AI is changing things we take for granted: the relationship between effort and reach.

For years, the implicit promise of the internet was straightforward.

Put in the work, create something valuable, and you’d find your audience. Maybe not millions, but someone.

The effort you invested had a reasonable correlation to the impact you could achieve. A thoughtful blog post might get shared.

A well-crafted tutorial could help thousands of developers. The work mattered because it reached people who needed it.

That equation is no longer guaranteed.

Now we’re in a world where AI can generate endless content at near-zero cost.

The supply of words, images, and ideas has become functionally infinite.

So, what happens to the value of any individual piece?

• Your carefully researched article drowns in a database of a thousand AI-generated summaries.
• Your authentic ideas are lost in a sea of algorithmic content designed for engagement.

So, why put in the work if the reward isn’t there?

The dream used to be building something sustainable or something big enough to matter. Enough to support yourself while doing work you care about. And it still can be, that, a dream.

We need to return to the act of finding value in the act itself

Don’t let your self-worth depend on metrics decided by a platform.

Your entire creative output shouldn’t be measured in likes, shares, and subscriber counts. That’s when they win.

We can’t hand over the definition of “success” to the algorithms

The old promise of platforms will provide is broken.

We’re not going back.

Now we need to build something new.

What we build is up to us.