The debate on the use of GenAI for writing (drafting memos, essays or even emails) seems to be going in favour of the ayes, given not just the productivity gains but how it empowers those unable to write. So, this short read is about what it means to the future of the art of writing itself. In what looks like a challenge to the LLMs, the author shows creativity in suggesting how LLM based writing is analogous to passive investing and original prose is more akin to investing in private markets.
“Foundation models like GPT and Claude now serve as the index funds of language. Trained on enormous corpora of human text, they do not try to innovate. Instead, they track the center of linguistic gravity: fluent, plausible, average-case language. They provide efficient, scalable access to verbal coherence, just as index funds offer broad exposure to market returns. For most users, most of the time, this is enough. LLMs automate fluency the way passive investing automates exposure. They flatten out risk and elevate reliability.
But they also suppress surprise. Like index funds, LLMs are excellent at covering known territory but incapable of charting new ground. The result is a linguistic landscape dominated by synthetic norms: smooth, predictable, uncontroversial. Writing with an LLM is increasingly like buying the market—safe, standardized, and inherently unoriginal.
In this new environment, the act of writing raw, unassisted text begins to resemble picking penny stocks. It’s risky, inefficient, and potentially seen as naïve. Yet it remains the only place where genuine linguistic alpha—the surplus value of originality—can be found. Alpha lives in human voice, conceptual invention, emotional charge, and expressive risk. It emerges from the irreducible tensions of context, personality, and thought. And like financial alpha, it is quickly absorbed and neutralized by the systems it disrupts. What begins as a surprise becomes a template; what once felt radical becomes the new benchmark.
As a result, the most original language is retreating into private markets. In Substacks, Signal threads, Discord servers, and private memos, new forms are being tested in semi-anonymous, high-context settings. These are the linguistic equivalents of venture capital and private equity—spaces of risk, scarcity, and concentrated attention. Just as companies now avoid going public too soon, writers may delay or even refuse public release, fearing dilution or misappropriation. Only once an idea matures might it “IPO” into the public sphere—perhaps as a viral tweet, a manifesto, or a cultural phrase. But even then, its time is limited: LLMs will soon flatten it into beta.
This recursive cycle—alpha to beta, originality to norm—is shaping a two-tiered linguistic economy. In the public sphere, language is increasingly frictionless but interchangeable. In the private sphere, language remains risky, inventive, and alive. The future of writing will depend not on mastering the average, but on learning how to stand out against it.
…The search for linguistic alpha has already begun. It lives in the dark forests and cozywebs of the internet—not yet indexed, not yet flattened. And it belongs to those who understand the value of staying hidden—until the right moment to speak.”
The originality of this prose is proof that linguistic alpha is indeed achievable, for now.
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Note: The above material is neither investment research, nor financial advice. Marcellus does not seek payment for or business from this publication in any shape or form. The information provided is intended for educational purposes only. Marcellus Investment Managers is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is also an FME (Non-Retail) with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) as a provider of Portfolio Management Services. Additionally, Marcellus is also registered with US Securities and Exchange Commission (“US SEC”) as an Investment Advisor.
