Let us enjoy our complexity to connect and create with meaning
I recently heard LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman say that in the age of AI, creativity, and humanity will still be crucial differentiators.
This is something I have been toying with and intuitively knew ever since I started having a deep dialog with AI.
People are scared that AI is going to replace everything. I doubt that.
I doubt it because I still trust our human capacity to make a difference. We are the unique creators who can think multi-dimensionally and messy and can create weird and out-of-this-world deep connections — sometimes by pure luck, other times by intention.
Our vulnerability and our confusion are our superpowers.
Machines can do many things. They can help us get better at what we are doing and expand our brains to reach to heights we did not imagine is possible.
But they do not have the capacity to be messy, emotional, moody, unproductive, hazy, depressed — and as a result brilliantly creative.
We are who we are because we are sometimes ineffective and inefficient. We meander thoughts, we procrastinate, we argue, but we end up in a place that is rich and novel.
The imperfections make us deeply human and deeply creative.
In fact, Brene Brown writes and speaks about the cruciality of human vulnerability for innovation and creativity.
Look at the list of individuals — which, by the way, AI helped me prepare because that is what AI does.
Frida Kahlo — who painted through chronic pain and disability. Her vulnerability and rawness made her an icon.
Charlie Chaplin — who merged slapstick comedy with deep existential sadness. His “Little Tramp” character is beloved because of his human frailty and resilience.
Virginia Woolf — Her stream-of-consciousness writing came from allowing the mind to flow unfiltered. Her work redefined literature through introspection, mood, and fragmentation.
Kurt Cobain — He didn’t try to be perfect or polished. His roughness and sadness gave rise to a generational voice.
Jean-Michel Basquiat — His art was chaotic, layered, politically charged — and it…