Howdy Reader!

Right now, I'm looking out my window, and I'm seeing a ton of squirrels chasing each other around the yard. I've glanced out my window and seen tons of squirrels before, but I really never noticed them until this article I read by the researchers at the University of Exeter.

They set up a little experiment. Eleven squirrels, one pole, two snacks. Climb a little ways up the pole, you get pumpkin seeds. Climb higher, you get almonds. Over four thousand decision tests, the squirrels kept climbing past the pumpkin seeds to grab the almonds.

That sounds simple, but here's the twist. Almost every other animal in nature picks the closer food, even if it isn't the favorite. Survival math. Easier calories win. (That's why there's a bunch of empty Oreo sleeves around my house.)

These squirrels said, "Nope, I want the good stuff. I'll work for it."

I read that and immediately thought about creators right now. About you and me, trying to make stuff in the age of AI.

Here's the thing. AI just dropped a giant pile of pumpkin seeds right at the bottom of the tree. You don't have to climb anymore. You can grab the "good enough" version of whatever you're making in about four seconds. Generic intros, predictable headlines, that one structure every blog post seems to use.

And a lot of creators are. I get it. Sometimes you just need to ship something.

Listen, I don't have any problem using AI as a tool. In fact, AI helps me climb higher to get to the answers quicker. It's how I get past the blank page, stress-test an idea, or pull together research in minutes that used to take me a whole afternoon. The tool isn't the problem.

The problem is stopping at the first answer it gives you. That's the pumpkin seed.

Because the almonds are still up there. The version of your idea that sounds like you. The story only you can tell. The take that makes someone stop their scroll because they've literally never heard it phrased that way before. That stuff still requires a climb.

So I've been running the "almond" test on my own work. When AI hands me the closer, faster version of something, I ask, "Is this a pumpkin seed or an almond?" If it's a pumpkin seed, I keep climbing. I push the prompt harder, I rewrite the opening in my actual voice, I add the weird specific detail that AI would never think to include.

It takes longer. That's the whole point. Most creators won't bother, which is exactly why it works.

Your audience can tell the difference, by the way. They might not know why one piece of content lands and another doesn't, but they feel it. Almonds taste like almonds. Pumpkin seeds taste like pumpkin seeds. And right now, a lot of feeds are full of pumpkin seeds. And not even the good pumpkin seeds. More like ones you find under your car seat a couple months after a questionable road trip, all stale and looking like they've been through somebody already.

So this week, do me a favor. Climb a little higher. Your audience can taste the difference.

See ya around the interwebs,
​
-Jeff

P.S. What's the almond at the top of your tree this year? The thing that's going to take a real climb to reach? Hit reply, I'd love to hear it.