---
title: 'Human voices'
date: 2026-03-20 14:23:00 +0200
excerpt: >
  On writing, finding your voice, and making a corner of the internet yours.
---

With the majority of content now being generated by AI, it's _more important
than ever_ to be writing _without_ it. This blog is where I experiment, share,
and find my own voice. Writing is thinking and, without it, I feel I'd just
stop evolving. This post shares how I approach writing.

### Writing

Every time I sit down and start a new post, I do it _for me_. Long flights,
train rides, a busy cafe. Wherever it is, I am overcoming a tendency to
_consume_ content and, instead, I produce something. Adding to the world while
sharpening my senses of it.

Most of what I write won't be great, but creativity flows as if from a
faucet. You need to let it flow for a while, purging the wastewater, to get to
something that is clear and genuinely _good_. That's why I strive to write as
much as I can and that's why you'll find a bunch of topics in here, from
biology to economics.

Writing distills thinking. At times, shared knowledge will be useful to others.
But more importantly, it's useful to me. It's only while writing that I dive
deep enough into something to develop my own ideas, my own vision, and my own
bet on what the future might look like. Shaping the world, instead of being
shaped by it. For that kind of _deep_ thinking to happen, I need to set time
and senses apart and line one thought after the other. I need to _roast_ each
one of them, until I am convinced I'm not deluding myself, and that what I have
reflects what's _out there_.

Often my writing is inspired by the books I read. At times by articles, or
movies. Not often enough, by conversations with others (online and offline). I
write here because I want to spark more of those conversations, encouraging
people to tell me "_I have read your thing and I think it's wrong. Here's why:
..._".

Writing also crystallizes memories. I don't have that many posts here. Still,
they are testament to what's on my mind on a given day. And I _already_ find
myself going back to it. To ground myself back in that learning, or to remember
how I solved a particular problem.

### Your voice

At first, writing will be awkward. Actually, it might _always_ remain awkward.
But still worth doing it. The more you write, the more you'll develop your own
voice. Your own way of expressing your thoughts, or of trying to get readers to
hear your reasons. You'll learn to be sharp and dry, or playful. How to do it
for fun, and how to maximize for impact.

In this sense, writing (when done well) is a powerful lever. Writing something
_once_ then has a zero marginal cost. A good idea, written down, will spread seeds,
evolve, grow roots, and be discussed and improved. The (small) internet can
help amplify those ideas. You'll see them withstanding the test of time, or
falling to it. It will help you get messages _through_, be it at work or in
life.

Your _voice_ then develops into your personal brand. A way for readers to
connect with something they are unfamiliar with, to learn from you, and to make
the world better connected, rather than more individually focused on oneself.

### Own it

The internet was born through collaboration, freedom, and a tiny, healthy dose
of resistance to hierarchies and authorities. We've come a long way from there.

Today, it's easy to find Web content being exploited, monetized, or walled to
squeeze value from users or keep them captive. It's a remunerative opportunity
for both corporations and a few individuals, and there's _little_ wrong with it.
In some cases the result is _net positive_: enabling ventures that would have
not been possible otherwise, and connecting people who'd be otherwise lost. The
downside is that whenever there's money to be made, we are naturally led to
manipulate things and maximize profits. That's why social media users often
_appear_ instead of being: adopting no one's voice to conform to trends and
seek visibility (or money, or fame, or status).

It doesn't have to be that way. Turn a corner of the internet into something
truly yours. Make it your place to voice your thoughts. Cultivate your own
digital garden and spread what grows from it freely and widely. Encourage
people to engage with you, reach out to them yourself, and share ideas,
half-baked thoughts, and the challenges you face: they might be facing them
as well.

For this blog, that means embracing open formats (all posts are Markdown),
opensource software (Jekyll), and open access to the source (on GitHub, for the
time being). Cloudflare hosts the blog itself, but I own the domain and all
content is static. I could self-host it, or switch to another provider at any
time. Readers can subscribe through RSS and I could add email delivery at some
point. Social media isn't for me, but I am experimenting with syndication on
Bluesky with a simple post that links back to each article.

This way, my voice remains my own while it reaches those that'd like to hear
it.

### About AI

As useful as AI can be, using it to _write_ will strip you of your own voice.
It won't think for you, it won't help you develop your own ideas, and, worse,
it will make what you do, write, and publish just the same as what everyone
else is doing.

I write all posts on this blog myself. I don't start from AI blobs, nor do I
have the AI rewrite drafts (since that would _kill_ my own voice). When I am
done with an article, I will ask it to read it and to point out faults. Then,
I'll ask for a diff of typos or words that don't "feel right" in English. I'll
manually type all edits and usually discard most of them. All typos and weird
sentences left are my own.

I also use AI to research and quickly (in)validate assumptions and test
hypotheses. Although it still has a few obvious quirks, it would be a
disadvantage not to familiarize myself with it or not to become _extremely_
good at understanding its strengths and weaknesses.

This blog being opensource means that, eventually, it might become part of the
AI corpus itself and lose any attribution. If any of that will happen, either
my writing will have turned out not to be original or to be good enough to
activate the AI's _attention_.

### Closing thoughts

If you made it this far, I hope you found something that resonates with you.
Some of this post's values have stuck with me for a while (openness, curiosity,
hunger for reading). Some contradict each other (I can't use social media, but
I am comfortable speaking and writing in public). Other values keep evolving
with me. I was an AI skeptic at first, until I pushed myself to learn it and
use it. It's hard to guess what's ahead: although nothing is guaranteed, I am
optimistic about where we'll find ourselves.

If you don't have a blog yet, go start one! It doesn't need to be fancy, it
just needs to be _yours_. If you already have one, I'd love to read it: let me
know where to find it.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time! 👋