I saw this message in a community I’m part of the other day:
It got me thinking.
Why didn’t they ask AI?
Why didn’t they do an internet search?
Why would they ask a community vs the internet?
And I think the answer raises a really interesting point about not just the internet, but the way the world is changing when you can create 37 pieces of content per second using AI.
Why I still pay for an accountant
In short, I don’t trust AI.
Well, I do… most accounting rules are pretty clear cut. And AI models are getting at self-validating / being careful about giving advice.
But does an AI work with a few hundred other business owners?
Does “AI told me to do it” hold up if you’re being audited?
No.
So - for now - there is still value in domain expertise.
And there’s a lot to be said for a having someone (or a community) up your sleeve, with the war wounds, that can give you a straight answer, without you asking them whether they’re sure and responding with:
“You’re right to call me out on that, and this is the honest answer…”
So when Sam asked that question in the community. She wasn’t just asking about about a good e-mail design tool. She was also asking:
You guys have probably used a bunch of tools (and used ones that didn’t work), I want the one that works?
You guys personalise e-mail. What have you found as the best way to do it?
I don’t want a company sales pitch or a website tool comparison that’s biased. I want an honest answer.
The Dead Internet
I’ve spoken about this before.
It’s the theory that one day 99% of the internet will end up AI generated, and people will just check-out.
We’ll all go back to a barter system where I’ll trade the carrots I plant in my garden to use your EV charge point for 30 mins.
OK, so maybe it won’t be that extreme.
But I can definitely imagine a future where AI robots roam the earth with humans walking around with crowbars, smashing the hell out of them.
Either way, before it ends up as extremes.
More people will crave the trust of somebody with the battle scars, in a community of people struggling with the same problems with the same shared goals.
The dark forest and the cozy web
Yancey Strickler, one of the co-founders of Kickstarter, describes the open internet as a "dark forest." A place where you stay quiet because you know something's hunting you - ads, bots, trolls, clickbait, and now an endless tide of AI-generated crap.
So what do we do in a dark forest? We find shelter.
That shelter has a name too - the "cozy web." The group chats, the WhatsApps, the Discords, the Slacks, the private communities. The bit of the internet that Google can't crawl and AI can't scrape.
And I think that's exactly where we're all heading.
Naval Ravikant has been saying a version of this for years: social media isn't social, it's performative. We perform for the algorithm out in the open, and we're real with each other in private.
The Community Model
I’m part of half a dozen communities. And I like hanging out in them because it:
Allows me to be sociable
Allows me to help others which is rewarding
Allows me to see what others in my space are doing
Allows me to ask questions that I might struggle to find the answer to (or take an age finding the answer to elsewhere)
Two of my best clients have super successful communities.
One of them has just crossed 3,000 members.
Greg Isenberg, who builds community businesses for a living says: "Brainrot is OUT. Meaning is IN."
For the first time in history, the time we spend on social media is actually starting to shrink.
His other big observation? "IRL is back." The more infinite and synthetic the content becomes, the more we want the opposite.
Not everyone sees it this way, mind you. Mark Zuckerberg is betting the other direction. His pitch is that AI "friends" will fill the gap - most of us have around 3 close friends but apparently want 15, and Meta would love to sell you the other 12 lol!
Behind my TEDx Talk
People assume the best thing about doing a TEDx talk is the talk. The video you get to share afterwards and the logo for your LinkedIn profile (obvs)
But it wasn’t jus that for me.
The best part was everything around it. Preparing for that talk introduced me to my local community in a way I never expected.
I went in thinking I was there to give a talk. I came out with a network of real, local, face-to-face relationships (and a bunch of new friends).
Sometimes it’s nice just to feel part of something.
How to position yourself:
You don't have to go and build a 3,000-member community tomorrow. That business model doesn’t suit everyone.
But you do need to think carefully about positioning.
1,000 true fans. Kevin Kelly's article is timeless- you don't need millions of followers, you need around 1,000 people who genuinely trust you and buy what you make. Li Jin reckons it's closer to 100 now you can serve people directly. Either way: depth beats reach. Know who your true fans are and serve them ridiculously well.
Write like a human. When anyone can spin up 37 pieces of content a second, the polished, corporate, AI-smoothed stuff all blends into one grey mush. Your voice, your stories, your opinions, your mistakes are your moat.
Do more face-to-face. In real life, or over Zoom. A call, a workshop, a coffee, a live Q&A. Real-time, face-on-screen contact builds more trust in minutes than a year of posts ever will.
Own your audience. Get people onto something you actually control - an email list, a newsletter - not just a following you rent from an algorithm. If a platform vanished tomorrow, would you still have a way to reach your people?
Join before you build. You don't have to start your own community. Go and be genuinely useful in the ones that already exist where your people hang out. There’s conversation that could turn into business there.
When you're ready, lead. If it makes sense, gather your true fans into a space of your own - a group, a chat, a membership - around a shared goal. You become the trusted human at the centre.
TL;DR
When AI makes information free and infinite, its value drops to zero - and the value of trust, context and belonging goes through the roof.
The open web is filling with noise, so people are moving from the "dark forest" into the "cozy web" - communities led by someone they trust, surrounded by people with the same goal.
That community is becoming the first place people go. The winners of the next decade won't be the ones with the most content. They'll be the ones with the tightest communities.
Be a human. Choose to belong.
Thank you for listening to my TEDx talk ;)
Until next time.
Adam
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P.S - Want me to help you find you best AI use cases? Reply with what you’re struggling with, and I’ll help where I can.
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