AI Delivers Results, But Meaning Comes from Process
"Whatever you want, just ask AI for it."
This is the mindset AI companies are propelling us to adopt by offering free tokens and an alluring prospect of effortless automation.
And what people ultimately want is success—or rather, the pristine result of it.
We want straight As, impeccable personal statements, and acceptance letters from Ivy League universities. Then, we want flawless spreadsheets, professional-looking decks, and high praise for fancy deliverables. Eventually, we want to generate ten viral videos a day with a single click and earn millions in a month by deploying a swarm of OpenClaw agents. The list goes on.
Whatever we want, AI provides for us. But what do we really get?
When addressing the crisis of writing in the age of AI, Hua Hsu pointed out a profound shift: in the past students were taught how to do something difficult, but today AI allows them to bypass the process and difficulty altogether.
Without process, there is no meaning. We experience the weight of our achievements through our active engagement with them. If you could simply take a pill and break the world record of 100m sprint race, the record itself would become completely pointless.
It is easy to call this depressing or to naively champion authenticity, but there are real, systemic reasons we make these choices. The modern-day's margin for error is razor-thin, making the messy, unpredictable journey of inner growth feel like a luxury we can no longer afford. To be deeply, authentically human is to risk failure — a risk fewer people are willing to take when a perfect, AI-generated alternative is readily available.
We fixate on the final result because it feels like the only thing society values, voluntarily removing ourselves from the equation. If we continue down this path, perhaps not far from now, we will start to have propaganda program made by AI to be seen by AI and essay wrote by AI to be reviewed by AI.
With AI, you might get exactly what you want. But without the process and struggle, you sacrifice the chance to become who you could have been.