Large language models can't write Copy for me -- because polar bears need to work for their food

From August 2025

What GenAI says it can do for me: write copy. No thanks, I write copy pretty quickly, and I haven’t found an LLM that conveys what I want to say in the way on want to say it. Especially now, novel and compelling phrasing matters. You have to stand out from the slop to get your point across.

What GenAI can do for me : provide helpful feedback. Especially for less formal writing (e.g. The Tech Office Update distributed within McKinsey, the weekly letter I send to other members of the Brown-RISD Hillel Board of Trustees), a LLM will helpfully get to the point more quickly and signpost my structure. I must ignore some of its advice. It always tells me to be more explicit with some points -- I can’t do that. You don’t want place too much cognitive load on the reader, but you also want to make the reader work for it a bit.*

What GenAI (infuriatingly) can’t do for me (yet). How much time do I spend jacking around with formatting? I’ve been using style sheets and the like for 30 years, and it’s still painful. I still haven’t figure out how to create a prompt that will apply the formatting I want across a document in a consistent and reliable manner. (But I am working on figuring this out.)

* You have to think about readers like the polar bears in the Central Park Zoo. Gus the polar bear got depressed because he was bored. Zookeepers fed him every day, so didn’t get to engage in the hunting behavior evolution has programmed into him. The zookeepers changed tact! According to the NY Times:

“An enrichment program was put into effect to try to put him in a better frame of mind. He was given toys containing treats like salmon and peanut butter. He was subjected to positive-reinforcement training sessions. His mealtimes were turned into challenges. He was compelled to forage for some of his food — mackerel frozen in ice, chicken wrapped in rawhide — to keep his mind and body more active.”

Human readers evolved to solve problems. As a writer you have to give them a few problems to solve!

Additional note: Amy and I used to take the kids to CPZ all the time when they were little to get them out of the house. Finally, Amy said: enough! I suggested we go the Zoo to fill an afternoon and she replied, “We’ve been there so many times that not only I am sick of seeing the animals there, i think they are sick of seeing us!”