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Do your own writing

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Re: Do your own writing

#121

Post by andai »

protocolture wrote: post #116
roadside_picnic wrote: post #9

I've long considered writing to be the "last step in thinking". I can't tell you how many times an idea, that was crystal clear in my mind, fell apart the moment I started writing and I realize there were major contradictions I needed to resolve. Likewise I also have numerous times where writing about something loosely and casually revealed to me something that fundamentally changed how I viewed a topic and really co…

>I've long considered writing to be the "last step in thinking". I can't tell you how many times an idea, that was crystal clear in my mind, fell apart the moment I started writing and I realize there were major contradictions I needed to resolve. Likewise I also have numerous times where writing about something loosely and casually revealed to me something that fundamentally changed how I viewed a topic and really c…

I noticed that when speaking on a subject I tend to explain it in simple terms, but when writing, I tend to get bogged down in details, pedantry and technical language.

I started publishing my writing recently and I too often fall back into "debugging my mental model" mode, which while extremely valuable for me, doesn't make for very good reading.

I guess the optimal sequence would be to spend a few sessions writing privately on a subject, to build a solid mental model, then record a few talks to learn to communicate it well.

-- Similarly, journaling on paper and with voice memos seems to give me a different perspective on the same problem.

Re: Do your own writing

#123

Post by stephen_cagle »

Writing (unassisted) is probably the first step towards your own independent thoughts.

I'm reminded of that scene in "Ghost in the Shell" where some guy ask the Major why he is on the team (full of cyborgs) and she responds something along the line of "Because you are basically un-enhanced (maybe without a ghost?) and are likely to respond differently then the rest of us; Overspecialization is death."

I think a diversity of opinion is important for society. I'm worried that LLM's are going to group-think us into thinking the same way, believing the same things, reacting the same way.

I wonder if future children will need to be taught how to purposely have their own opinions; being so used to always asking others before even considering things on their own? The LLM will likely reach a better conclusion than you would on your own, but there is value in diverging from the consensus and thinking your own thoughts.

https://stephencagle.dev/posts-output/2025-10-14-you-should-...

Re: Do your own writing

#124

Post by bandrami »

satvikpendem wrote: post #120
bandrami wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm just not familiar enough with the solution space Neither is the LLM

Oftentimes it is though, good enough for my purposes.

If you're not familiar with the problem space, by definition you don't know whether or not that's the case. The problem spaces I do know well, I know the LLM isn't good at it, so why would I assume it's better at spaces I don't know?

Re: Do your own writing

#125

Post by satvikpendem »

bandrami wrote: post #124
satvikpendem wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oftentimes it is though, good enough for my purposes.

If you're not familiar with the problem space, by definition you don't know whether or not that's the case. The problem spaces I do know well, I know the LLM isn't good at it, so why would I assume it's better at spaces I don't know?

I said familiar enough, not familiar. For example, let's say I'm building an app I know needs caching, the LLM is very good at telling me what types of caching to use, what libraries to use for each type, and so on, for which I can do more research if I really want to know specifically what the best library out of all the rest are, but oftentimes its top suggestion is, like I said, good enough for my purpose of e.g. caching.

Re: Do your own writing

#126

Post by apsurd »

stephen_cagle wrote: post #123

Writing (unassisted) is probably the first step towards your own independent thoughts. I'm reminded of that scene in "Ghost in the Shell" where some guy ask the Major why he is on the team (full of cyborgs) and she responds something along the line of "Because you are basically un-enhanced (maybe without a ghost?) and are likely to respond differently then the rest of us; Overspecialization is death." I think a diver…

Agree. Also, deference to consensus has always been a thing. "Best practices" is a thing at all levels of school and work. So it's very much a human thing, AI drastically compresses the timeline.

Importantly, it's not wrong. I say this as someone that seems to have the contrarian gene. I am worried too, that status-quo is now instant and all-consuming for anyone anywhere. But there's still hope in that AI compresses ramp up speed for anyone that would have the capacity to branch out anyway. So that's good.

Re: Do your own writing

#127

Post by bandrami »

satvikpendem wrote: post #125
bandrami wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're not familiar with the problem space, by definition you don't know whether or not that's the case. The problem spaces I do know well, I know the LLM isn't good at it, so why would I assume it's better at spaces I don't know?

I said familiar enough, not familiar. For example, let's say I'm building an app I know needs caching, the LLM is very good at telling me what types of caching to use, what libraries to use for each type, and so on, for which I can do more research if I really want to know specifically what the best library out of all the rest are, but oftentimes its top suggestion is, like I said, good enough for my purpose of e.g.…

I still don't get what you're saying. If you possess enough information to accurately judge the LLM's suggestions you possess enough information to decide on your own. There's not really a way around that.

Re: Do your own writing

#128

Post by apsurd »

ori_b wrote: post #112
roadside_picnic wrote: post #9

I've long considered writing to be the "last step in thinking". I can't tell you how many times an idea, that was crystal clear in my mind, fell apart the moment I started writing and I realize there were major contradictions I needed to resolve. Likewise I also have numerous times where writing about something loosely and casually revealed to me something that fundamentally changed how I viewed a topic and really co…

If you drop the premise of writing, drop the premise that you need something well written. Just give me the same information you would have given the LLM.

But a non well-written prompt is not a good prompt. What are you really going to do with a shit prompt? It's meta: we need better writers all the way down.

Re: Do your own writing

#129

Post by specvsimpl »

bandrami wrote: post #114
antonvs wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What better solution do you have in mind? This scenario is AI being used as a tool to eliminate toil. It’s not replacing human creativity, or anything like that. If you have a problem with that, then you should also have a problem with computers in general. But maybe you do have a problem with computers - after all, they regularly eliminate jobs, for example. In that case, AI is only special in its potentially greate…

It's not eliminating toil, it's externalizing it from the writer to the reader. If writing something is too tedious for you, at least respect my time as the reader enough to just give me the prompt you used rather than the output.

In a lot of my AI assisted writing, the prompt is an order of magnitude larger than the output.

Prompt: here are 5 websites, 3 articles I wrote, 7 semi-relevant markdown notes, the invitation for the lecture I'm giving, a description of the intended audience, and my personal plan and outline.

Output: draft of a lecture

And then the review, the iteration, feedback loops.

The result is thoroughly a collaboration between me and AI. I am confident that this is getting me past writer blocks, and is helping me build better arcs in my writing and lectures.

The result is also thoroughly what I want to say. If I'm unhappy with parts, then I add more input material, iterate further.

I assure you that I spend hours preparing a 10_min pitch. With AI.

(This comment was produced without AI.)

Re: Do your own writing

#130

Post by satvikpendem »

bandrami wrote: post #127
satvikpendem wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said familiar enough, not familiar. For example, let's say I'm building an app I know needs caching, the LLM is very good at telling me what types of caching to use, what libraries to use for each type, and so on, for which I can do more research if I really want to know specifically what the best library out of all the rest are, but oftentimes its top suggestion is, like I said, good enough for my purpose of e.g.…

I still don't get what you're saying. If you possess enough information to accurately judge the LLM's suggestions you possess enough information to decide on your own. There's not really a way around that.

Of course I'm deciding on my own, I'm not letting the LLM decide for me (although some people do). But the point is whatever the suggestion is is merely an implementation detail that either solves my problem or not, not sure what part of that is confusing. Replace LLM with glorified Google and maybe it's less confusing.
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