Introduction: The “Fast” and “Slow” of the AI Era
This is an era obsessed with “efficiency.” AI seems to have made everything faster. “One-click generation” and “AI content mills” are flooding everywhere — we’re all enjoying (or being forced to endure) this “speed.”
Many people (myself included) are anxious about one question: When everything can be “one-click generated,” are our brains becoming lazy? Are we losing our capacity for independent thought? (The MIT “cognitive debt” research we discussed before already confirmed these concerns with brainwave evidence — this isn’t unfounded worry.) “AI Is Making You Dumber” — MIT Brainwave Evidence First Exposed. If You Feel Unable to Work Without AI, Pay Attention
Two weeks ago, I deliberately ran a “reverse experiment.” I didn’t chase “fast” — instead, I used the slowest, most “primitive” way to grind through a long article — 《GEO Industry Commercial Opportunity Analysis》. I typed 4,000 words by hand, spent 3 hours thinking, summarizing, and writing. I also manually adjusted the language and expression logic myself. AI assistance was less than 5% of this article.
Although I made this article paid content and some supportive friends did pay, what I really gained wasn’t those few WeChat beans. It was having 3 immersive hours to focus on thinking about one thing: Where’s the commercial value in GEO, what can I do in this space, and how should I do it?
In the AI era, we’ve all misunderstood the real value of “writing.” What AI can’t replace isn’t the act of “writing” — it’s the “deep thinking” process that “immersive writing” forcibly sparks. This article is my “R&D log” and retrospective.
1. How Did “Immersive Writing” Become My “Product R&D”?
This is the birth story of that GEO tool demo — it perfectly demonstrates a real case of “writing as R&D.”
Project Initiation (The Vibe): “I Want to Write a GEO Strategy Article”
After conversations with industry veterans, I wanted to consolidate and distill the entire conversation’s value into an article. But this couldn’t be done by AI — I decided to write purely by hand.
Conditioned Reflex: “As I Wrote, My Thinking Became Clear”
When I wrote about “GEO tool categories,” my brain recalled my previous GEO research, and I’d also written long-form articles with high human effort on related topics. So my brain instantly reacted: To do GEO well, you must understand two core black boxes:
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What prompts are users actually searching with?
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Which websites does the AI engine cite as “authoritative” answers (Sources)?
Reference my previous articles on this:
Interrogating AI: How I Made ChatGPT “Confess” GEO’s Underlying Logic
Does GEO Make Your Site Stand Out Instantly? Really?
I realized that even I, as a senior GEO observer, couldn’t easily find this information.
The Epiphany (The “Aha!” Moment): “This ‘Writing Block’ Itself Is a ‘Product Opportunity’”
In that moment, “writing” stopped, and “R&D” began. AI “content mills” would automatically bypass this “black box” (because they have no “must understand” intent, just stitching information together).
But “immersive writing” forced me to face this “black box” head-on. I realized this “writing block” itself was 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 defined the “Vibe” (“I need a tool that inputs keywords, scrapes mainstream AI search results, and counts all cited Source domains and their frequency”). AI handled the “improvisation” (quickly generating crawler, data processing, and frontend display code). Hours later, this GEO analysis tool demo was born. It wasn’t a “planned” product — it was a “overflow” byproduct of my “immersive writing” process, concrete evidence (Proof of Thought) of my “deep thinking.”
From there, I had an entry point into the GEO workflow. Following this key point, you can actually turn the GEO process into a standardized workflow tool, letting newcomers weak in this area perceive the real “How it works” throughout the workflow.
2. Why Can’t AI Replace “Immersive Writing”?
This “slow motion” is so precious in the AI era because it forces our brains to complete three things AI can’t do independently:
1. AI Handles “Generation,” While Writing Forces “Structuring”
AI can “churn out” 1,000 paragraphs, but it can’t establish an original thought framework that belongs to you. “Immersive writing” forces you to “dimensionally reduce” floating, chaotic inspiration in your brain into linear, logical text. This “dimensional reduction” and “structuring” process is the “deep thinking” AI can’t replace.
2. AI Handles “Connection,” While Writing Forces “Discovering Gaps”
AI is good at “connecting” A and B. But “immersive writing” forces you to build a complete logical loop from A to Z. It’s precisely in this process that you discover that “missing link” (like my GEO black box). AI can never proactively discover this “gap” — and this is precisely the starting point of all innovation.
3. AI Handles “Execution,” While Writing Forces “Sparking Inspiration”
When you treat AI as the “author,” your brain “hibernates” (cognitive outsourcing). When you treat AI as an “assistant,” you (the author) must “overclock” your brain to direct it, evaluate it, challenge it. This “overclocking” process greatly sparks your associations and inspiration, ultimately birthing innovations you never anticipated — like the “GEO tool.”
3. Builder’s Playbook: How to Use “Writing” for “R&D”?
Based on my personal experience, I’ve distilled a replicable “Writing as R&D” Playbook:
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Choose a Topic “Above Your Level”
Don’t write about something you 100% understand. Choose a “hardcore” topic you only 70% understand but are extremely curious about. This maximizes “sparking” your brain into R&D mode.
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Maintain “Human Writing” Dominance (Human-First)
Firmly execute the “rough draft first” principle. Use AI to research and be your sparring partner, but the first draft framework and core arguments must be “struggled out” by yourself. AI can search fast, but you must manually identify, audit, and revise this content.
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Hunt “Stumbling Blocks on the Writing Path”
When you get stuck writing, feeling “this is hard to write” or “missing data” — congratulations, this isn’t a “writing block,” it’s a “product requirement.” Immediately record this “stumbling block” — it’s your “inspiration gold mine.”
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Immediately “Vibe Code” to Land the Inspiration
Don’t put inspiration in your to-do list — that’s sentencing it to death. While your brain is still running hot, immediately open your AI coding assistant and spend 1-2 hours demo’ing a solution to this “stumbling block.” “Immersive writing” + “improvisational coding” is the fastest product validation loop in the AI era.
The most primitive demo can even ignore all extensibility and maintainability concerns — just a simple app. You can use Google App Builder for quick implementation (great for React native apps), or directly run a Python + Flask app for quick prototyping (recommended for backend solutions).
Conclusion: Stop “Churning” Articles — Start “R&D’ing” Articles
In the AI era, content “production cost” approaches zero, so 99% of “AI content mill” articles’ “value” also approaches zero.
But “immersive writing’s” “R&D cost” remains high, so the “value” of its “insights” and “innovations” is unprecedented.
AI took over “execution” (Generate) for us, completely liberating humans to 100% focus on the highest-value labor — “deep thinking.” And “immersive writing” is this era’s scarcest, lowest-cost, highest-return “deep thinking” ritual.
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🌌 AI handles generation, while you handle thinking and discovery.