Look at the picture on the left. No, that's not from one of my kids.

That was me. Grown man. Retired Navy SEAL Commander. 24 years of service.

Crayon house with some lopsided flowers. I drew that.

The one on the right? That's Al.

I'm putting them side by side on purpose because I want to talk about something I've seen a lot of talk abiut recently on socials. Ironically, it's a discussion about the use of Al on social media.

Specifically ... in writing.

So let me be transparent right up front. I use Al. A lot! I used it to help refine and edit my book. Heck, I literally used Al to help me develop this very post.

I give it a ton of input. Speaking with it.

We go back and forth on the angle. I tell it stories. I rewrite what it gives me. I cut the parts that don't sound like me. I add the parts only I would know to add.

But I drove it. Every step. The "crayon" was in my hand the whole time.

That's the part I want creators on social media to think about.

Look at those two pictures again.

If you want a "Monet," Al can give you one. Fast. Cheap. Impressive at first glance. You can post it and people will scroll by and think "wow, that's beautiful." And then they'll forget it five seconds later because there was nothing of the real you in it.

The crayon house is mine. It's not technically good. I know that. My kids could do better (like, this is literally the extent of my artistic ability when it comes to drawing).

But hey... it's beautiful because it's real.

Because a human being made it with their own hand. Because you can see the effort and the limitation and the weird little choices that only I would have made.

I don't know about everybody else but that's what I want from creators on social media (and I'm guessing that's what others want too yo!).

I want the crayon house version of you.

The wobbly lines. The weird proportions.

The little detail nobody else would have added.

The thing your grandmother said.

The smell of the gym you trained in.

The moment you almost said the wrong thing and caught yourself.

I'm not telling anybody not to use Al.

Heck. like I said above. I use it every day.

I'm asking you to keep your hand on the crayon. Use Al when you need to dress something up. Use it when you're stuck.

Use it as a brainstorming partner.

Don't just hand it the "brush and the canvas" and say paint me something that others will think is authentically 100% mine.

Because when you do, I can tell. Most of us can. We may not say it out loud. But we can tell.

And most of us never wanted the Monet.

We wanted you!