I spent the better part of my adult life being a part-time advocate and cheerleader for people trying new things.  I would not only lead by example—filling my life and days with curious hobbies, dabbling in skill building, and participating in eclectic experiences—but I would always tell people the simple advice that things are never as difficult as they think they are… and that learning something new was half the fun.

In the last decade a shift has occurred. 

My dabbling efforts in art and music and writing have been overtaken by generative AI.

Machines and algorithms can replicate (and usually surpass) the quality of what I am able to create by anyone with access to a chatbot and enough curiosity to write the right prompt.

Reports from those who attended say that Linus Torvolds, inventor of the Linux operating system, at the Open Source Summit 2026^[1] suggested that AI was little more than a productivity multiplier, boosting the ability of people to write code (and I assume other creative artifacts) faster and more efficiently.

But what I think is missing in that statement like that is the notion of hard-earned skills. 

When creativity becomes just another commodity, when productivity is amplified so that skill no longer matters as much as access to computing resources, and when everyone can create without ever taking the time to learn, to overcome, to challenge, and to build layers upon layers of calluses as they do so, when then is left of real value?

I’ve been writing here and elsewhere on the purpose and point of creativity, and I have strayed into asking that exact question here, there and everywhere: what is the point of skill when the technical barriers collapse and infinite generation becomes the norm? Over the coming months I’ll be writing more about generative AI pitted against human ambition under the topic Automation & Imagination. Stay tuned.