In short, we are now an army of proofreaders, in addition to readers, interpreters and users/implementers of written material.
> At work I was sent a long design document and asked for my thoughts on it. As I read, I had a really hard time following it. Eventually I guessed correctly
> Parts of it sounded like a decent design document, but there was just way too much fluff that served only to confuse me.
> Intent is the core thing: the lack of intent is what makes reading AI-slop so revolting. There needs to be a human intent—human will and human care—behind everything that is demanded of our care and attention.
I am reminded of the "writing lesson" scene in "A River Runs Through it", pretty obviously reflecting the author's education as a writer.[0]
> Norman is at his desk hard at work writing a paper which he then turns into his father for review. His father marks it up with a red pen and simply says, “Half as long.”
> Norman goes back to work, cuts the length of the paper in half and turns it in for further review. His father marks it up once more and says, “Again, half as long.”
> Following a final round of edits, his father looks over the finished product and says, “Good, now throw it away.”
Well, we don't throw away polished work on the job. The scene is about education. LLM's are uneducated in communicating to readers, compared to skilled writers, and technical writing, especially, is not like summer reading, where nothing really matters but some vague plot line and lots of juicy words.
Key lesson:
> (1) Brevity is important. Looking back on it now it’s ridiculous how many teachers forced me and my fellow classmates to write papers a certain page length when I was in school. The goal should be to make your point using as many or few words as are necessary. I love this quote from the scene: “He taught nothing but reading and writing. And being a Scot…believed that the art of writing lay in thrift.” People are busy, or at the very least claim to be, so get to the point in whatever you’re writing.
That last sentence is important.
A document is meant to be read by a human. Brevity and focus are important, and oh yes, accuracy. We now have additional burdens of dealing with long, rambling texts, finding relevant/key points in it, and worrying if it is full of, well, garbage.
I demur. Much as I HATED having to write papers of a certain long length, overcoming my dislike and acquiring the discipline required to persist doing something unpleasant has proved very rewarding over the decades in so many arenas.
> At work I was sent a long design document and asked for my thoughts on it. As I read, I had a really hard time following it. Eventually I guessed correctly
> Parts of it sounded like a decent design document, but there was just way too much fluff that served only to confuse me.
> Intent is the core thing: the lack of intent is what makes reading AI-slop so revolting. There needs to be a human intent—human will and human care—behind everything that is demanded of our care and attention.
I am reminded of the "writing lesson" scene in "A River Runs Through it", pretty obviously reflecting the author's education as a writer.[0]
> Norman is at his desk hard at work writing a paper which he then turns into his father for review. His father marks it up with a red pen and simply says, “Half as long.”
> Norman goes back to work, cuts the length of the paper in half and turns it in for further review. His father marks it up once more and says, “Again, half as long.”
> Following a final round of edits, his father looks over the finished product and says, “Good, now throw it away.”
Well, we don't throw away polished work on the job. The scene is about education. LLM's are uneducated in communicating to readers, compared to skilled writers, and technical writing, especially, is not like summer reading, where nothing really matters but some vague plot line and lots of juicy words.
Key lesson:
> (1) Brevity is important. Looking back on it now it’s ridiculous how many teachers forced me and my fellow classmates to write papers a certain page length when I was in school. The goal should be to make your point using as many or few words as are necessary. I love this quote from the scene: “He taught nothing but reading and writing. And being a Scot…believed that the art of writing lay in thrift.” People are busy, or at the very least claim to be, so get to the point in whatever you’re writing.
That last sentence is important.
A document is meant to be read by a human. Brevity and focus are important, and oh yes, accuracy. We now have additional burdens of dealing with long, rambling texts, finding relevant/key points in it, and worrying if it is full of, well, garbage.
Three strikes before you get in the batter's box.
[0] https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2019/07/writing-lessons-fro...