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Earlier quoted context omitted.
The other day I formatted a sentence out loud in the "it's not just x it's y" structure and immediately felt gross, despite having done it probably a million times in my lifetime. That was an out-of-body feeling.
When I notice that I change it to "it's y, not just x" just to catch others off guard :).
Sounds cool. Aside, I hate the fact that I read posts like these and just subconsciously start counting the em-dashes and the "it's not just [thing], it's [other thing]" phrasing. It makes me think it's just more AI.
If you really want to know: more than one emmy-dash per paragraph is probably excessive. > LLMs don’t—and can’t—do everything. What they do is very impressive—and useful. It’s broad. And in many ways it’s human-like. But it’s not precise. And in the end it’s not about deep computation. This is a mess. What is the flow here? Two abrupt interrupts ( and useful ) followed by stubby sentences. Yucky.
Sounds cool. Aside, I hate the fact that I read posts like these and just subconsciously start counting the em-dashes and the "it's not just [thing], it's [other thing]" phrasing. It makes me think it's just more AI.
LLMs use the em-dash excessively but correctly. This post is littered with them in places they don't belong which makes it look decidedly human, as if written by someone who believes that random em-dashes make their writing look more professional, while actually having the opposite effect.
Does he speak the same way - pausing for emphasis?
Even the documentation search is available:
```bash
/Applications/Wolfram.app/Contents/MacOS/WolframKernel -noprompt -run '
Needs["DocumentationSearch`"];
result = SearchDocumentation["query term"];
Print[Column[Take[result, UpTo[10]]]];
Exit[]'
```
A simple skill markdown for Claude Code was enough to use the local Wolfram Kernel. Even the documentation search is available: ```bash /Applications/Wolfram.app/Contents/MacOS/WolframKernel -noprompt -run ' Needs["DocumentationSearch`"]; result = SearchDocumentation["query term"]; Print[Column[Take[result, UpTo[10]]]]; Exit[]' ```
There's a great discussion with Stephen Wolfram on the Sean Carroll podcast. Listening to it made me think very highly of Wolfram. He's a free thinking, eccentric, mathematician, scientist; who got started doing serious work at a very young age. He still has a youthful creative approach to thought and science. I hope LLMs do pair well with his tools.
Stephen Wolfram on Computation, Hypergraphs, and Fundamental Physics - https://podbay.fm/p/sean-carrolls-mindscape-science-society-... (2hr 40min)
I'm a fan of his work and person too. Not a fanatic or evangelical level, but I do think he's one of the more historically relevant computer scientists and philosophers working today. I can overlook his occasional arrogance, and recognize that there's a genuine and original thinker who's been pursuing truth and knowledge for decades.
Sounds cool. Aside, I hate the fact that I read posts like these and just subconsciously start counting the em-dashes and the "it's not just [thing], it's [other thing]" phrasing. It makes me think it's just more AI.
The other day I formatted a sentence out loud in the "it's not just x it's y" structure and immediately felt gross, despite having done it probably a million times in my lifetime. That was an out-of-body feeling.
"It's not just X, it's Y" definitely seems to qualify today. It's a stale way to express an idea.
I hadn't revisited that essay since LLMs became a thing, but boy was it prescient:
> By using stale metaphors, similes, and idioms [and LLMs], you save much mental effort, at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for yourself ... But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you — even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent — and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself.
[0]: https://bioinfo.uib.es/~joemiro/RecEscr/PoliticsandEngLang.p...
I tried using wolfram alpha as a tool for an llm research agent, and I couldn't find any tasks it could solve with it, that it couldn't solve with just Google and Python.
Additionally I think because of how esoteric some algorithms are, they are not always implemented in the most efficient way for today's computers. It would be really nice to have better software written by strong software engineers who also understands the maths for mathematicians. I hope to see an application of AI here to bring more SoTA tools to mathematicians--I think it is much more value than formalization brings to be completely honest.