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How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

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Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#311

Post by zzbzq »

jchw wrote: post #213
infogulch wrote: post #202

Lots of people have their own voice and tend to prefer certain phrases. This has been the case for a long time and is generally not a big issue. Now LLMs come along and they also have their own phrasing preferences. But now it's a problem because what used to be personal preferences of a single person that manifests in 5000 words per day from one person tops, is now the bias of a single model multiplied x10,000,000,0…

I think it might be even worse. LLMs seem to get tragically stuck on certain patterns. Maybe it's partly because a pile of weights essentially always starts from scratch in the same condition, but even within a single conversation, it will literally just latch onto words and repeat them incessantly, to the point where it becomes annoying. So for example, current Claude models love "honest". They are always producing…

I also noticed Gemini's habit of getting stuck on things I said. It became evident quite quickly. I haven't noticed this in the same way in any other model. Something's wrong with that boy

Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#312

Post by jonahx »

infogulch wrote: post #202

Lots of people have their own voice and tend to prefer certain phrases. This has been the case for a long time and is generally not a big issue. Now LLMs come along and they also have their own phrasing preferences. But now it's a problem because what used to be personal preferences of a single person that manifests in 5000 words per day from one person tops, is now the bias of a single model multiplied x10,000,000,0…

This affinity for verbal tics, too, seems learned from humans...

See, for example, "synergy", "proactive", "in the loop," and hundreds more that proliferate in corporate jargon with even more senselessness than the LLMs.

Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#313

Post by KellyCriterion »

worldthruword wrote: post #251
infogulch wrote: post #202

Lots of people have their own voice and tend to prefer certain phrases. This has been the case for a long time and is generally not a big issue. Now LLMs come along and they also have their own phrasing preferences. But now it's a problem because what used to be personal preferences of a single person that manifests in 5000 words per day from one person tops, is now the bias of a single model multiplied x10,000,000,0…

Joe "it's entirely possible" Rogan meme. https://youtu.be/MPJ0AB12h1I

ah, didnt know this! Thanks for sharing :)

Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#314

Post by thimabi »

esikich wrote: post #281
infogulch wrote: post #254

LLMs are far from great writers. They struggle to form long coherent sentences and lean on punctuation like emdash and semicolon to ensure grammatical correctness when splicing together short phrases. This makes me wonder if the reason why agents love weird punctuation is because the labs run the base models through a RL training step that forces them to correct their grammar; but instead of rewriting short spliced s…

They are great writers if you tell them what you want. If you're unable to properly articulate the writing style you would like as you would a software spec, well, garbage in, garbage out.

What do you suggest for articulating the writing style that one wants from LLMs?

I’ve been experimenting with having LLMs write/update academic notebooks for me, and so far the best results I’ve gotten came from correcting their output and asking them what they’ve “learned” from my feedback.

Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#315

Post by dpkirchner »

juvvel wrote: post #310

I've recently noticed an increase in "bite". "This will only bite if..." It also loves "stress-testing", "matrix", "anchor" and "flagging".

It's recently replaced "honest" with "straight". "Belt-and-suspenders" is still common, I don't know when they'll replace it.

Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#316

Post by jbs789 »

esseph wrote: post #276
ReactiveJelly wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked it to remove "honest" from a draft once. "Why say honest? We're talking to our coworkers. We would always be honest." I'm going to look for prompts or skills that can train it in technical writing but I'm warning the AI enthusiasts in my company that its first drafts of code and prose are low-quality, you have to hold it to a high standard yourself. I actually took a single technical writing class in college…

> "Why say honest? We're talking to our coworkers. We would always be honest." I grew up in the US South where starting or ending a sentence with "honest/honestly" was very common. Because of behavioral / cultural norms, you might be very openly friendly with big smiles around a business customer that really grates on your nerves, or very openly nice to a neighbor that you really wish would move away and take their 3…

If I’m having a convo with someone and they drop in “honestly” I immediately discount everything else they’ve said, and what follows.

Sometimes people use it reflexively and doesn’t carry the same meaning (for me).

Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#317

Post by wren6991 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #159
Retr0id wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What, if anything, do people do for writing? I use a keyboard, personally.

Haven't done it, but letting an AI polish a manual first draft might be the best of both worlds?

It tends not to improve things. Besides the generally bland and muddied style, and the low-fidelity reinterpretation of your points, they also have a habit of randomly deleting sentences that didn't spark joy for them but were actually important.

I've found them useful to review docs for factual consistency and potential sources of confusion, but the correct workflow from that point is IMO to correct the draft yourself and then say "better now?"

Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#318

Post by tensegrist »

ksaun wrote: post #242

While I, too, find myself recoiling at many of Claude's word and phrase choices, I've chosen to grit my teeth and have just tried adapting to it. I want Claude to remain focused on the work I give it; I fear that influencing its communication with me would consume valuable context and give me lower quality results. [Edit: Part of what led me to this conclusion: I do prohibit Claude from using em-dashes in any player-…

things like that indeed tend to be fraught

some relevant links

https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.02442 https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.15061 https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.13006

Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#319

Post by zahlman »

infogulch wrote: post #202

Lots of people have their own voice and tend to prefer certain phrases. This has been the case for a long time and is generally not a big issue. Now LLMs come along and they also have their own phrasing preferences. But now it's a problem because what used to be personal preferences of a single person that manifests in 5000 words per day from one person tops, is now the bias of a single model multiplied x10,000,000,0…

It's not just "certain phrases". It's the entire structure of the writing — the idioms, the small-scale grammatical patterns, and the strangely inapt similes that, despite making semantic sense, nevertheless manage to blindside human readers like a foreign object in their peripheral vision.

(This is intentional parody. Please don't shoot me.)

Re: How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing

#320

Post by bensyverson »

doctoboggan wrote: post #309

I do not mind when I am coding with Claude and it uses all the typical claudisms. I am much more bothered when I am reading a blog post, email, or other form of prose and I see those same claudisms. I guess they are not annoying since I know I am talking to an LLM and expect the typical responses. When I am reading prose online that I previously would have expected a human to write, it can be quite jarring to realize…

Exactly this. For whatever reason, Claude likes to talk about the "shape" of "load-bearing" "seams," but if that's the internal jargon it needs to plan and execute its work, who am I to judge?

But if I'm reading what is supposed to be someone's original thoughts, it's a huge bummer to see an obvious AI tell. You might say that "it's not just disappointing—it's disrespectful."

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