Hey good folks and happy Thursday! 

It feels like a summer of sport. The NBA finals (and that Knicks comeback last night!), the World Cup (Klaviyo launched a research piece around that), and the fact that my shoulder still hurts from lightly playing volleyball a few weeks ago––competition, mindset, training, injuries, etc. are all top of mind. 

That’s especially true in the world of AI content. New models are released frequently (Fable 5 is out now!), content layoffs or at least hiring pauses persist while AI companies themselves offer to pay content and SEO leads >$300K, and employees at AI companies call for moratoriums. 

It’s a wild time to live and work, which brings me to…

I have a weird beef with the term “content engineering” that I probably need to work through in therapy. High-level, I’ve found that there are two groups of people who approach this role and neither is really equipped to build solutions that work for scale (emphasis is on scale here):

1. Engineers: Engineers approaching content as a problem the way they have other, more technical challenges, has, in my experience, created issues. There are deep nuances to writing content that are just fundamentally different from typical engineering problems. I know this not because I have engineering experience, but because I’ve worked closely with engineers building content engineering solutions for me and have been shocked at how they approached it. It ends up with me going down a never ending rabbit hole of “Why?” and then explaining how that wouldn’t work for the actual users––or for ensuring quality product (i.e. content) at scale. 

2. Editorial folks: It’s tough to break down your craft, your art!, into repeatable steps and then watch an inanimate object like AI get to 80% parity. So tough, in fact, that I’ve found folks overcomplicating steps, prompts, and processes. Heck, I find myself doing that. And overcomplication creates long-term issues for production at scale.

What you need for content engineering is the interdisciplinary mind, the jack-of-all-trades, the T-shaped marketer who has some experience working with or managing engineering and development teams. You need someone who doesn’t view content as art, and who deeply understands the need for it to be “good,” and just how both subjective and objective that definition is (i.e. you know it when you read it. The uncanny valley is real). 

Getting good at content engineering requires systems thinking, and deep curiosity about technology (AI, MCPs, APIs, etc.) and language (linguistically), and deep expertise in editorial (editing, specifically), SEO, and web design & UX. 

This is why, I think, AI companies like Anthropic are on the lookout for great content and SEO leads, and willing to pay them top dollar. The role has changed, and it requires a mix of skills few have developed side-by-side. 

In this regard, and perhaps shockingly, philosophy always helps me. It’s been one of my go-to disciplines for getting better in my career both as a writer and editor, but also as a manager and strategist. In talking to a co-worker yesterday, he said that “Once you learn that everything in IT is psychology, you get way better at it.” Well, I’m starting to think that once you learn everything in content engineering is philosophy, you start to get way better at it. 

Anyway, it’s just a burgeoning idea. We’ll see if it sprouts legs over the next year as AI continues to fundamentally change how we all work, in both positive and not-so-positive ways. 

Stay curious, folks. This free Harvard course is my favorite philosophy refresher. 

A NOTE ON THIS ADVICE

You do you! 

One content marketer’s best practices aren’t always right for another one, though I do try to distill out the main concepts and core practices I believe everyone can benefit from. That said, you must use good judgment when deciding whether to take advice given from folks on the internet. I am an expert, and this advice comes from my direct experience, but I am not smarter than you, and I have nothing to gain or lose because of what you do.

THINGS KEEPING ME CONTENT

• What I’m buying: Just reupped my True Botanicals face washes. I’m obsessed, and they had a sale. 

• What I’m reading: Does reading memes and watching videos about how excited everyone in NYC is count? Because that’s been giving me a lot of joy recently. 

• What I’m eating: My favorite avocado toast from Community Garden!

Thank you so much for reading. Let me know what you think by replying to this email.

Very excited to be here with y’all. 

Tracey