As I’ve increasingly made AI my default operating system for getting work done, I’ve become even more interested in the art of storytelling. Perhaps it’s a way to find balance between the rational and the creative in my own life?
A really great story is like a powerful memory. You recall the context, but what you relive is how you felt in the moment. It is human.
Below are two of my favorite photos of Jemaa el-Fnaa square in Marrakech, Morocco.
The square at night is chaotically beautiful: Hundreds of tiny shops and makeshift stands fill every nook, selling everything from spices to skewers of meat. The aroma of mint and ras el hanout (spice blend) wafts through the air, mixing with plumes of smoke rising to the sky. Snake charmers and monkey handlers make their way through the crowds alongside locals and tourists. There are countless ways to enter the maze and infinite ways to navigate the chaos.
However, there’s one experience that stays with me all these years later. Even today, the smell of mint transports me back to the most delicious mint tea that I ever had, served unceremoniously in one tiny, nondescript corner of this square. A couple of fellow travelers and I became hopelessly lost in this smoky labyrinth. A young shopkeeper seeing our confusion waved us into his small shop. He disappeared into the back and then reappeared with a fresh pot of mint tea. He gestured hospitably to the only makeshift table available, an upside-down gas can and served us tea in small clear glasses with a cube of sugar. We gathered around speaking for close to half an hour about his life and working in the shop while studying at a nearby university. I remember that his most pressing question about the US was the price of an iPhone.
As we parted, he pointed out the way to an exit and our lives that crossed for a moment in time, diverged yet again.
As we embrace AI more and more in our lives, how are you holding on to creativity?