Automated "creativity" vs. Authentic Originality

Over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about a simple question:

What happens to originality when the world becomes increasingly automated?

Algorithms recommend what we should watch, AI helps us write and design, and social media quietly nudges us toward whatever is already popular. None of these tools are inherently bad, but they do create an interesting tension.

The easier it becomes to generate ideas, the harder it may become to trust our own. It is so easy to take out a phone and film someone failing as many try to go viral. There comes a price because it's as if we are being told to not make any mistakes or the world will find out we are all frauds.

The driving force behind my first book Don’t Think Straight, was the the same pattern across artists, athletes, entrepreneurs and creators: the people who shape culture almost always challenge the systems around them.

And yet most of us grow up inside systems designed to do the opposite.

We’re taught to follow instructions, avoid mistakes, and not rock the boat too much.

Those systems help society function. But they can also quietly discourage the kind of thinking that leads to real change.

Recently I decided to apply to speak at TEDxVictoria about this idea.

Because the topic feels increasingly important and we must start pushing for more originality as the world around us seems to be pusihng more of the same and more of the same.

If originality becomes harder in a world of automation, it might also become more valuable.

Maybe the real skill of the next generation isn’t simply learning to use new tools.

Maybe it’s learning when to question them.

Nothing changes until someone is willing to flirt with the edges of normal. So go get your flirt on.