Introduction: The “Fast” and “Slow” in the AI Era
This is an era that pursues “efficiency”. AI seems to have made everything faster. “One-click generation” and “AI-generated content” are flooding everywhere, and we’re all enjoying (or being forced to endure) this “speed”.
Many people (including myself) are anxious about one question: When everything can be “generated with one click”, is our brain becoming lazy? Are we losing the ability to think independently?
(The MIT “cognitive debt” research we discussed before has confirmed this concern with brainwave evidence - it’s not unfounded.)
Two weeks ago, I deliberately conducted a “reverse experiment”. Instead of pursuing “fast”, I used the most “slow” and “primitive” method to “immersively” tackle a long-form article - “GEO Business Opportunity Analysis”.
I manually typed 4,000 words in this article, spending 3 hours thinking, summarizing, and writing while adjusting the language and logic myself. AI assistance in this article was less than 5%.
Although I made this article paid content and some friends who support me paid for it, what I truly gained was definitely not just those WeChat beans. It was having 3 immersive hours to focus on thinking about one thing: Where is the commercial value of GEO? What can I do in this field? How should I do it?
In the AI era, we’ve all misunderstood the true value of “writing”.
What AI cannot replace is not the act of “writing” itself, but the “deep thinking” process forcibly triggered by “immersive writing”.
This article is my “R&D log” and retrospective.
1. How “Immersive Writing” Became My “Product R&D”
This is the birth process of that GEO tool Demo, which perfectly reproduces a real case of “writing as R&D”.
Project Initiation (The Vibe): “I want to write a GEO strategy article”
After communicating with industry experts, I wanted to consolidate and distill the value of the entire conversation into an article. But this couldn’t be done by AI - I decided to write it purely by hand.
Conditioned Reflex: “As I write, my thoughts gradually become clear”
When I wrote about “GEO tools”, my brain recalled and pointed to my previous research on GEO. I had also written long-form articles with high manual input on this topic, so my brain instantly reacted:
To do GEO well, you must know two core black boxes:
- What Prompts are users actually using to search?
- Which websites will AI engines cite as “authoritative” answers (Sources)?
I discovered that even I, as a senior observer in the GEO field, couldn’t easily find this information.
Epiphany (The “Aha!” Moment): “This ‘writing obstacle’ is itself a ‘product opportunity’”
At this moment, “writing” stopped, and “R&D” began.
AI “content generation” automatically bypasses this “black box” (because it has no intention to “must understand”, it just pieces together information).
But “immersive writing” forced me to face this “black box” directly.
I realized that this “writing obstacle” itself is a real, high-value, and unmet product need.
Implementation (The Proof): “A Demo born from writing”
I immediately stopped writing, opened VS Code, and switched to “Vibe Coder” mode.
I was responsible for defining the “Vibe” (“I need a tool that inputs keywords, crawls mainstream AI search results, and counts all cited Source domains and their frequency”).
AI was responsible for “improvisation” (quickly generating code for crawlers, data processing, and frontend display).
A few hours later, this GEO analysis tool Demo was born.
It wasn’t a product I “planned” - it was a “byproduct” that “overflowed” from my “immersive writing” process, concrete evidence of my “deep thinking” (Proof of Thought).
From this, I had an entry point into the GEO workflow. Actually, following this key point, the GEO process can be made into a standardized workflow tool, allowing beginners who are weak in this area to perceive the real “How it works” throughout the entire workflow.
2. Why AI Cannot Replace “Immersive Writing”
This “slow motion” is so precious in the AI era because it forces our brains to complete three things that AI cannot independently accomplish:
1. AI is responsible for “generation”, while writing forces “structuring”
AI can “generate” 1,000 paragraphs, but it cannot build an original thought framework that belongs to you.
“Immersive writing” forces you to “reduce dimensions” of the floating, chaotic inspirations in your brain into linear, logical text.
This process of “dimension reduction” and “structuring” is the “deep thinking” that AI cannot replace.
2. AI is responsible for “connecting”, while writing forces “discovering gaps”
AI is good at “connecting” A and B. But “immersive writing” forces you to build a complete logical closed loop from A to Z.
It’s precisely in this process that you discover that “missing link” (like my GEO black box).
This “gap” can never be actively discovered by AI, yet it’s exactly the starting point of all innovation.
3. AI is responsible for “execution”, while writing forces “inspiring creativity”
When you treat AI as the “author”, your brain is “hibernating” (cognitive outsourcing).
When you treat AI as an “assistant”, your (the author’s) brain must “overclock” to command it, screen it, and challenge it.
This “overclocking” process greatly stimulates your associations and inspirations, ultimately giving birth to innovations like the “GEO tool” that even you didn’t anticipate.
3. Builder’s Action Manual: How to Use “Writing” for “R&D”
Based on my personal experience, I’ve distilled a replicable “Writing-as-R&D” Playbook for you:
Choose a topic “you’re not worthy of”
Don’t write about things you already 100% understand. Choose a “hardcore” topic you only 70% understand but are extremely curious about.
This maximizes “stimulating” your brain to enter R&D mode.
Maintain “manual writing” dominance (Human-First)
Firmly execute the “rough draft first” principle. Use AI to help you research and practice, but the first version of the framework and core arguments must be “struggled out” by yourself.
AI can quickly retrieve information, but you must manually identify, review, and revise this content.
Hunt for “stumbling blocks on the writing path”
When you get stuck while writing, feel “this is hard to write”, or “missing data” - congratulations, this is not a “writing obstacle”, this is a “product requirement”.
Record this “stumbling block” immediately - it’s your “inspiration gold mine”.
Immediately “Vibe Coding”, make inspiration tangible
Don’t put inspiration in your to-do list - that’s sentencing it to death. While your brain is still running at high speed, immediately open an AI coding assistant and Demo the solution to this “stumbling block” in 1-2 hours.
“Immersive writing” + “improvisational coding” is the fastest product validation closed loop in the AI era.
The most primitive Demo can even be a simple app without considering any scalability or maintainability. You can use Google App Builder for quick implementation (good at React native app rapid creation), or directly use Python + Flask to quickly run an application (recommended for backend solutions).
Conclusion: Stop “Generating” Articles, Start “R&D-ing” Articles
In the AI era, the “production cost” of content approaches zero. Therefore, the “value” of 99% of “AI-generated content” also approaches zero.
But the “R&D cost” of “immersive writing” remains high. Therefore, the “value” of the “insights” and “innovations” it produces is unprecedentedly high.
AI takes over “execution” (Generate) for us, thereby completely liberating humanity, allowing us to focus 100% on the highest-value labor - “deep thinking”.
And “immersive writing” is the most scarce, lowest-cost, highest-return “deep thinking” ritual of this era.