AI Makes things. Humans make stuff.

Years ago, someone tried explaining the difference in process and discrete manufacturing to me: "Process manufacturers make stuff. Discrete manufacturers make things."

I walked away none the wiser but that distinction stuck with me ever since. And now, watching everyone panic about AI taking over, it suddenly makes perfect sense.

๐—”๐—œ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜€

  • First drafts of proposals

  • Reformatting 60-page documents into one-pagers

  • Cleaning up messy spreadsheets

  • Generating code snippets

  • Building templates and frameworks

  • Turning chaos into bullet points

It's the ultimate discrete manufacturer of the knowledge economy. Fast, consistent, uncomplaining.

๐—›๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐˜๐˜‚๐—ณ๐—ณ

  • The insights that only come from getting fired twice

  • The pattern recognition from 30 years of watching markets shift

  • Original thinking that appears in the shower

  • The gut feeling that says "this strategy won't work, trust me"

  • The creative leap no prompt can reach

  • The taste that knows when something's off

AI remixes. Humans originate.

AI optimises. Humans imagine.

AI formats. Humans feel.

Let AI handle the machinery of things - the drafts, edits, automations, summaries. Let humans obsess over the alchemy of stuff - the ideas, meaning, direction, soul.

One scales effort. The other scales imagination. Together, they scale impact.

So there you have it. AI makes things. Humans make stuff.

Any the wiser?

PS: Top marks for spotting what โ€œstuffโ€ is being made in the photo...