MY MANIFESTO FOR HUMAN/AI CREATIVE COLLABS

1. The process IS the product. That flow state when you're deep in the zone of creation? That's not inefficiency, that's where the real magic happens. Don't let AI optimize away the journey just to reach the destination a little faster.

2. Keep your hands dirty. There's something irreplaceable about typing until your fingers ache, scribbling notes at 2am, sketching that half-formed idea. Your body and brain are partners in ways that voice commands to AI LLMs can't replicate. Physical creation engages neural pathways that pure thought doesn't touch.

3. Embrace productive friction. Every breakthrough I've had came through wrestling with a problem, not around it. Let AI handle the tedious stuff, but protect the challenges that make your brain sweat. That resistance is where originality lives.

4. Feed your curiosity diet. I remember browsing magazine racks at the local newsstand. That random collision of ideas—quantum physics next to motorcycle magazines. That's what AI algorithms are designed to eliminate. Fight back. Seek out the weird adjacent stuff that has nothing to do with your current project.

5. Question the first answer. When AI gives you research or suggestions, that's your starting point, not your destination. Deploy the Five Whys. Research the opposite. Dig into the peripheral industries. Request novelty. The algorithm's comfort zone isn't where the most interesting stories dwell.

6. Protect your discovery process. Take walks without podcasts. Sit in coffee shops and eavesdrop. Browse physical bookstores. The best material comes from unexpected encounters that can't be prompted or predicted. Strolls, not scrolls.

7. Share the journey, not the performance. Document your process, but the moment your social media about how to create takes longer than actually creating, you've lost the narrative.

8. AI is your research assistant, not your co-scribbler. It can gather information and suggest structures, but it can't give you the lived experience that makes characters feel real or the cultural insight that makes your stories resonate.

9. Build creative sanctuaries. Carve out time and space where it's just you, your imagination, and a notebook. Your unassisted brain needs room to make those weird connections that algorithms miss. Pen and paper, there is no substitute.

10. Slow down when it counts. Speed isn't the enemy, but neither is deliberate pacing. Some ideas need time to marinate. Some problems need to be lived with before they're solved. Scribble, ignore, revisit.

11. Your voice is your fortress. Soon we'll be drowning in AI content that nails all the “story math” but lacks “story soul.” Your specific, weird, human perspective is shaped by serendipity. Every conversation you've overheard, every painful failure you've survived -- is unique and can't be replicated by an LLM.

12. Joy is the only metric that matters. If a new tool or process kills your creative spirit, dump it. Efficiency without fulfillment is the engine of misery.