Caleb Hailey reflects on Nolan Royalty’s concept of the “legibility of effort,” highlighting how generative AI blurs the ability to recognize human effort in writing and thus undermines a social contract where readers trust that writers have undertaken greater intellectual exertion. Hailey emphasizes that while social media content often signals lower effort and fleeting engagement, substantive writing intended for durable platforms like blogs still conveys meaningful effort and sustains deeper reader-writer relationships. He suggests that finding quality writing now requires moving beyond social media algorithms toward more deliberate, hyperlink-driven exploration of thoughtful content.
https://calebhailey.com/blog/legibility-of-effort-and-the-social-contract-of-writing/