agm

think best when writing

For a few months now, I’ve been wanting to try out Willow, an AI voice to speech tool. I finally downloaded the free version a few weeks ago and have yet to actually use it. Time and time again, I run into the fact that I think best when writing and spend much of my day in silence. One of my favorite extroverted pals speaks to herself throughout the day and can’t fathom how I don’t carry on full conversations when I’m alone. Yesterday, I took the day off, hiked up a mountain to a lake, set up my hammock, and hung out. I ate a big biscuit sandwich I brought with me, I read two chapters of “The Art of Gathering”, and I woodcarved a very tiny spoon. I only spoke out loud twice. Once when recording an audio message for said extroverted pal and once when someone on the way down commented to me about my hammocking as I passed them. We shared a few words and a laugh before I continued on.

Periodically, I’ll get nudges from Willow to use it and every time I ignore it. The only audio based AI interactions (outside of note takers) I’ve had is to transcribe audio either for a video or to write a summary. Finally, in the midst of scribbling down this post, I tried it and felt the pain of trying to speak into existence words I know I can better reach when writing. It worked and looked good but I could see myself being more exhausted using this over writing out what I need to. Perhaps this all goes back to my speech impediment filled youth where I learned the power of writing to be understood when my speech failed me over and over again. Or perhaps this is introversion and being more of an internal processor at play!

On the flip side, I love audio messages with pals. It’s a favorite of mine for communication and I’ve seen more folks using them in slack. The difference there is that you’re not speaking with the hopes of coherent written words at the end. Knowing me, I might be being too strict or literal with Willow and it’s likely more adaptable to meandering verbal thoughts than I expect. We’ll see if it proves to be useful. I want it to be.

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5 responses

  1. Jeremy Herve Avatar
    Jeremy Herve

    I didn’t know about Willow, thanks for sharing.

    I can relate with how you’re feeling. Writing is a good way for me to clarify my thoughts.

    That said, I do rely on ChatGPT’s voice conversation feature more and more. I don’t use it as a writing tool, but as a brainstorming tool. I’ll ramble for a few minutes, think some more, ramble some more, and ChatGPT will organize that and help me figure out a good train of thought. I can then start writing and continue to clarify my thoughts as I write.

    On another topic, you’re living the best life! A hike in a beautiful weather, beautiful sights, the perfect place to stop for a break, the hammock to make that break even more perfect, and the tools to turn that break into a quiet time for introspection. This is just perfect!

    Reply
    1. Anne McCarthy Avatar
      Anne McCarthy

      If you do ever use Willow, let me know what you think. I’ve also used ChatGPT’s voice conversation feature a bit, and I do think it’s good to help synthesize ideas—and using it to brainstorm. I’m using it now to write this comment and you can see how AI driven it is.

      Thanks for the kind words but the best life. I love to make good use of my days off.

      Reply
  2. Ashutosh Avatar
    Ashutosh

    I get your point of view, especially as a writer. I think it’s not that speaking is not the same as writing, it’s that speaking is not always the same as writing.

    To give you a real-life example, I’m using Superwhisper and it’s a game-changer for prompting. I’ve been vibe-coding an app and it saves me so much time simply speaking out instructions to the AI agent vs. typing them out. My MVP’s almost ready and I don’t think I could’ve gotten here if it weren’t for Superwhisper. It removes soooo much friction. I also suspect it’s made me a better prompter, because when typing out prompts, I tend to leave out the nitty gritty details that fill the gaps for the AI (which is so important for getting the AI to actually do what I want it to do). The amusing part is that I didn’t know I was being a ‘lazy prompter’ until I tried this whole talking-to-your-computer thing.

    So I guess what I’m trying to say is: I’ve found dictation to be a real productivity game-changer in situations where writing is just a means to an end (like prompting). But for any writing situation that’s not a means-to-an-end, like writing this comment, or an article on the internet, where thought holds a lot of weight, writing’s still the way to go.

    Reply
    1. Anne McCarthy Avatar
      Anne McCarthy

      Love the practical example of when it’s been helpful for you and when you still find yourself wanting to write rather than speak. I’ve been playing around with using it for prompting, some brainstorming, and helping to create issues/bugs I’ve found at work. The funny part is I work from home as does my partner so sometimes I am too shy to start talking to my computer for fear of interrupting her! 😂

      Reply
      1. Ashutosh Avatar
        Ashutosh

        I get that, that’s when I pick my laptop up with both hands, like when drinking tea from a saucer, bury my face in the angle between the keyboard and the screen, and start… umm… whispering to Superwhisper. 🤣

        I wasn’t very comfortable with talking to my laptop initially even by myself, but I quickly got over it. Now I talk to it in public places too. There’s this cafe I frequent where I sit for hours talking to my laptop with not another person, but code on my screen. I wonder if the baristas think I’ve gone nuts.

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