How to Not Get F•cked by AI: A Creative's Manifesto

In this mini episode, I imagine being thrown back to the “Dark Ages” of 1994 with no Internet, no Google, no AI, and I ask myself where I’d be frustrated, where I’d fumble, and where I’d be absolutely f•cked. I tease how much of my work and life I’ve cognitively offloaded for the sake of convenience, and why the real danger isn’t losing access to tools but outsourcing thinking, synthesizing, and creating to the machines. As we cross the Rubicon into the Age of AI, the question isn’t just “Am I still useful?” but whether I’m protecting the parts of the creative process that must remain human. I’ll share my rules to stay the master of my technology by defining where I collaborate with the machines versus where I refuse to outsource the work before AI enshittifies and I’m f•cked. All that in more in my latest Substack → ​ How to Not Get F•cked by AI: A Creative's Manifesto When you're done → ​ I'd love your thoughts here in the comments!

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How to Not Get F•cked by AI: A Creative's Manifesto is an episode from Optimize Yourself by Zack Arnold.

This episode is 20:38 long.

This episode was published on Mar 25, 2026.

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