Effort As Brand: Visible Struggle in the Age of AI

I've been chatting with my sons about the benefits of friction. How doing hard things makes us stronger and teaches us what we’re capable of. Informing my take on the topic are three brilliant brains: Ryan Holiday, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and Kyla Scanlon.

Each, in their own way, makes the same point: effort isn't something to eliminate. It's the source code of meaning.

"The obstacle in the path becomes the path." — Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way

"Some things benefit from shocks… They need them." — Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile

"Friction is not inefficiency. It is evidence of care. Of constraint. Of process. It's where meaning lives." — Kyla Scanlon, "The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction"

Scanlon's insight hits the zeitgeist. As generative tools are optimizing everything from prose to pitches, we're starting to lose something crucial: evidence of care. The messy bit in the middle. The wobbly first draft. The near-miss experiment that becomes a breakthrough.

Maybe effort is no longer a weakness to hide. It's a critical value to share that can define and delineate your brand.

What AI Is Really Erasing

Creative work used to leave fingerprints. Now, there's no shortage of tools to clean up your syntax, structure your story, or replicate someone else's style and voice. Sure, that's kind of awesome. But something’s getting lost: the signature of struggle. The evidence that a human being wrestled with an idea they believed in until it surrendered into something they could share.

When the labor is invisible, so is the humanity. The audience can sense the weight behind a thing. Those midnight rewrites, abandoned drafts, the struggle to find the right word or phrase. That weight created trust. It signaled that someone cared enough to push through the hard part. Now, without a visible process, output feels unearned. It's potentially perfect, but likely hollow.

Why Effort Matters More Than Ever

It Signals Truth: In a world of frictionless fakery, people crave something real. Effort is proof of authenticity. The visible seams and sweat tell us a person was here.

It Builds Connection: What audiences respond to isn't just polish. It's resonance. The feeling that someone pushed through something hard and brought back something worthwhile. Something meaningful.

Process Is Part of the Product: Today, how you make something is just as valuable as what you make. Process videos. Dev logs. Red-lined scripts. That's not filler anymore. That's part of the story.

Cracks in the Vase: The Art of Imperfection

Across cultures, some of the most enduring creative traditions don't hide the seams they highlight them.

Wabi-Sabi (Japan): The aesthetic of wabi-sabi honors imperfection, asymmetry, and the beauty of transience. A cracked teacup isn't ruined, it's complete. The flaw becomes part of the object's soul.

"The very things that we mistake as flaws are the ones that make it beautiful." — Leonard Koren, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers

Islamic Tilework: Some artisans deliberately include a flaw in their patterns as a nod to the idea that divine perfection is unattainable by humans. It's a signature of a humble hand.

Navajo Rugs: Weavers sometimes leave a "spirit line," a break in the pattern that allows the soul of the artist to escape the work. This crack in an otherwise elegant design announces: I was here.

These traditions point to something powerful: imperfection isn't the enemy of craft. It's the proof of craft. These deliberate flaws become the things that make a piece of art irreplaceable.

If effort is brand, we need to be intentional about making it visible. Some ways creators might leave their own spirit lines:

For Authors: Share the deleted scene that broke your heart. Leave the margin notes visible in your draft. Record yourself reading the version that almost worked.

For Screenscribes: Post the index cards that mapped your story structure. Show the scene you drafted seventeen times. Let the audience see the beat sheet with the Red Bull stain.

For Game Designers: Stream the playtest that revealed your core mechanic was broken. Document the pivot that saved the project. Show the whiteboard where you argued with yourself.

For All Creators: Make the struggle part of the story. Let your audience see the moment you almost quit, and be candid about why you didn't.

Why This Matters

If Kyla Scanlon is right, friction will be a new luxury good. The new marker of attention. Of presence. Of craft. Let the horde overuse AI to sand off the edges of their slop. You need to show those hard-earned scars. And leave the intentional crack or typo.

In a world of AI polish, flawless could be the new ordinary. Evidence of effort will be scarce, extraordinary, and valuable.