Whatever Happened to Hard Work and Talent?

“AI this and AI that.”

That’s all I see anymore. Every scroll, every feed, every platform—it’s flooded with AI-generated content. And beyond the concern about talent and effort being overlooked, there’s something else that’s just as frustrating:

It’s boring.

What once felt fresh now feels mass-produced. Different accounts, same voices. Different visuals, same style. Same pacing. Same captions. Same trends, endlessly recycled. When everything is made by AI—or made to look like it was—nothing stands out anymore.

Social feeds used to feel human. Messy. Opinionated. A little unpolished. You could tell when someone cared, when they took a risk, when something came from experience rather than an algorithm. Now it often feels like I’m scrolling through variations of the same idea, generated in seconds and forgotten just as fast.

Hard work used to show. Talent used to feel earned. You could sense the hours behind a piece—the learning curve, the failures, the refinement. Now the process is invisible, replaced by instant output and “good enough” results.

And when effort disappears from view, so does excitement.

AI isn’t the problem by itself. Tools have always existed, and they can be powerful when used thoughtfully. The issue is what happens when convenience becomes the goal instead of creativity. When speed matters more than substance. When feeds are optimized for volume instead of originality.

The result? A sea of content that’s technically impressive but emotionally flat.

Talent hasn’t vanished. Hard work hasn’t either. But they’re being drowned out by sameness—by content that looks fine, performs fine, and feels like nothing. Creativity thrives on perspective, imperfection, and intention. Those things don’t come from prompts alone.

So maybe the real loss isn’t talent—it’s interest.

Because when everything is made instantly, nothing feels special. And when nothing feels special, we stop paying attention. Hard work and talent are still here. They’re just waiting for a culture that values them again.