Better Inputs Create Better Outputs. Now We All Taste The Same.
The last six months have been the least creative I have ever been.
Consumption became my default.
First, it had purpose. Reading the latest industry news, listening to podcasts, reviewing AI generations.
Then I burnt out.
So I went the opposite way.
I doom scrolled.
Watched a TV show.
Doom scrolled again.
Another TV show.
Anything to escape from thinking.
Slowly, I stopped being proud of who I was.
So I did what I always do when I needed a reset. I sat down with my journal.
Today I’m thankful for…
For…
For…?
I blanked. For a long time.
That was when I realized: I had stopped.
Stopped observing. Stopped being curious. Stopped learning.
When was the last time I created something?
Not using an AI prompt or old work as a starting point. Just from pure imagination?
The blank page haunted me.
Something had to change.
Ironically, when speaking about AI, we always say “the better the input, the better the output”.
I forgot the same was true for us, too.
We Are What We Consume
Every technology has closed a distance. The printing press. The telephone. The Internet. Each one brought ideas faster.
AI collapsed this distance too—but it widened one too. The one between people.
That distance introduced us to the era of sameness.
GenAI replaced shoots. Synthetic personas reduced real conversations. GenUI removed wires.
We asked AI before we asked others.
We got average answers. Average content. Average products.
AI has given us so many wonderful things, but we've let the algorithm feed us, and now we wonder why we all taste the same.
We closed the door to what makes us different: lived experience.
It’s time to reopen the door. Let life feed our creativity.
The Street Knows More Than Your Feed
Walk down the street and actually look.
Notice how a humid summer day drags both body and brain. How the heat warps everything in your path. How the existence of rain can change the ambience of a place, and in turn, your mood.
The streak of pink spray paint that somehow improved the original bus stop ad.
The corner store with the utterly graffiti’d ice cooler that became the most memorable thing on that block.
The outfit that breaks every rule and is stunning for it.
Ask why. Not to AI. To yourself.
Sit With The Discomfort
Take these observations home.
Write on paper.
Storyworthy moments. Five second moments that shifted something in you. The thing you can’t quite explain yet.
Resist the urge to prompt your way to clarity. Sit with the discomfort of half-baked ideas.
Take a leaf out of Hayao Miyazaki’s book and just start small. He drew his sparks, again and again, until they formed a masterpiece.
You don’t need to draw. You can write. Observations, things you heard, questions you can’t answer yet. Then come back.
The most interesting insights and ideas connect over time, on their own.
Make Something Only You Could Make
When a spark meets a connection, bring it forward.
Share it in a conversation. Write the piece. Record the note. Draw it, build it, say it out loud.
You can use AI—but don’t close the door that lived experience opens. That perspective will be what breaks us out of this era of sameness. It’s what makes work worth returning to.
For the next six months, I will feed myself. I will create more than I consume. Because I'd rather taste like something.
Camello Atkinson is a Brand and Experience Design Lead at APPLY, based in Melbourne, Australia. She has worked with Kraft Heinz, lululemon, and Virgin Plus. She writes about creativity, design, and the human side of technology at chamellon.com.
