MM, M=M, LLM, mmm hmm?

The medium is the message. But what message are LLMs really saying?

When we talk about "using AI to become more efficient" — what are we actually becoming more efficient at?

"The medium is the message."

Marshall McLuhan wasn't just making clever epigrams.

He was pointing out that how we communicate matters as much as what we're saying.

Every medium — from clocks to phones to LLMs — carries hidden messages underneath the obvious ones.

Subconscious. Powerful.

Often louder than what we actually intended to say.

Take an analog clock.

The obvious message: it's 3:47 PM.

The hidden message? Time is divisible, measurable, interchangeable. Five minutes cheering your kid at football equals five minutes complaining about them later. Half an hour with a handwritten letter equals half an hour at the pub. Time is time.

A lightbulb says: "Day and night don't matter."

Your phone says: "You're always on. You're never fully here."

And now there's LLMs.

What's the hidden message LLMs are sending?

LLMs aren't a new form of media - but their very existence & popularity changes the underlying message of the media they're used in.

Long-form, intelligent-sounding, polished, well structured articles used to always bring the message that someone spent real time & effort thinking about the subject, so maybe you should too.

Now? Anyone can throw something together that sounds plausible with virtually no effort at all.

Which means we might start believing: spending time creating is pointless. Spending time consuming is pointless. Nothing online feels genuine anymore.

You might not believe that - but what about your audience?

We don't know how this will play out. None of us do.

But what is clear: how we communicate—online and IRL—is shifting. So is how we spend our attention, energy, and money.

Yeah, LLMs make us faster at producing content. But our entire relationship with media is transforming.

If you want people to actually hear your message, you can't just pour more gigabytes into the ocean. You have to communicate differently.