A New Start: Building Myself in 2026 Through Writing and AI
The Power of Clear Thinking in an AI World
We’re living in an interesting paradox. As AI becomes more sophisticated at generating content and performing routine digital tasks, the ability to think clearly has become our most valuable skill. It’s not about competing with machines—it’s about directing them effectively. And here’s the thing: you can’t direct what you can’t articulate clearly.
That’s why I’m making a fresh commitment this year to deliberately publish my thoughts into the world. I’m not just writing for the sake of writing. I’m treating this as a deliberate practice in clarity, with a twist that leverages the very technology that makes clear thinking so crucial.
Why Force Yourself to Write?
Writing isn’t just for communication, its about thinking made visible. When you force yourself to put thoughts into words, you quickly discover which ideas are actually solid and which fall away from your keyboard like dust in the sunlight. The blank page and struggle of completing a point doesn’t lie. It exposes fuzzy thinking faster than any other medium I know.
Here’s where it gets interesting: I’m building my own content creation and management system, entirely coded by AI. Why? Because learning to command AI effectively is easily a top-5 professional skill right now, and what better way to deliberately develop it than in service of something personally meaningful? Don’t get me wrong, I love a good class or training session, but putting the concepts into action for personal benefit make it all hit different.
The AI Influence Level Framework
I’m using Daniel Miessler’s AI Influence Level (AIL) framework to guide my content strategy. Depending on my mood and the topic, I’m targeting AIL2 and AIL3 content:
- AIL2: Human Created, Major AI Augmentation — Examples: An article was written by a human, but it was significantly modified or expanded upon using AI tools.
- AIL3: AI Created, Human Full Structure — Examples: A human fully described a story, including giving extensive structure to an AI, and the AI filled it in.
This isn’t about being an AI evangelist or doomsayer. It’s about practical navigation in a world where AI is increasingly present in our professional and personal lives.
Learning by Building
The beauty of this approach is the compound learning effect. Every piece of content I create forces me to:
- Clarify my thinking through the discipline of writing
- Strengthen my AI collaboration skills by directing the system’s development
- Build something personally valuable that serves my own content goals
It’s a confined, personally interesting environment where I can experiment with AI tools without the pressure of regular work or the constraints of corporate systems.
What’s Coming Next
I’ll be sharing more details about the tech stack and architecture in future posts. But the real story isn’t the code—it’s the process of using AI as a thinking partner while maintaining human direction and clarity.
The Takeaway
If you’re looking to sharpen your thinking and your AI skills simultaneously, consider building something personal. It doesn’t have to be a content management system—maybe it’s a personal finance tracker, a project organizer, or a learning journal. The key is choosing something you actually care about. I truly believe that in this age of AI we’re on a cusp of creating truly custom software. I don’t need to leverage a platform built for everyone, I can leverage a platform built for me.
This journey is about learning AI by doing, not through tutorials or courses. It’s through the messy, iterative process of trying to build something real. Building Systems with AI to promote writing and clear thinking.
Both skills compound. Both are essential. And both are best developed through deliberate practice, not passive consumption.
Time for a new start.
🤖 AIL LEVELS: This content’s AI Influence Levels are AIL2 for the writing, and AIL4 for the images (via Google Gemini). AI Influence Level (AIL) framework