>You asked a simple question. They lobbed a document.
Did you slop grenade the slop grenade warning?
Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
211–220 of 453 posts
Re: Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
#212> Nobody writes essays in Slack I 100% write long texts in Slack. I always try to provide as much context as possible when reaching out to someone with a question or request.
Honestly, speaking as a friend, and as someone who's been at this a very long time, maybe stop doing that? It doesn't foster conversion and I personally find it kind of a hostile/disrespectful communication style. It's much harder to have a proper back and forth with a firehouse than it is a few sentences at a time. It declares authority "these are the facts" rather than "let's discuss ideas" and if you haven't fully…
> It declares authority "these are the facts" rather than "let's discuss ideas" and if you haven't fully earned that authority it honestly just kind of smells of insecurity.
Not at all.
1. Someone is coming to me with the question. They're doing so because either the question is about my area of ownership and I have that authority or because I'm a subject-matter expert and I have that authority.
2. I don't know what the other person knows around the edges of the domain that the question is in, I don't know if they understand the constraints of the domain nor do I know what constraints their specific problem has.
3. Often the answers to any actually decent question at work are fairly nuanced, and to understand the nuance you need at least a level set of context.
It's a lot more dismissive and rude to answer with excessive brevity if you treat the question in good faith. For simple questions, sure I don't need to write an essay. Some questions I answer with "Got 10 minutes so we can chat about this?" because it just needs a conversation. Or I answer with questions of my own. But if the question is well-formed, answering it starts with providing the necessary context to understand my answer so we're on an even playing field and we can effectively communicate ideas.
Re: Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
#213[dead]
Re: Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
#214When I'm encountering some WoT like that, I'd like to have a button like "view source", but for "view prompt". Most ai generated messages or docs are unnecessarily verbose and just reading the prompt would suffice. I don't really get why some people seem to think that it's somehow better to have their bullet point prompt as a huge text. It just wastes my time. And probably only makes it look like it took more effort…
> I don't really get why some people seem to think that it's somehow better to have their bullet point prompt as a huge text. Simple: It looks like you did more work. Before everyone had ChatGPT, a long document meant that someone sat at their computer and invested more effort than someone rattling off a list of partially formed bullet points. In the process of writing the doc they usually refined the idea. Now anyon…
Next, the recipient of the wall-of-text throws it into another LLM to "summarize" it to bullet-points, adding another hop of the game of telephone as it mutates what was already a fake artifact of thinking that was never done. *sigh*
Re: Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
#215The point of OP could be right but I decide to provide a counter example.
This morning I asked Claude to find why locale = empty string slipped into some of our customers records. Of course it's something I used to do myself but it did it in less than a minute. I couldn't match that speed, ever. Then I verified the analysis and the suggested fix. Finally I pasted Claude's analysis in a slack conversation, with attribution. I could have summarized what claude wrote to me, but it would be a waste of time because it was already pretty terse.
We decided to solve the problem in a different way but I think that starting with Claude's analysis was the right thing to do.
Re: Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
#216When I'm encountering some WoT like that, I'd like to have a button like "view source", but for "view prompt". Most ai generated messages or docs are unnecessarily verbose and just reading the prompt would suffice. I don't really get why some people seem to think that it's somehow better to have their bullet point prompt as a huge text. It just wastes my time. And probably only makes it look like it took more effort…
I very much dislike this behavior, personally dont do this and want it stopped.
people that I like to be nice to have done this to me. I dont have a good response that wont trigger them.
They chose to do this cz its easy. I now have to choose : read that garbage and make sense and ask questions or reject it asking for your opinions not claude's.
Former leads to more walls of text. Latter makes me come across as not-nice and get broad stroke painted as an AI hater (which I'm not). Not many where I work will voice any of their discontent about anything AI. Its the hotness.
The irony of that article having an AI smell is not lost on me
Re: Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
The common denominator seems to be your phrasing, not everybody else’s “sarcasm detectors.” And unfortunately a lot of people write comments like your joke but actually mean it.
Ad populum. What’s the common denominator on a nerd forum w.r.t interpreting tone cues? No, not even the mock URL was enough.
If we’re going to go down that route, then we should also acknowledge that it’s a nerd forum that is typically reserved for serious discussion. Being sarcastic and cracking wise is generally discouraged
Re: Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
#218Speak for yourself. I do write essays in Slack. Just because you, the author, are too dumb or too lazy to put some effort into written communication, doesn't mean that we can't do it either.
A while ago I worked with a guy that did not put effort into written communication and he was doing the marketing for the company. I would have words with the boss about this and, initially, I struggled to explain why spelling, grammar, punctuation and use of paragraphs was important.
After some thought I was better able to explain the not-so-obvious. It is all about respecting the time of the reader.
Some people don't respect the reader since they think they are important. Notably with the Ep*tein files, we have this clique of wealthy people, with few of them able to string two sentences together. Writing standards were those of an eight year old at best.
Personally I write fairly long form because I don't have ideas that I can express in glorified grunts. However, this LLM stuff is encroaching on my turf, since the likes of the guy I used to struggle with can now churn out better English than I can. That is the problem for those of us from the pre-internet, pre-grammar-checking age when written communication mattered.
Re: Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
#219I've decided that I'm done being pissy about this kind of response, or thinking that it's something that can be coached away. I choose to look at it like any other cultural communication difference - something that you learn about, try to give some grace to, and work a little harder to bridge (unless you're defusing a bomb, performing surgery, flying an airplane etc.). In this person's communication culture, they are…
> In this person's communication culture, they are saying "I don't know, but here's my attempt to help."
You know all those support sites for various products (Microsoft, etc) where people ask questions, and lots of folks eagerly give answers that really aren't helpful?
Throwing AI grenades generally falls into the same category.
I don't mind an AI generated answer as long as it's on point, concise, and answers my problem. If I have to read a wall of text in search of the answer, it's useless.
There's a reason I've blocked those types of "answer" sites from my Kagi search results. Kagi is awesome that way.
Re: Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations
#220I think what is interesting is that we keep needing these pages to teach people how not being an asshole works. I don't really understand why it is so hard to understand not to do (what I consider to be) impolite stupid shit.
> I don't really understand why it is so hard to understand not to do (what I consider to be) impolite stupid shit.
Tip 1: Starting off by denigrating folks who do this is not a way to make people change. More often than not, it amplifies the behavior you don't like.
Tip 2: It helps to indicate you understand the perspective of why people do it before asking others to change. Reading your comment, I really doubt you understand their perspective.
People listen to those willing to understand them.