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Losing Uniqueness

Losing Uniqueness

Traps of AI

Dr. Miriam von Felbert
March 09, 2025

Hello friend – it’s Miriam 👋🏻

Welcome to this week’s Ikigami Insider!

AI is everywhere.
From writing and art to business strategy and personal decision-making, it’s reshaping how we create, think, and connect.

But here’s the question no one is asking enough:
Are we losing our uniqueness in the process?

Let’s explore how to stay human in an AI-driven world.

Intuition: Are You Thinking... or Auto-Filling?

AI makes life easier. But convenience has a hidden cost: automation of thought.

Every time you let an algorithm complete your sentence, predict your next move, or generate ideas for you, ask yourself:
Is this me, or just a pattern AI learned from billions of others?

Hack 1: Next time you need an idea, resist the urge to outsource it.

Write first, refine later.
Let the discomfort of blank space push your own creativity forward.

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Intelligence: AI Reflects Us—But Do We Like the Reflection?

AI doesn’t create. It remixes.

It pulls from existing data, blending patterns into something familiar—but not truly original.

If we over-rely on AI, we risk a world where content, decisions, and even personalities become homogenized. A world where everything sounds polished, but nothing feels alive.

Hack 2: Use AI as a tool, not a replacement.

Let it challenge your ideas, but never let it dictate them.
Treat it as a collaborator, not a creator.

"The only true voyage of discovery... would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to see the hundred universes that each of them sees."

Marcel Proust

Integrity: Your Uniqueness Is a Choice

AI is trained to optimize. But uniqueness isn’t efficient—it’s messy, nonlinear, and deeply personal.

Your quirks, contradictions, and non-optimal choices are what make you you.

Hack 3: Embrace imperfection.

Keep handwriting notes.
Let your instincts override algorithms.
Trust that your raw, unfiltered self is worth more than any AI-generated perfection.

"Life is a journey, not a destination."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reflection in Verse

If everything is optimized,
who am I?

If answers come before I ask,
what questions remain?

If all roads are predicted,
where is the wonder
of getting lost?

The glitch,
the pause,
the human hesitation—
maybe that’s where
we truly exist.

Thumbnail Photo jet dela cruz on Unsplash

3 Recommended Readings

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin – A deep dive into the art of originality and cultivating creativity.

You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier – A critical look at how technology shapes human identity and creativity.

Deep Work by Cal Newport – How to reclaim focus and originality in an age of automation.

A Question for You

Where in your life are you letting AI, algorithms, or automation think for you?

And what’s one way you can reclaim your unique voice today?

Let me know—I’d love to hear.

With clarity and courage,
Miriam