Lede
If a tool can replace you, you were already replacing yourself.

Hermit Sense check

Nothing has changed the oldest rule. If you give the world a page only you could write, you have a reader. If you give the world a page anyone could write, a tool will do it cheaper and faster and your publisher will clap.

We are told the sky is falling. That jobs will vanish. That letters in a new order will swallow literature whole. Spare me. The same talk greeted the printing press, the fountain pen, the typewriter, the spell checker, the search box. Each time, lazy work got easier to do. Each time, the bar for humans rose. Good.

If one day machines write something truly new, that is a new shelf. Competition makes craft sharper. It does not erase it. For the record, I am still waiting for monkeys, dogs or dolphins to publish a decent novel. Until then, two species write. Humans. And humans using tools.

What does not make sense

• Calling it the end of authors when most panic pieces are the same blog in new shoes.
• Complaining about sameness while chasing the chart and copying the trend.
• Selling fear to flog courses on how to survive the thing you just hyped.
• Pretending readers want sludge when readers return for voice. Always have.
• Mistaking good tools for little gods. They are amplifiers. They are not souls.

Who should worry

• Writers who copy the chart and call it a voice.
• Outfits that flood the feed with beige.
• People who confuse attention with merit and call the result a book.
• Anyone selling a dream of fast money from fast words. You were never building a body of work. You were building a slot machine.

Who will be fine

• The author with a lived centre.
• The essayist who can count, source, and say the quiet part.
• The poet who carves a line that tastes like rain and memory.
• The reporter who can sit in a room, listen, and get the truth down clean.

Follow the money

The loudest fear sellers are the ones cashing the cheques. They invent new letters for the same vapour and call it destiny. The pitch is simple. Be scared. Buy training. Buy access. Buy the shovel for the gold rush. If the rush fails, they still win. You bought the shovel.

How to stand your ground

• Write from life. Scenes you have lived beat mash-ups you have scraped.
• Count and verify. Numbers with sources make your page heavy.
• Build a canon, not a week. One book that lasts pays for the noise of a hundred forgettable posts.
• Use the tool. Do not worship it. Plan, draft, test, cut. Keep your judgement on.
• Publish cleanly. Short titles. Clear ledes. Links that open. Dates that are dates.
• Make a signature. A sentence that could only be yours is worth a thousand templates.

For editors and publishers

Stop asking for “content”. Ask for work. Stop forcing authors to play a daily game of noise. Use tools to cut drudge, not to replace craft. Pay for original reporting, original essays, original stories. Your list will age better and your readers will trust you longer.

Comic aside

Scene 1: By Tuesday, Apparently
Panel: A writer doomscrolls, wide-eyed, typing nothing. A headline blares: “Robots to replace all authors by Tuesday.”
Dialogue:
Writer: “By Tuesday?!”
Phone: “Panic updates enabled.”
Writer: “Brilliant. Love that for me.”

Scene 2: Resistance, Now With Checkout
Panel: Same writer, now a guru, filming a shaky video. Big text: “Buy my guide to resist robots – today only.”
Dialogue:
Writer: “Do not fear. I have a course.”
Viewer: “Does it include writing?”
Writer: “It includes payment.”

Scene 3: Delay, Discount, Death Of Art Thread
Panel: The writer posts an update while end-credits roll across the screen over yet another comment war titled “The Death of Art (Part 4,981)”. Banner: “Update: robots delayed. Guide now half price.”
Dialogue:
Writer: “Robots delayed. Sale extended.”
Reader: “So the apocalypse was a launch strategy?”
Writer: “Always was.”

The Hermit take

If machines raise the floor, raise your ceiling. Keep heart in the work. Keep receipts in the facts. Keep your name for pages that count. The rest is a toy.

Keep or toss

Toss the fear. Keep the craft.