Live data from Hacker News

Don't paste the AI, please

dontpastetheai.com

351–360 of 632 posts

Re: Don't paste the AI, please

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangentially I also hate if someone answers with a voice message. I can understand that there are situations where you just can't type out the answer and those exceptions are of course fine, but if you post a voice message or god forbid a video message in a group chat you are forcing everyone to take the time and sit through it.

Literacy is dying. I suspect that's part of the reason some people hate AI. To the semi-literate a few paragraphs of text represent a significant investment of their time.

I am literate and hyperlexic - I read ~500 words a minute, and have read thousands of books for fun.

I hate genAI deeply, for many reasons, but one of them is the way it bastardizes and ruins the written word.

It writes incoherent, worthless prose, taking hundreds of words where two sentences would do.

The signal-to-noise ratio in genAI writing is just wretched.

Yes, I can read the thousand-word ball of muck you pasted from Claude in about thirty seconds, but it could have been one second had you used your mind instead of committing a worthless act that cost me time and gained both of us nothing.

Re: Don't paste the AI, please

#352

The complaint here is about lazy answers. But what about all the lazy questions? What's the equivalent of "Google it yourself" these days? When you ask something of somebody, the expectation of the other side to drop everything and do work for you isn't always appropriate/balanced/appreciated. The underlying problem here is that communication is hard; especially if it's not face to face. People can't read your mind o…

If you work for a company of more than 1 person, then helping and developing and mentoring your colleagues is part of your job, and a more important one than telling them to rtfm so you can spend those few minutes getting your own thing done. A company isn't just a bunch of people isolating themselves and doing their best to not talk to each other.

if they didn't rtfm they are not being respectful of your time. unless you are literally first-day brand new, you should not be approaching a mentor for help getting unstuck without an answer ready for "what have you tried?"

Re: Don't paste the AI, please

#353

The complaint here is about lazy answers. But what about all the lazy questions? What's the equivalent of "Google it yourself" these days? When you ask something of somebody, the expectation of the other side to drop everything and do work for you isn't always appropriate/balanced/appreciated. The underlying problem here is that communication is hard; especially if it's not face to face. People can't read your mind o…

> Back in the day I learned the hard way that sending a long reply to an email just ensures the other side won't read it. You can't assume that you dealt with their request effectively that way

Then I guess you didn't deal with much of the empty-headed-managment type much.

I learned a different lesson: Write a long email that took time to reason and write, precise and complete text.

You get a short reply that is a reply on a 1 sentence you wrote, twisted upside down ignoring completly the point that you had.

-- > never reply instantly to low priority requests

This is true 100% I would even say: "Never reply on anything instantly that is not an absolute emergency, ever"

Re: Don't paste the AI, please

#355

yes, its all ai writing. A bunch of the metaphors here dont make sense. "read it all, yes even the bullets. especially the bullets" if you read one thing from a large wall of text, its gonna be the bullet points, right? thats a big part of what they're for? "It is the conversational equivalent of forwarding the email." this is a terrible metaphor. it seems to rely on the idea you would be mad if you sent an email to…

Yeah it seems pretty LLM to me. Even the extra emphasis on stuff via bold/highlights is there. Kinda whack. Also the “angry” one is just not at all angry or offensive. Probably because there’s a limit to how rude Claude will get

Re: Don't paste the AI, please

#356
Pasting AI slop is a strong signal. It tells the world "I add no value. I am a proxy for ideas generated by others". It's sad to see people I otherwise respected debase themselves.

I'll say this clearly. Using AI for writing is bad. Don't do it. Ever. If you can't formulate a coherent thought yourself, just don't. I don't want to hear what the LLM said. I want to hear what you said. Loudly proclaiming you have nothing to add is a strange flex. Just stay quiet.

Re: Don't paste the AI, please

#358

The complaint here is about lazy answers. But what about all the lazy questions? What's the equivalent of "Google it yourself" these days? When you ask something of somebody, the expectation of the other side to drop everything and do work for you isn't always appropriate/balanced/appreciated. The underlying problem here is that communication is hard; especially if it's not face to face. People can't read your mind o…

I've been saying "ask chatgpt" when I don't think I have anything more useful to add.

Re: Don't paste the AI, please

#359

Heh. Just got done writing (by hand!) a Principles of AI Use document for my (ironically) AI enablement firm, the first of which is: Write as yourself. You’re being paid for your expertise and insights. Communicate them directly to us. Copying and pasting Claude responses into Slack or an email directly shifts the burden of comprehension and understanding to everyone else, and worse, risks skipping that step for your…

I’m curious if you’d share there rest of your principles. This is so well articulated.

Re: Don't paste the AI, please

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sad that there is a chance people put your guide into AI and ask it to "summarize"

Summarize 9 short sentences?

yes - this is what people are doing in my workplace, unfortunately. you can write the most concise and effective documentation possible for a feature of some complexity, and people will still be asking their chatbot to make a soundbite out of it. it's infuriating.
Post reply on HN