Grit Without the Grind: Why AI Isn't Killing Creative Resilience

Or, permission to build with joy instead of shame

Last week, I wrote about how I wish creatives would stop shaming each other for how we navigate change. This week, I want to zoom in on a specific flavor of that shame: the belief that struggle is a prerequisite for legitimacy.

Specifically, I want to challenge an idea gaining traction in certain corners of the internet that using AI "kills grit," and that without grit, we lose what made us great.

I read a post recently that captured this sentiment. It lamented that AI removes the "hard parts" of creative work—the frustrating first drafts, the boring-but-essential research, the tedious repetition. The writer asked, "If AI does the boring work and the brain work, will we even need grit anymore?"

I want to respond to that.

Not to tear it down. But to offer a different lens.

Struggle is Not the Same as Value

Let's get something straight about grit. Angela Duckworth's concept was never about glorifying unnecessary struggle. It was about persistence in the face of challenge, not creating arbitrary roadblocks to prove our worth.

But we’ve twisted grit into something else entirely: struggle porn. We’ve romanticized suffering as proof that the work is meaningful. If it hurt, it must have been real. If it came easily, it must not count.

Did you cry over it? Great, it must be significant! Did it take forever? Wonderful, it must be profound! Did you hate every minute? Perfect, you're a true artist!

Somewhere along the way, we started equating "doing it the hard way" with "doing it the right way."

And that’s simply not true. And it’s not grit, either. It’s just another way of gatekeeping success. Of widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Slogging through unnecessary friction doesn’t make your creativity more authentic. It just eats your time, your energy, and for a lot of people—especially those already fighting uphill battles— their ability to stay in the game at all.

What Grit Actually Means

To set the record straight: grit, as defined by Angela Duckworth, isn't about grinding through tedious, meaningless work without fail. It's about sustained passion and perseverance toward a deeply meaningful goal, even when the going gets tough. It's the ability to stay focused and committed over the long haul, even when progress feels slow or life gets in the way.

But how, exactly, that “staying focused and committed” actually shows up can look completely different for different people with different circumstances.

Grit is fueled by purpose. It's the inner drive that pushes you to keep going because the destination matters to you—not because you're addicted to the pain or suffering of getting there (or, I dunno, maybe you are a little bit…you do you).

By that definition, AI isn't killing grit. In many cases (honestly, in mine), it's amplifying it.

For countless creatives—especially those facing systemic barriers, limited resources, or neurodivergence—AI is the missing piece that helps them get over the initial humps that used to block them. It removes some of the friction that made it nearly impossible to sustain momentum before. It clears a path for more people to stay consistent, stay motivated, and stay focused on meaningful work over time.

So, in other words, it allows some people to even have that grit.

Who Gets Left Behind by the Grit Myth

The idea that you have to "earn" your success through grueling, boring work assumes that you have time, energy, cognitive bandwidth, and resources to spare.

And that’s where the gatekeeping comes in. Not everyone has those things. So, this assumption leaves out:

• Parents trying to start businesses between daycare pickups.

• Neurodivergent creatives who physically cannot slog through tedium the way neurotypical systems expect.

• People already working two jobs who desperately want to build something better, but just have nothing left to give.

It leaves out the people who are already giving everything they've got just to show up. And they deserve tools, not tests.

When we say "you must suffer to succeed," what we’re really saying is "only those who can afford to suffer deserve to win."

I’m not okay with that. And I question the motives of anyone who is.

AI Doesn't Kill Grit—It Redefines It

The myth that real creativity emerges only from friction is outdated and frankly, a little suspicious. It smacks of the same energy as "I walked uphill both ways in the snow to school, so you should too."

AI lets us move through some stages faster—not skipping the thinking, but accelerating the path to a breakthrough. That's not cheating, it’s evolution. And it’s no different from the tech evolutions we’ve already been through and fully embraced.

Musicians didn't stop being artists when synthesizers arrived. Writers didn't lose their edge when spellcheck became standard. Designers didn't become frauds when they switched from X-Acto knives to Adobe Illustrator.

AI doesn't erase the need for hard work, it just changes what we consider hard work to actually be. It gives more people a shot at contributing creatively, not just the ones with time to spare or brains that work in straight lines.

In the age of AI, “grit” might look more like:

• Having the courage to rethink how you work (something a lot of people are clearly struggling with right now).

• Staying curious even when you feel behind.

• Reinventing yourself publicly, imperfectly, while the ground keeps shifting under your feet. (This is where I am, right now. And AI is the only reason I’ve been able to even start).

• Choosing to learn new tools even when your inner critic whispers that you're "too late" or "not techy enough."

Can We Please Stop Measuring Creativity by Suffering

Personally, my best ideas don’t come when I’m barely hanging on. They happen when I have enough ease and space to quiet my mind and let it wander into weird, beautiful places.

For me, ease isn't laziness, it’s a catalyst. I can’t create when I don’t have enough of it. It’s why I didn’t touch a paintbrush or a colored pencil for years, but when I sat through a four-month furlough from my job during COVID, I created countless drawings and even wrote a whole-ass novel.

In those cases, the “ease” that allowed me to create was just spare time. And I’ll take spare time that’s the result of a new technology (like AI) over spare time that’s the result of a pandemic-mandated unemployment any day.

I don't want a merit badge for how much I suffered through a task AI could've streamlined. I want my effort to go where it matters—not into proving I can grind, but into creating something only I can.

You are not more worthy because you suffered more. You're not less worthy because you accepted help—be it from a tool, from a technology, or from a teammate—that let you create with less friction.

You are allowed to want your life and your work to feel lighter.

You are allowed to build with joy instead of shame.

You are allowed to win without barely surviving from it.

I'd love to hear your take: Where do you still feel like you "should" suffer more in your work? What would it look like to let it be easier?