I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era • Hacker News Board

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#151

Post by Karuma » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:00 PM UTC

andai wrote: post #11

> This post, is written without any tools assistance I just wrote what my brain is instructing to type (might not reread it before posting). How is the author complaining about the quality of their own writing while admitting to not even bothering reading what they wrote, let alone editing it? (Also, why would using a LLM based grammar checker trigger an AI writing detector? Did it end up rewriting substantial parts…

Yes, these people are so unbelievably stupid that think others more intelligent than them can't tell when they use AI to write their stuff. And then they act so annoyed when they get exposed... It's unbearable.

The article here is still full of AI slop, and so many people in the comments are defending the author. Blows my mind.

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#152

Post by pryelluw » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:03 PM UTC

piker wrote: post #86

AI for editing is garbage. Chat to it to get ideas maybe, but in its current incarnation it’s just going to degrade anything you filter through it.

It’s kinda useful to me for the following three reasons:

- spelling - grammar or weird grammar as English is not my native language - read proofing and finding things that do not make sense in terms of sentence structure

I do not use it for ideas, discussing the writing, or anything else because that beats the purpose of writing it myself (creative writing).

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#153

Post by i18nagentai » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:07 PM UTC

[flagged]

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#154

Post by lelandfe » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:09 PM UTC

jhhh wrote: post #145

I miss the text only reading era. This is a blog and should not need to have JavaScript enabled to render text to a page. I would rather not have to be annoyed by flavor of the month duplicate scroll bars, cookie banners, newsletter pop-ups 5 seconds in, scroll to the top pop-ups, idle overlays, highlight helper bars that break copy paste, etc. This blog didn't have all of those but had some. I'm sure the metrics loo…

> I had to load this page four times. First initially, and then disabling JavaScript

Had to?

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#155

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:09 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #106

heavyset_go wrote: post #47

If you outsource your thinking and skills, your ability to do either atrophies. You'll become dependent on outsourcing for both. You're trading ability and competence for convenience.

For some reason I read that as "If you outsource your thinking and skills, your ability to do apostrophes."

[deleted]

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#156

Post by shagie » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:11 PM UTC

roysting wrote: post #59

Freak_NL wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a bunch of typos in there which jar a bit ('deterioted'), but I guess that makes sense for this specific article. Personally, I would recommend them to simple use any old editor with spellchecking enabled. That suffices for most writing where you just want to keep your own voice. To me, the red crinkly line just means that I should edit that word myself. In the rare case where I'm stumped on the spelling I'…

The problem here, the overarching issue is that the subject complaint about AI slop is actually a bigger issue that has been plaguing America in particular for many years now, and of which the AI slop era is only a current top. The qualities of American writing have clearly been on a precipitous decline for a very long time now, predating AI slop and even spell checkers and computers. Computers, digital text, and dig…

> The qualities of American writing have clearly been on a precipitous decline for a very long time now, predating AI slop and even spell checkers and computers.

https://www.literaturelust.com/post/what-writers-need-to-kno...

> Every NYT bestseller from 1960 to 2014 falls in the seventh-grade level spread, from 4th to 11th.

> ...

> Since 2000, only 2 bestsellers have scored higher than 9th-grade readability.

> ... ...

> The bestselling authors of our time are writing at the 4th-grade level.

> > “8 books tie for the lowest score,” a 4.4, just above 4th-grade level. Prolific, well-known authors with huge sales: James Patterson, Janet Evonvich, and Nora Roberts.”

> These three authors have written a combined total of 419 books.

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#157

Post by mandolingual » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:11 PM UTC

simianwords wrote: post #34

stabbles wrote: post #33

Are grammatical errors and typos fashionable now? Reading this post it seems the anti-thesis in the LLM era is not to edit at all, but rather write down a stream of consciousness to make it "personal".

Definitely think it is. It will be glorious. We will focus more on content than on just aesthetic as people try to signal that they are not llm

Flaw become aesthetic all time. People faked butt bandage follow Sun King fashion. Ugly as sin, still aesthetic.

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#158

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

piker wrote: post #86

AI for editing is garbage. Chat to it to get ideas maybe, but in its current incarnation it’s just going to degrade anything you filter through it.

[deleted]

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#159

Post by ollysb » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:14 PM UTC

boca_honey wrote: post #119

>I just wrote what my brain is instructing to type (might not reread it before posting) Why would I put effort into reading something that had no effort put in by the author? This guy needs an editor, AI or otherwise.

While I can get behind the sentiment I hope bad writing doesn't become the standard for anti AI. A simple grammar check would have greatly improved this post.

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#160

Post by dsign » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 7:20 PM UTC

kristjansson wrote: post #136

boca_honey wrote: post #119

>I just wrote what my brain is instructing to type (might not reread it before posting) Why would I put effort into reading something that had no effort put in by the author? This guy needs an editor, AI or otherwise.

The relative value of those things are shifting. As the cost of polished LLM drivel falls to zero, some might prefer even the most unedited, off-the-cuff human writing to the slop.

Indeed. I for one enjoyed this piece. Yes, it had errors and lots of odd grammatical choices, but the reading remained affordably challenging and the prose had a newness to it.