I feel like you haven't used LLMs very extensively if that is your genuine experience with LLMs.
Without even tuning the heat to a higher setting, a wide range of LLMs have offered me unique content that I had not encountered previously and certainly was not expecting.
The quality of the AI's writing actually doesn't matter, for me, as much as it might for others, as a result. I write my own stuff. I just find AI helpful to activate me to do it.
For writing as thinking with trouble starting from scratch, LLMs are the most important technology to emerge in my lifetime. Microblogging filled that gap in a way, but it had too many downsides.
> There's nothing stopping you from doing that with an LLM.
There may be, though. The LLM's initial output may anchor your thinking in insidious ways that may not be obvious at all especially since you're feeling productive. I bet the lack of confidence around starting would also increase over time every time you use an LLM to get over the hump.
I'm not talking about using a default mode LLM with LinkedIn Standard Obsequious Bullshit as a conversational imperative that emerges from simple prompts interacting with the heaviest weights. It pushes back because I told it to and it has redirects around common LLM failure modes, and modes unique to how I use them. That's in a set of instructions I've had a bunch of different models tear apart so I could put it back together better.
I treat it and describe it as a language coprocessor, not a buddy. The instructions are the kernel I boot it with.
Moreover, it's not like I spend my entire writing time arguing with an LLM, lol. I spend more time writing myself and/or doing research on the internet without an LLM, because sometimes they still get things wrong.
In short: it's a tool, not a solution.
As someone who also has ADHD, I would beg you to reconsider this strategy.
Getting the first thoughts down on paper is the hardest part, especially for those who may have trouble with focus, but that's exactly why you should practice it!
It's 90% of the task, it's where you have to practice executive function to plan what you're going to write in the overall broad sense. Please don't give up on it and hand that task over to the LLMs There are a lot of strategies you can use to break through that barrier and you'll be better off by strengthening that muscle instead of leaving it to wither.
ive been fighting the way my brain works my whole life, and only recently have i switched to trying to work with the way it wants to work. i get so many more things done that are important to me, and i get them done without the implicit "i need to flagellate myself with this thing i hate because there is something wrong with me" that comes with those fights.
and yeah, the ai's come with their own problems. but the trade is so exponentially in the direction of being worth it. even just the being a decent rubber duck aspect of them can keep me on a task when i would never otherwise hope to see it through.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
But I also have an automatic car, even though I know how to drive stick.
Tools are tools, and how you use them is the important part.
For me, the issue of getting words on paper isn't focus, but an inability to decide how I want to start a page; it's decision paralysis. Whatever an LLM writes is going to be crappy, because it isn't me, but seeing it immediately gives me guidance as to what I want to say, because I have something to respond to as opposed to just being in my head.
>clearly expressing what I mean
I have use for it here too - I use it like a "power thesaurus" when I've got the feeling that the word I have doesn't have quite the right connotation, or to test out different versions of rephrasing something when I feel it could flow better or be clearer but I can't quite get my finger on it. But I don't just take output and paste it, I use it like a pair programmer for writing, where I'm the driver and the AI is the observer.
It generally has enough "activation energy" to get me over the hump of wherever I've been mentally stuck.
I don't like how LLMs write. I like how I write.
But I do like that LLMs get me to write. People seem to miss that a lot, because most of the "AI slop" you see is AI-driven, not human-driven. But human-driven writing, with AI as a tool, is a far better way to go about it, imho.
I usually start with "I don't know what to write but" and then just don't let myself stop. I have to keep putting words down, only rule.
It sometimes starts or turns gibberish, but eventually I hit a flow and real stuff starts to come out, and then I'm just writing.
I've seen the concept applied to art/drawing as well. I highly recommend trying!
Quick edit while I can: after googling this there's a lot of woo/spiritual stuff about it. I don't really subscribe to that, I just think it's a great tool to get out of your head and enter the flow state of writing, when it feels inaccessible.
Most of my best short stories were written precisely this way. For creative writing, I find that works really well.
I also do a version of this now, which is simply record myself speaking extemporaneously about the ideas I want to write about. It’s all in my head, so speaking it out loud (or writing) helps me organize my thoughts. Then I take that recording, shove it into an LLM, and have it turn it into sentences with punctuation, without changing meaning.
Inevitably, it sucks, but gives me a starting point.
And I’m thankful - I’d really hate to rely on something else to get me going…
I managed my entire life without it, and I can certainly continue to do that.
But there’s no reason, imho, to give up the automatic transmission just because I already know how to drive stick.