AI Has Made My Handwriting Better
TL;DR: AI has elevated my handwriting to a level that can actually be scanned legibly.
A close friend once said my handwriting resembled goat poop. For the Gen Z crowd who probably haven’t had much farm exposure: goats tend to walk while they poop. Draw your own diagram.
With time, as I spent long stretches self-diagnosing myself and subjecting my body to all kinds of stiff experiments, my writing worsened further, until it resembled a doctor’s prescription.
Now, with AI, it has become incredibly hard to even type something. Back in my blogging days, when I typed into MS Word, the only distraction was low-bandwidth internet and maybe five social media posts from my entire network. But now the temptation to get AI to complete the draft is huge.
Editing is even harder. Once the idea is on the page, there are no spelling mistakes, no grammatical errors, and the pacing is perfect. Usually when you write, the first draft is imperfect in every sense. You come to it knowing full well that it is a throwaway. An AI draft is not a throwaway. Often you get an interesting take you did not ask for, and the temptation to change your narrative to match it is huge.
So I picked up a diary and started writing by hand. I took a picture and asked the AI to scan it. I quickly realised I would either have to fine-tune the current models to tell the difference between goat poop and my personal thoughts, or wait for Fable 10 and Codex 12. Voice notes did not work either, because you cannot reflect on your own thoughts while dictating them.
So now I have a fresh notebook, stolen from my five-year-old’s bag, and it works like a charm. You cannot easily find a long notebook with 180 pages, so I am back to my diary, having passed the handwriting standards of kindergarten once again.
The kids have become curious about why I am writing at all. They never had a problem with me using my laptop. All said and done, this is the best solution I have found.
Curious how you have solved this problem for yourself. Thoughts?
