Innovation — is it from AI, or from me?
Ask AI for "something unique" and you'll get something that feels unique — statistically derived from everything that already exists. AI is extraordinarily good at recombining patterns it has seen. That's not innovation. That's recombination.
“Innovation isn't asking AI what's possible. It's knowing what you want before you open the prompt.”
Apple's Think Different is still 100% correct. Not despite AI — because of it. The bar for execution dropped to nearly zero. Original vision is now the only bar that matters.
Who Is Actually Innovating?
What Not to Ask
- ✦"Solve this using the best known algorithm"
- ✦"What's the most efficient approach here?"
- ✦"Build me something innovative"
What to Ask Instead
- ✦"Step 1: point A has an area. Point B has an area."
- ✦"Step 2: does Area A intersect with Area B? If not, advance."
- ✦"Step 3: repeat until one path is exhausted — implement that."
“Don't ask 'can this be done?' Ask 'let's try this, then that, to reach my goal of...' — keep the goal yours.”
The Division of Labour Shifted
My gesture-signature algorithm was written by hand in Obj-C, circa 2010. No AI, one person, every step. If I built it today I still wouldn't ask AI to design it — I'd describe it exactly as I saw it: step 1, step 2, step 3. AI would implement each step. I'd refine. The algorithm would still be mine.
“One person used to carry both the vision and every line of code. Now the vision is still yours — AI just means you don't have to carry it alone.”
Refinement Has Teeth
Refinement means some general knowledge of how things work in the current context. The more ideas you push, the more options you have.
So How Do You Give It Step by Step?
It's a skill. And like any skill, it starts before you touch a keyboard.
Much like athletes who train using a mental model — the mind sees the movement, the form, the outcome, and practice trains the body to match that vision — the same applies here. See the software in your head first. Then practise breaking it down.
- ✦Draw it. Sketch the flow, the structure, the shape of what you're building — on paper, in your head, anywhere.
- ✦Visualise the dream until you can see its parts.
- ✦Then practise chopping it up — smaller, smaller, smaller. One constraint. One rule. One step.
Each little piece goes to AI. One at a time. You see what comes back, you refine, you hand it the next piece. The whole vision arrives — but on your terms, in your sequence.
“Your vision is the key. Still! — Walter Mak”