Caught two coworkers arguing about whether AI writing tools make you lazy or just faster

I was in the break room at my office in Austin yesterday and two guys from marketing were going at it. One said using ChatGPT for drafts is cheating and makes your brain soft. The other guy laughed and said it just speeds up the boring parts so you can focus on the real thinking. I sat there eating my sandwich and honestly I see both sides. Like I tried it once to write a quick email and it saved me 20 minutes but I felt weird hitting send on something I barely touched. But then again I spent 3 hours last week rewriting a dumb report from scratch and maybe I could have used that time better. How do you guys draw the line between helpful tool and crutch?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_elliot3d ago

Totally agree with both of you. I had this exact same moment last month when I was writing a cover letter and I used ChatGPT to rough out the first draft. It felt so wrong hitting submit on something I barely rewrote, but the letter got me an interview. So now I'm like, okay maybe I just need to get over myself and use it for the boring stuff but still make sure I add my own voice to the final thing.

lindag333d ago

it saves time but feels weird" is exactly how I felt too, it's a real struggle with no easy answer.

paige3313d agoMost Upvoted

I get what you mean about the "saves time but feels weird" part. How do you decide when it's actually worth pushing through that weird feeling versus just ditching the tool and doing it the old way? Like do you have a cut off point for how much time it needs to save you before the weirdness is worth it lol