AI will replace jobs. Just like any technological advance, certain tasks will get automated, rendering the associated jobs irrelevant. While mundane, repetitive tasks were easily replaced through automation, right now we are facing a much more impactful technological revolution that is threatening jobs in a variety of industries. While many skills will be rendered obsolete, there remains one trait every human possesses that AI will not be able to replicate in the near future: Creativity.

Now you might be thinking but AI is replacing artists with image, music and text generation! and you would be entirely correct. This is however not the creativity I am talking about.
Creativity means to create something, to build new things, previously unseen by anyone on planet earth. It means breaking off into the unknown, because that is where AI falls short. AI has been trained on the entire human knowledge available through the internet, but it is not able to extrapolate beyond that knowledge. Even though it has all the knowledge of humanity, it can not tell us how to build an efficient nuclear fusion reactor, but humans will eventually be able to build one. That is the power of creativity - breaking off into the unknown and generating new knowledge. Solving complex problems without defined solutions. This is where humans thrive and what makes our species so powerful. Everyone is facing problems without a clear path to the solution every day and still most of the problems get solved. This is the creative power we want to tap into. This is the skill we have to train in order to use AI as a tool and not be the tool that is replaced by AI.

Creativity manifests itself in a very specific way everyone is familiar with: Ideas. Remember, when as a kid you had all these crazy ideas, but as you got older the spark slowly died off. Now is the time to reignite that spark, because the future belongs to those who are able to make their crazy ideas real. There are three core ingredients to prime your mind for creativity: mental room, information and surface area.

The first ingredient is mental room. Chances are you often feel trapped and pressured by all the tasks, duties, deadlines and politic events happening around the world. You cope by overloading your brain with even more unnecessary information, which makes everything worse. This is the polar opposite of mental room. This is what makes creativity impossible. You have to realize that your brain is only capable of processing a limited amount of information each day.
Humans evolved in nature, where there is very little stimulation available and not with smartphones in our pockets. We are naturally wired to paying attention to every piece of novel information available to us. We have to fight that instinct. In todays society stimulation is available at the flip of a finger. This is toxic to your creativity. By overloading you brain with too much information, it is not capable of fully processing that information. Try to remember all of the reels, shorts or whatever you found interesting in the last week. It's impossible. You need space in your mind in order to have new ideas. Be very picky about which information you consume, as you only have a very limited capacity. This is the first step. At the end I will provide some specific advice on how to prevent the urge to consume unnecessary information.

The second ingredient is seeding your mind with the correct information. Ideas mostly don't just come out of the blue, but are rooted in the topics, interests and problems you are currently experiencing and thinking about. You need to prime your mind to generate the ideas you want. Consumption of information is necessary for this. There are two major "tools" for this purpose: reading books and projects. Normally you don't read a book in one day but over a longer timeframe. This allows you to dive into the world the author provides to you over a longer period of time, which gives your brain the space to produce ideas. You are also confronted with ideas you never heard of before. You can integrate them into your existing worldview and use them to synthesize new ideas.
Working on specific projects serves as a powerful catalyst for idea generation. You automatically filter information in the scope of the problems you engage with. When you actively engage with real problems and challenges, your mind begins to work on problems in the unconscious. Together with the other two ingredients this is a powerful way to tap into your creativity. I would even go as far as to say that working on meaningful projects without creativity is impossible.

The third ingredient is providing a surface area for your ideas to emerge. You have likely experienced this before: You are stuck on a problem at your desk, unable to find a solution - then, while taking a shower the answer suddenly strikes you like lightning. This is the creative power of your brain that we want to harvest.
One of the best activities to let ideas rise to consciousness is walking. It puts your mind in a state of little stimulation, but enough activity to be optimal for idea generation. As you have nothing else to do it comes naturally to follow strings of thought and spin a web of ideas. Any kind of rest could serve this purpose but walking makes it easy to not fall into the default behavior patterns like scrolling on your phone. Feel free to experiment, as everybody is unique and needs their own protocols.

Let's summarize this real quick: Everybody has a creative energy within them. To tap into that energy you have to create mental room by limiting unnecessary information, seed your mind with high-quality information and provide surface area by prioritizing rest and leisure. By applying these three principles I am confident that you will tenfold your creative potential in no time.

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Now that we know how to produce new ideas, we have to do something with them. How do we know which ones are good? How do we improve them? At this point, I want to quote Ursula K. LeGuin:

It is the nature of idea to be communicated; written, spoken, done. The idea is like grass. It craves light, likes crowds, thrives on crossbreeding, grows better for being stepped on.

Let's break this down. The first step to work with your ideas is writing them down. This does not have to be fancy - just use a paper notebook, a notes app on your phone, a simple text document or anything that fits your style. Personally, I use a notebook where I can write things down by hand paired with Obsidian because this allows me to structure my notes. If an idea occurs, I write it down by hand and if I like it, I will eventually transfer it to my Obsidian vault.

Once you have written the idea down, the biggest hurdle is overcome. At this point the idea needs some time to ripe, which may take a day, a week or several years. You will quickly realize that most of your ideas are trash. It is however necessary to produce trash in order to filter out the gold. If you keep on with this process your ratio of good to bad ideas will increase.

At some point, when you go through your notes you will read over some of the ideas and decide if you want to act on them. Acting on an idea is not immediately jumping to building. You are often blinded by the shininess of your own ideas just because you are their creator. To you it probably looks like the best idea possible but that judgement has no value. You need to ground your idea in reality. Start by writing out the specifics. Talk about your idea with people whom you trust. Others will be able to point out obvious flaws which you haven't noticed before. Maybe they can even bring in their own ideas. You will see how your idea grows stronger if you let it get destroyed by criticism. If your idea is just bad and you haven't noticed until this point, others will be able to tell you. Don't be afraid that this will happen, as it will save you a lot of time and energy as you are not wasting your resources on bad ideas. After collecting extensive criticism, you have the chance of improving your idea. This is a chance you miss by hiding your ideas and going straight to execution.

At some point it is necessary to actually do something with your idea. Ideas are like arrows of light you shoot in the darkness. In order to build a path towards the arrow, you have to solve problems. If you think you are not good at solving problems you simply haven't trained that skill enough.  Use AI to solve the problems that have occurred before and use your brain to solve the problems that haven't. By engaging with the problems you are facing, you create the framework for even more ideas to emerge. You will quickly realize that ideas will come to you like an avalanche and you will wonder how it was even possible to not have new ideas.

Now, as mentioned above, I want to give you some specific advice on how to create mental room. Probably the most important skill you should train is your perception. Your brain has the amazing capacity to detect patterns among a wild noise of sensory input. If you listen to a language you don't understand, it is impossible to discern dialects, certain intonations or facial expressions going along with the spoken word. The people speaking the language notice very fine details in all of the mentioned areas. By learning that language you have the possibility to gain the same finesse and make sense of the information that was just random to your before. The same natural ability of your brain can be used to understand all the different emotions you feel on a daily basis. Pay specific attention to what pieces of information that enter your mind make you feel overwhelmed or anxious. These emotions are very good indicators that whatever you are doing right now is not what you should be doing instead. By becoming a Connaisseur of your emotions you will be able to navigate your life much more effectively.
Another piece of advice is replacing short-form content with long-form content. Instead of scrolling through reels, Tik Toks or shorts, watch a video on YouTube or put on a show you enjoy. Don't try to multitask and do both at the same time. You know by yourself why this is a stupid thing to do. The biggest hurdle with this approach is that many people trick themselves into thinking that they will only be on their phone for five minutes and that putting on a video is too big of a commitment. The truth is however that everything worthwhile requires commitment. You can't just live a life of no commitment and expect to be happy. Instead of scrolling your phone for two hours the next time, watch a video that takes 30 minutes and do something else afterwards. If you push this to the extreme you will be able to see the value of books. They are extremely long-form content. The author can put you in another world for several weeks. This form of commitment is much more satisfactory than consuming short-form content all day and you won't regret the time put into a good book.
In order to untrain your reflex to open whatever app on your phone, I believe that some sort of app-blocker is necessary. Personally, I use ScreenZen, which allows to set a timer of five minutes before you can change the settings. This is important, because otherwise you will simply bypass the regulations you set yourself whenever you feel like it. You have to treat yourself like an addict, because that is who you are.

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Thank you for reading and until next time.