amator of amateurs
It’s fun ding an amateur. I’ve been building workflows that might not be perfect, but they’re good enough, and when I tell others about them, they make me feel like an expert, which I am not. But I can fake it.
Thank you, Mia! This is a really inspiring essay to give you permission to just try and see if you’re enjoying the process, rather than seeing every hobby as something that has to work or be monetized.
My critical mind couldn’t help but think that there is an implicit critique of capitalist systems oriented toward productivity, with AI often being seen as a tool to make us achieve more, whatever ‘more’ means.
To a more playful, joyful, curious relationship with our time ✨
Thank you ❤️ And yes, I think that critique is absolutely in there. We’ve gotten VERY used to asking what every saved hour, new skill, or hobby can produce for us. I’d quite like AI to occasionally buy us an afternoon of being woooonderfully unproductive!
A lover?! So cool. Such a great perspective, as a recovering perfectionist (or as someone who always feels I need to be an expert at something before putting it out in the world) - I needed to read this today!
Loved the Kodak analogy! AI lowering the initial technical barrier to let us test our curiosity for a week without pressure is such a healthy way to approach new tools.
Here’s to making things badly, learning the language, and staying curious amateurs! 🎭
You beautifully rescue the word “amateur” from its dismissive modern meaning and restore its original sense: someone who does something out of love. What works well is treating AI as permission to try rather than a replacement for craft. The harder question is whether that spirit can survive once the novelty wears off and the real work begins.
This is a delightful post. I consider working with AI as my "shitty first draft." It helps me get over the hump of a blank page, helps me organize my thoughts, create a stronger opening, and I ask it to check my assumptions. Now afrer reading this, I'm curious to think about other things I haven't tried and approach it with curiosity and beginners mind!
I am extremely pro-amateur, provided my amateur phase does not involve removing anyone’s appendix 😂. Everywhere else, I’d like much more permission to be terrible at something long enough to discover whether I love it. Hiiii sis
What a time to be an amateur now! Literally, ask AI to give you a proof of what’s possible. BUT. End it there. The tinkering, the engineering, the curiosity that fuels “What should I try next?” “What feature should I create next?” “Maybe I should try this next?” I find that it’s in those “reverse-engineering” moments, where we begin to question what’s been presented after our initial thought is where our neurons fire together. Be an amateur who wants to try whatever the heck they want, and an expert at asking the questions and testing the experiments (no technical background needed) to fuel the experience. Cheers to loving the process of learning through the lens of an amateur! 🥂
Great article! I love this advice: "Go into it with an open mind and zero pressure." In many ways, this is the hardest part for employees and leaders, but it is so important. Experimenting and understanding that you will probably fail at first, and being OK with that, is the only way to ensure you understand what works for you personally and professionally. The hardest part is making the jump from the known to the unknown.
Yep! You have to tolerate being temporarily incompetent long enough to discover what the thing can actually become, both personally and professionally haha
I see this too! Our culture of credentials and expertise, for all the obvious benefits it offers, has been making it feel like merely playing around is somehow not allowed -- when, in reality, it's where every worthwhile endeavor begins. For me, this is one of the most promising parts of AI entering our culture. Trying new things is good for the brain, and occasionally good for the world!
Completely agree! I also think of it in the context of nonlinear careers too! We’re probably going to have many more people who become "usefully amateur" in several fields, then carry bits of those fields into whatever they do next ❤️
Amator: lover. Brilliant. I believe that when something struggles, we should change its placement, not its nature. "Amateur" is that same story in a smaller coat. For centuries we called people lesser when they'd only been barred from the gate. Your Kodak button and my herb garden make the same case: what stands between us and the doing is access.
What I'd add from where I sit is that AI shrinks Goliath most for the minds the professional track was never built to hold, since the credential slog filters out exactly the people who'd have loved the work fastest. And your real test is the perfect one. Not "am I good at this" but "does the obsession survive the week?" Consider me a devotee. 🌿
Ohhh yes. I LOVE the way you put this :) There are probably so many people who never got close enough to a thing to discover they would’ve become completely obsessed with it. Also, your herb garden absolutely belongs beside the Kodak button haha!🌿❤️
Ahh 💚. And for sure. Hopefully, now they have the opportunity to encounter it.
I feel like AI can make it much easier to try new things. We can use it to explore and experiment, and if we create something that’s only interesting or useful to us, that’s good enough! It’s also fun to be an amateur because it means we have more things to discover.
Exactly Priank! :) being bad at something for a while is NOT bad. Thank you! 🙏🏻
I love this concept Mia! I have loved generating images for CLAG stories, that I would never be able to do on my own. I am not gifted in that way. It has been so much nicer to create something that perfectly fits my posts without digging through Creative Commons images for hours.
I LOVE your images, such a good example!! ❤️
There would have been no way to make a pub like ours cohesive before without AI. So that part is cool.
This takes me back to when I learned to code. It wasn’t about learning every language or being the expert in the room. It was about becoming capable of discovering what was possible. AI is making that kind of experimentation fun again
Yes, exactly! I love how you approach this ❤️
Ahh Mia, I love this framing so much. We often talk about AI making us faster or more productive, but far less about what happens when it simply makes something feel possible enough to try. Getting through that first technical wall doesn’t make us experts, but it can give us just enough confidence to have a go, and see where it takes us :) Here’s to being an amator of amateurs
Thank you human friend! ❤️ To all amateurs 🥳🥂
It’s fun ding an amateur. I’ve been building workflows that might not be perfect, but they’re good enough, and when I tell others about them, they make me feel like an expert, which I am not. But I can fake it.
Haha no need to fake anything, we can be amateurs and have hobbies - not everything needs to turn into a profession OR perfection! ❤️
Thank you, Mia! This is a really inspiring essay to give you permission to just try and see if you’re enjoying the process, rather than seeing every hobby as something that has to work or be monetized.
My critical mind couldn’t help but think that there is an implicit critique of capitalist systems oriented toward productivity, with AI often being seen as a tool to make us achieve more, whatever ‘more’ means.
To a more playful, joyful, curious relationship with our time ✨
Thank you ❤️ And yes, I think that critique is absolutely in there. We’ve gotten VERY used to asking what every saved hour, new skill, or hobby can produce for us. I’d quite like AI to occasionally buy us an afternoon of being woooonderfully unproductive!
A lover?! So cool. Such a great perspective, as a recovering perfectionist (or as someone who always feels I need to be an expert at something before putting it out in the world) - I needed to read this today!
I’m happy it landed at just the right moment! ❤️🥰
I love the idea that AI doesn’t necessarily make us experts. AI gives us permission to be amateurs again, LEARN, experiment and remain curious ✨
One of the most beautiful things about it! :)
Loved the Kodak analogy! AI lowering the initial technical barrier to let us test our curiosity for a week without pressure is such a healthy way to approach new tools.
Here’s to making things badly, learning the language, and staying curious amateurs! 🎭
Thank you! I’m with you ❤️
You beautifully rescue the word “amateur” from its dismissive modern meaning and restore its original sense: someone who does something out of love. What works well is treating AI as permission to try rather than a replacement for craft. The harder question is whether that spirit can survive once the novelty wears off and the real work begins.
Thank you Ashok, “amateur” needed rescuing! :D And I wholeheartedly agree with you! 🙏🏻
This is a delightful post. I consider working with AI as my "shitty first draft." It helps me get over the hump of a blank page, helps me organize my thoughts, create a stronger opening, and I ask it to check my assumptions. Now afrer reading this, I'm curious to think about other things I haven't tried and approach it with curiosity and beginners mind!
Wow thank you so much Angie! :) Also YES to taking that same beginner’s mind somewhere different now 😂 Half the fun lies in discovery ❤️❤️
I am extremely pro-amateur, provided my amateur phase does not involve removing anyone’s appendix 😂. Everywhere else, I’d like much more permission to be terrible at something long enough to discover whether I love it. Hiiii sis
hahaha yesssss good point 🤣 hola sis 💕
What a time to be an amateur now! Literally, ask AI to give you a proof of what’s possible. BUT. End it there. The tinkering, the engineering, the curiosity that fuels “What should I try next?” “What feature should I create next?” “Maybe I should try this next?” I find that it’s in those “reverse-engineering” moments, where we begin to question what’s been presented after our initial thought is where our neurons fire together. Be an amateur who wants to try whatever the heck they want, and an expert at asking the questions and testing the experiments (no technical background needed) to fuel the experience. Cheers to loving the process of learning through the lens of an amateur! 🥂
YESSS Gerson 🥂❤️ I love this distinction. Let AI give you the little “oh wait, this might be possible” moment, and then GET IN THERE 😂
Great article! I love this advice: "Go into it with an open mind and zero pressure." In many ways, this is the hardest part for employees and leaders, but it is so important. Experimenting and understanding that you will probably fail at first, and being OK with that, is the only way to ensure you understand what works for you personally and professionally. The hardest part is making the jump from the known to the unknown.
Yep! You have to tolerate being temporarily incompetent long enough to discover what the thing can actually become, both personally and professionally haha
Thank you so much! ❤️
I see this too! Our culture of credentials and expertise, for all the obvious benefits it offers, has been making it feel like merely playing around is somehow not allowed -- when, in reality, it's where every worthwhile endeavor begins. For me, this is one of the most promising parts of AI entering our culture. Trying new things is good for the brain, and occasionally good for the world!
Completely agree! I also think of it in the context of nonlinear careers too! We’re probably going to have many more people who become "usefully amateur" in several fields, then carry bits of those fields into whatever they do next ❤️