Writes and Write-Nots

Posted by baxtr 10/27/2024

194 points | 153 commentspage 3

abhayhegde 10/27/2024|

I agree very much with Paul here. Many a times as I'm thinking, I realize none of those are legitimate thoughts until I can put them in words. Describing your intuition is fundamentally a hard task, because it is trying to decipher the vague strands of reflection. Clarity emerges only when focused harder.

jampekka 10/27/2024|

And often when you have to implement what you've written in code you notice the written thought wasn't so legitimate after all.

y04nn 10/27/2024||

Can LLM/AI have the opposite effect?

People would start writing more and getting better at it with the help of LLM. This would create a positive feedback loop that would encourage them to write more and better. LLM should be used a tool improve productivity and quality of output. Like we use a computer interface to write faster, move and edit text, instead of using a pencil and an eraser, today you can use a LLM to improve your writing. This will help people to get better at organizing their thoughts and think more clearly instead of replacing the thinking.

localghost3000 10/27/2024||

I understand his point and think it's an interesting observation, but honestly I disagree. What AI is great at is handling all the bullshit writing tasks that you have to do that no one reads or cares about. For example I got asked to write a blurb for a company newsletter recently. Told an LLM the things I needed to talk about and how long it should be, and the tone I was shooting for. Done in less than a few minutes. Previously that would have taken me at least an hour.

cmpalmer52 10/27/2024||

I am a professional writer (in the sense that I have published short stories that were paid for, even though it is a hobby). Recently, my wife was participating in an event where she had to portray an historical figure and she had a fact sheet and a couple of articles about the person (she wasn’t super famous). I used Perplexity with ChatGPT-4o and prompted it with all the materials we had and asked it to generate a 5 minute monologue in first person for the event. First draft was excellent, I touched up a few lines and printed it out. Done.

n4r9 10/27/2024||

I don't think this example refutes the article. LLMs can obviate bullshit writing tasks and remove the appeal of writing altogether for some people.

bachmeier 10/27/2024||

I largely agree with the point he's making, but would say it's less about writing than it is about one's attention span (people are always checking phones and devices to avoid long stretches of thought) and willingness to avoid conformity (our society has changed to reward being part of a group). Thinking and writing requires both in order to be good. It feels to me that those activities are being discouraged and even punished in the US in 2024.

TedHerman 10/27/2024||

I too wonder if the writing-is-thinking thesis holds. Does Han Kang (Nobel Prize in Literature, 2024) think through writing? Have I read something thrilling, funny, mysterious, spiritual, or revealing of human nature written by PG? No. He may well be correct about a particular subset of writing, but I do not take his views as authoritative about writing in general (nor am I convinced that hackers are just like painters).

euroderf 10/27/2024||

If an AI can barf up a first draft before I need to actually engage my brain with the underlying material, is that a bug or a feature? Probably the former.

If I were teaching at a university, I think I could not assign essay grades until i sat down with every student for a quick Q&A on the subject of their paper. That would reveal the plagiarists and charlatans and lame non-thinkers.

rcarmo 10/27/2024|

The trouble with that is that it doesn't scale time-wise (not with 50+ seat classes)

euroderf 10/27/2024||

And yet, isn't face-to-face going to be the only reliable way to outfox and do an end run around AI?

deskr 10/27/2024||

There will also be many more people that can't read. Sure, they can read simple sentences but not an article.

soneca 10/27/2024||

Interesting, I just finished the manuscript of a sci-fi novel where one of the narratives is set in an idilic small town, with no scarcity, with AI systems making the life easy for everyone and where learning how to read and write is frowned upon.

Everyone uses voice interface, so writing is looked as an antiquated habit.

devnull3 10/27/2024||

New and non-plagiarized text is essential for all the AI models to train on. Without these the AI models will reach the saturation point or worse the output will not be as effective as it can be.

If AI trains on generated text it is equivalent of an incestuous relationship and I don't have elaborate on analogy further.

beardyw 10/27/2024|

There seems to be a modern fallacy which says that everything is knowable, and what is knowable is expressible. It seems all thoughts should have a lead weight tied to them so that they stay nicely on the ground where they can be admired, discussed and replicated. No wonder our age so pedestrian.

ccozan 10/27/2024|

I also do not agree to this thinking/writing duo. Most of my thoughts are free floating, so to say, and I ( and possibly anyone) can derive/enhance/combine ideas in my head without any writing necessary and even come to a conclusion how to act on that thoughts.

As opposed to the writing at one end, these thoughts are rooted in an experience, an emotion, and this association never dissapears. Add the above act on them, it is like writing.

Maybe the author is referring strictly to communication or to the art of writing.

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