When everyone can output, drawing yourself in is a watershed moment: listen to an illustration × AI online sharing
Recently, I listened to an online sharing talk about “Using AI and illustrations to build personal brands and monetize knowledge.” The speaker was Qiu Yilin, a teacher who has been deeply involved in illustrations for a long time. I myself have been teaching writing, talking about content and one-person companies in recent years. I originally thought that I would hear a lot of things that I was familiar with, but instead I was hit by a few points. I wanted to write down my experience while my memory was still fresh.
AI has leveled the threshold, the remaining difference is whether you put yourself in or not
The sentence that resonated most with me during the entire session was: When AI reduces the cost of production to nearly zero, and everyone can produce decent content within a few minutes, the real watershed will be whether you put yourself into it.
This is the same thing as the judgment and taste I have been talking about, but he said it more specifically and more cutely: first generate a Q version of your image. Visuals are the fastest to be remembered. When every picture card and every note has a fixed you, others will recognize it at a glance. He also reminded two details: the style should be consistent, don’t jump here and there; and don’t be fancy, and there should be no more than three colors, otherwise it will be noise.
I think this starting move is very smart. It turns the seemingly mysterious thing of making a personal style into a small action that can be done today. This is the teaching I appreciate most: not selling anxiety, but giving you a first step that is too small to refuse.
AI never knows how you feel, and that’s what it can’t copy.
Teacher Qiu shared something that I would want to do immediately: writing a diary using AI.
He breaks it down using the experience learning circle: experience, feeling, discovery, and action. Most people only stop at a running account of their experiences when writing diaries, such as where they went today and what they ate. But he made a very crucial point: AI never knows how you feel. So when you are willing to write down “what I feel and what I discovered”, those contents become something that no matter how powerful the AI is, it cannot produce it.
He used voice input and GPT himself, and accumulated 140,000 words in more than a year, without stopping for a day. These diaries can be turned into posts and books by throwing them into the tool. I kept nodding my head when I heard this. I have always told students that “inspiration is the visitor, and discipline is the employee.” Teacher Qiu has turned this discipline into a system with the help of AI and a very low threshold. Even better is the positive cycle: when you know you have to write every day, you will deliberately make your days more worth writing. Writing will change your life, I have no doubt about it.
Organize majors into assets instead of reading experience scattered everywhere
He used a nine-square grid to converge his expertise: the theme was placed in the middle, and the surrounding eight grids were slowly filled in. The one that touched me the most is called “The story that saves your life.”
He said that many authors write books because there is a life difficulty that was saved by a certain method. AI can find all the knowledge points, but it can never find why you want to share this thing or how this topic saved you. I very much agree with this statement. I also often say that there is no shortage of information in this era, but there is a shortage of opinions and experiences, and the most irreproducible thing is the pitfalls you have stepped on personally.
He also reminded me: It is great that many people are willing to output, but if the output is scattered everywhere, has no theme, and cannot be accumulated, others will only remember that this is a person who loves learning, and then he will be drowned in the sea of people. This almost describes many creators who are serious but not seen. The solution is to focus your firepower purposefully so that every output is stacked on the same theme.
Use interest to create uniqueness, use action to distance yourself
I think Teacher Qiu’s two concepts are particularly suitable to share with friends who are still looking for their position.
The first one is to use interest to differentiate. He said that running a personal brand is not about striving for the first place in a single field, but using the intersection of many aspects to create something unique that cannot be copied by others. Basketball plus note-taking, bread plus presentation, the name sounds a bit funny, but you remember it immediately because that combination only belongs to him. This is the same as what I said about “things only you can say”, but he puts it more bluntly using intersection.
The second is action. He repeatedly emphasized that knowledge is too easy to obtain in the AI era, and what is truly scarce is action. Therefore, he is not afraid of compiling six years of experience into a book and being taught away, because there are very few people who are really willing to do it. To a certain extent, this sentence also comforts all those who hide their secrets: your moat is never information, but whether you are willing to continue doing it.
Three things I took away
After listening to this lecture, I left three actions for myself:
First, help yourself generate a consistent visual image to make the content easier to recognize. I have always focused on writing, and I really need to find opportunities to make up for this.
Second, I need to turn diary writing, which I do intermittently, into a sustainable system with AI collaboration. I teach others to be disciplined, and I must do the same myself.
Third, use a nine-square grid to re-contain the content scattered everywhere, turning them into assets that can be accumulated and liquidated, rather than isolated posts.
Finally, I would like to say that what impressed me most about this sharing is actually something that Teacher Qiu did not say clearly: In an era where AI can produce everything, the focus of illustrations is not on how to make AI speak for you, but on teaching you how to make the content more like you. Whether it is hand-drawn drawings, feelings, stories or actions, these human things are our final competitiveness. This is what I have always believed in and will continue to do.
If you also want the content to be more like you
After listening to this sharing, I am more certain of one thing: in an era where AI can produce anything, putting yourself into it is the key to truly distance yourself.
- If you want to continue to read my observations on writing, content and personal branding, welcome to Vista.tw, which is my long-term updated content base.
- If you want to combine expertise, content and business models into a career that can be sustained by yourself, I have compiled my practice in the past few years in Solo.tw, and I am talking about a one-person company in the AI era.
- The simplest first step can be done today: open a file and write down how you feel today in three sentences. Not a running account, but your feelings. Because that layer is what AI can never copy from you.
See you in the content.
