Memory is intelligence
Writing is thinking
121–130 of 135 posts
Re: Writing is thinking
#122Part of me can’t help but think that scientific journals as billion dollar industries need to keep the status quo of how articles are written, where they get submitted and who reviews them. Even though per review today is failing
Re: Writing is thinking
#123Many people here are taking away from this that substituting our own writing with the writing from an LLM is a danger for human development. I see things more optimistically. If good writing leads to good thinking, then anything I do to improve my ability to write well transitively helps me to think well. In that sense, I actually see a huge benefit to LLMs in improving my writing and therefore improving my thinking.…
I subscribe to this view. LLMs can be tools for thinking, not substitutes to thinking. In fact, I feel that with time, the way we think may fundamentally change, just like how reading and writing changed thinking. An LLM can be an ideal foil to test out ideas, and the process of thinking could be an iterative process with the LLM as an active participant.
Re: Writing is thinking
#124New HN metric: how many comments do you have to scroll down on a LLM-edited/written submission before someone points it out? Triple bonus if the submission is about LLM writing and the need to think for yourself without a LLM, and still no one has pointed this out. Current page score: 333 points.
What makes you believe this was written by an LLM?
Re: Writing is thinking
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
IMO it's not the recording of ideas that is thinking, but rather the act of putting thoughts into language. To me there isn't a big cognitive difference between conversing about a topic (during which you put thoughts into words) and writing about it. When you speak or write instead of just think, you create something that did not previously exist: new words and sentences. When you write instead of speak, you aren't e…
> IMO it's not the recording of ideas that is thinking, but rather the act of putting thoughts into language. I agree with you but that article itself says, "for example, handwriting can lead to widespread brain connectivity."
It doesn’t say anywhere that conversing doesn’t.
Re: Writing is thinking
#126I see a lot of people say "writing is so important," and I think what they mean is "I feel really smart/good when I write." And I think what they are experiencing is that they've been assembling ideas in their heads for weeks, and only when it's all come together are they ready synthesize that information at a higher level, and they mistake this synthesis for the writing itself (rather than the writing being a sympto…
This is not true for at least me. Let's say, I am making something concrete by putting ideas, thoughts, knowledge into paper. While doing it, I am finding gaps and mistakes and finding opportunities to correct them. But it is not limited to 'correction', it also opens newer dimensions and perspectives- ones that previously didn't exist in my conscious mind. I consider writing as a tool of thinking. Another tool is br…
I just noticed that I wrote William Zissner's name wrong. Please read 'Paul Zissner' as William Zissner.
Re: Writing is thinking
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really think the effects of LLMs on thinking is the exact same as a calculator. It shortcuts some forms of thinking to open up other forms of thinking. My thinking has increased with the use of LLMs, not decreased, most likely because LLMs take the edge off of grind work like reading a lot of noise to capture the 1% signal, formulating accurate statements for abstract ideas, and bringing together various domains th…
Google search has worsened so badly. That right know it's impossible to resist using one of those free for a taste LLM service. And the feeling is similar to how using Google on the 2004-2014 web was. It used to be Google would return a huge list or relevant links. Loading all of them was quick. Skimming the content was quick. Now every search is a massive ad. Every site is slow to load full of ads and useless slop.…
It's possible to not use Google for search. I switched to Perplexity many months ago. Almost never come back to Google. No one is forcing me to use a worse option, when a better one exists. Just use something else - easy.
Re: Writing is thinking
#128[dead]
Re: Writing is thinking
#129Maybe as a coder, I will someday will just calm down and write code without using any LLMs, just for train my thinking capability...
Re: Writing is thinking
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
When we go to grad school, we’re taught how to write a research paper. Each field has a more or less standard format, where different types of data go in specific sections. So if an LLM is trained on enough papers in that field, it can learn to plug in the information you provide according to those conventions. In that sense, you’d give the LLM the purpose of the paper, the field you’re writing in, and the relevant d…
I am experienced in writing scientific papers, so I know what it takes. I remain to be convinced that the tasks you propose an LLM could do contribute any more to the process of writing a paper than dictating to a typist could do in the 1950's. It's impressive for a machine, but not particularly productivity-boosting. Tedious tasks such as correctly formatting references belong to the copy-editing stage (i.e. very la…
But correctly formatting references is pretty much a solved task through reference managers, possibly plus bibtex. It's a well-defined task, after all, and well suited to traditional software techniques. [1] If someone used an LLM to format the references, you would still have to go back through them.
If there is any use for LLMs in paper writing, I would think that it is for tedious but not well-defined tasks. For example, asking if an already written paper conforms to a journal's guidelines and style. I don't know about you, but I spend a meaningful amount of time [2] getting my papers into journal page limits. That involves rephrasing to trim overhangs, etc. "Rephrase the following paragraph to reduce the number of words by at least 2" is the kind of thing that LLMs really do seem to be able to do reliably.
1: As usual, the input data can be wrong, but that would be a problem for LLMs too. 2: I don't actually know how much time. It probably isn't all that long, but it's tedious and sure does feel like a long time while I'm doing it.