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Write simply (2021)

paulgraham.com

181–182 of 182 posts

Re: Write simply (2021)

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked ChatGPT to rewrite the slatesarcodex article as if it were PG: "I Can Tolerate Anything Except the Outgroup: Tolerance is important, but it should not extend to the "outgroup". An outgroup is defined as those who are perceived as fundamentally different or opposed. Tolerance towards the outgroup can lead to harm to one's own group and undermine social cohesion. It's better to tolerate ideas and individuals wi…

Its hard to focus on the style of that summary you gave when that "summary" doesn't capture what the slatestarcodex article actually says. That summary is vaguely upsetting in how confidently wrong it is. The actual "I can tolerate anything except the outgroup" article is a ponderous critique of our human tribal tendancy to find an outgroup and hate them. The article finally comes full circle when the author notices…

> That summary is vaguely upsetting in how confidently wrong it is.

Being confidently wrong is an important step towards passing the Turing test. The upsetting feeling is the "uncanny valley". The stupid machine is now expressing arrogance normally reserved to self-confident humans.

Re: Write simply (2021)

#182
post #7

> And remember, if you're writing in English, that a lot of your readers won't be native English speakers Just because some readers might not be proficient in English, we have to write plainly to accommodate them? What if they are seeking prose that makes them better at the language? This is a classic symptom of not having read enough literature. There is a visceral beauty in writing, and trying to place conditions o…

I'm convinced there are two broad camps of people: those who see writing merely as a means to an end, those who view it as an artform. The people in the first camp tend to focus on some fabricated idea of concrete meaning (they tend to think the meanings of words are more rigid than they actually are), they emphasize simple words and love economy of prose. They tend to pump out business-speak articles and like using…

Those two camps don't exist. There are compelling copywriters and boring poets. Amateurish writers stuffing $10 words into overwrought sentences read like word processing documents set in script fonts. Read Hemingway and reconsider.
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