But this isn't viable. You can't expect people to put that much effort into what is simply buying a lottery ticket.

It's as if instead of handing over a dollar at the corner store, you have to handcraft the ticket yourself in India ink on finest vellum - only to see someone else's number come up.

It's just not worth it. Not simply the time, but the mental strain, the constant cycle of expectation and disappointment.

It's another of the myriad psychological failings of the whole programme.

I've had seventeen stories boosted in seven months - I know what I'm doing. But if that type of writing becomes the only way to find an audience and make even a pittance, it takes all the fun out of it.

Essentially it adds another job on top of the job I already have, before I get to the fun bit of just writing what I want. Stuff that is enjoyable for me, is entertaining and well received by those who read it, but now gets almost no visibility and earnings, and no chance of boosting.

And just how many 'this awful thing that happened to me and the amazing and actionable lesson I learnt from it' sob story memoirs do we need anyway?

Sometimes I'd almost (not really) rather read a piece of AI that doesn't moan and preach at me the whole time...