By Marwin Zoepfel
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Here's your new productivity rule: Stop using AI to brainstorm.
I mean it. Using an LLM for your core ideas is the fastest, most efficient way to become relentlessly average.
Your observation that AI-generated ideas are "just bad" is correct. It's not a bug; it's the core feature of the technology.
An LLM is a high-speed averaging machine. It is a tool of convergence, mathematically designed to predict the most probable answer based on its training on everything that has already been said.
True creativity—the kind that builds breakthrough projects—is an act of divergence. It’s the discovery of a low-probability, novel connection.
When you ask an AI to brainstorm, you are asking an engine built for averages to produce an outlier. It cannot. It will only give you a polished, high-speed echo of the past.
The core problem is contamination. When you start with an AI, you are polluting your system. You are killing your unique, weird, and valuable ideas before they even have a chance.
My best ideas—for my projects, for this newsletter—never come from an AI. They come from a simple, offline protocol.
All new idea generation must happen in a 100% disconnected environment. No AI, no Google, no X.com feed. Isolate your brain from the noise.
Use a notebook and a pen. The slowness of these analog tools is a critical feature, not a bug. It forces your brain to synthesize, not just transcribe.
Don't "look for ideas." Create them. Write down a concept from your work (e.g., "CPU Scheduling"). Write down a problem you have (e.g., "My day is chaotic"). Now, force the connection. That collision is where novelty is born.
Let's be perfectly clear: I am not an "AI hater." I use AI a lot.
Every article I publish, including this one, is passed through an AI for polishing. It is an incredible tool for debugging grammar, refactoring a clumsy sentence, or fixing small errors.
But I would never let an AI write the core of my article, and especially not the ideas.
The AI is your intern. It's brilliant at execution, not ideation.
You, the "Solo Architect," do the divergent, creative work offline. Then, you boot up the AI and hand it your finished concept for low-level tasks.
Your brain is the only true source of novelty you have. Stop polluting it.
Go offline.
Stay sharp,
Marwin