Instead of waiting for AI to replace me, I’d rather eliminate myself first.
After four years in content creation, I’ve recently been doing something: breaking down my work and asking myself questions one by one.
Can AI replace this?
As I broke it down, I discovered something.
I thought I was creating content, but actually I was making judgments.
And judgment is what I truly have to offer.
This discovery also solved another problem that had been bothering me for a long time:
I wanted to start a side hustle, to run a one-person company, but I felt I had no portfolio, no followers, nothing to offer, just an ordinary person, and I rejected myself before even starting.
Now I realize it’s not that I lacked anything, it’s that I didn’t know what I had.
01 “Content” and “Judgment” are Two Different Things
I work as an editor and director at the company. My tasks include writing copy, revising headlines, creating topics, drawing artwork, and editing videos—on the surface, it’s all about content.
But behind these actions, there’s something I’ve been doing all along, just without realizing it:
Why is this topic worthwhile, and that one not?
Why is this headline better than that one?
Why should the beginning of this video be changed?
Why is it more appropriate to post this topic now than next week?
These are the things I’ve truly accumulated.
Content is the result; judgment is the process. The company owns the content, but the judgment process is always our own.
02 Why Do I Feel Like I Have Nothing?
Because I’ve been recording results, not processes.
My weekly reports say, “Published five videos,” “Completed two articles this week.” Performance reviews show “customer acquisition” and “readership.”
These are execution records, not judgment records.
Execution records prove I did things; judgment records prove I understood why I did them.
The former can be replaced by anyone; the latter is unique to oneself.
What does judgment look like? Let me give you a few examples.
When choosing topics, I deliberately avoid certain trending topics, not because I dislike viral content, but because I know they don’t help with customer acquisition; they’re just for show, a waste of time.
When changing titles, I’ll change “XX Methodology” to “I used this method and increased my sales by XX in three months.” For readers without prior trust, concrete results are more likely to trigger clicks than abstract methods.
When editing videos, I’ll move a certain shot from the 40-second mark to the 2-second mark. Because this shot is the most impactful in the entire video, placing it at the beginning grabs the viewer’s attention.
These judgments are not rules, but experience.
The problem is, they are still implicit. They reside in my mind, unspoken and unwritten, so I myself don’t know how valuable they are.
03 How Do You Turn It Into an Asset?
I’m starting to do something now: write down “why I did it this way.”
Not writing what I did today, but writing down a judgment I made today, explaining why.
For example:
Today I changed a title. The original was “Three Tricks for XX,” but I changed it to “I used this method and increased my income by XX in three months.” The reason for the change is that methodological titles don’t attract readers without a foundation of trust. Concrete results are more likely to trigger clicks than abstract methods. Readers don’t need knowledge; they need proof.
Today I rejected a topic because three major accounts had already covered it last month. Doing it now would be following the trend, not being a first release. The traffic ceiling for copycat content is very low because the algorithm already has stronger similar content to promote.
After accumulating this record for three months, I believe I will develop my own set of content judgment standards.
These standards are a person’s true asset. They are what we can truly rely on when doing side hustles or running a one-person company.
04 We Can Start Today
Now this method is yours too.
No need to quit your job, no need to wait until you’ve figured it all out.
After completing a task, take five minutes to write it down: What decision did I make, and why?
Don’t write it for anyone else to see; write it for yourself first.
You’ll find that you know far more than you thought.
And this is the starting point. Let’s encourage each other.