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I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

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

#241

Post by chongli »

elbasti wrote: post #149
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.

There are some people that believe that writing is an act of creative expression. In other words, that writing is primarily about the act (and as such, it's a quite selfish activity). Editing destroys the expressive act and must be avoided. These people's writing is usually incoherent and they are very proud of it. If you've ever read a bad new-age self-help book you've probably encountered writing like this. Good wr…

Creativity and concision are not mutually exclusive. Read Ernest Hemingway or Cormac McCarthy. Their books are concise, almost spartan, clear and pleasant to read, and undeniably creative.

This style of writing is deceptively simple, of course, and devilishly difficult to produce.

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

#243

Post by ForgotMyUUID »

After COVID six years ago I kind of lost my ability to write concisely and clear. I always loved to compose, to fantasize, but now I feel like an impared one. Now writing any text is a painful process to me: I grab one paper, do freewriting (when one writes w/o stop everything that comes to ones mind) , then mark the bulletpoints and nice formulations (if present, of course). Sometimes, when I want to sharpen the text, I ask questions to it, I critisize it violently. Then I close the original, and rewrite everything from scratch by hand. Handwriting enforces human, naturally lazy creatures, to be concise in their formulations. After 3-4 iterations, I get a text of asatisfactory quality.

It is very unfortunate that we start value creativity and imagination only when we lose them. Although a good pill for creativity in my case is ... boredom and routine. I cant stand doing the same thing again and again in the same fashion. Maybe you might give it a try :)

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

#244

Post by _the_inflator »

The funny thing I recognized is that I don’t care posting what AI created. It is something someone did and if it meets certain criteria I post it - but extremely rarely and not on HN.

On the other hand I am way stricter and harder on myself when writing.

This is something I observed for example.

I don’t use AI for writing. Since I mainly read classics regarding belletristic I don’t fear being served AI generated content.

I still don’t see why or even how to write with AI creating large bodies of text like a book for example.

It is like ghost writing. In the best case it is good one, but style changes due to LLM model changes can kill a book because the tone suddenly is a totally different one.

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

#245

Post by throw4847285 »

margalabargala wrote: post #240
throw4847285 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, unless they are self-published, most "new-age self-help" books are pretty thoughtfully edited. They are persuasive writing, whose goal is to convince you to believe in a framework that is not supported by evidence. Dismissing them for being incoherent is actually a mistake, in that it shows a lack of understanding of their appeal. Though, I must admit, I'm not sure exactly what you meant by "new-age self-he…

> I'm not sure exactly what you meant by "new-age self-help" books They're using it as a pejorative, so it's a blanket term meaning "books with ideas I don't understand and therefore dislike".

I agree that many of the books they're likely talking about are bad, but at least be correct about what makes them bad!

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

#246

Post by john_strinlai »

sumeno wrote: post #235
john_strinlai wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when i was younger, we didnt have cellphones. i had ~20-30 phone numbers memorized, at least. i also used to remember my credit card number. my brain has not deteriorated now that i have offloaded that to my phone. point being: it depends on how you use it. if you offload critical thinking to ai, you will probably (slowly) atrophy your critical thinking muscles. if you offload some bullshit boilerplate or repetitive…

> my brain has not deteriorated now that i have offloaded that to my phone. Is there empirical evidence that you haven't? You wouldn't necessarily be the best judge

do you want a reference from a published journal or something? links to my last mri? how do you want me to answer this?

bring some empirical evidence that using ai rots the brain, and in the meantime, i will think about whether or not its worth trying to answer your request in earnest.

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

#247

Post by shafyy »

scorpionfeet wrote: post #199
shafyy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: Editors are usually also people. Except for that one dog I met during a cold winter's day in 1987 in a run-down London pub.

Can you explain the reference? It whooshed me.

Haha, no reference. I just made something up and tried to be funny.

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

#249

Post by Chinjut »

fluidcruft wrote: post #201
Morromist wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I actually communicate more information efficiently than I would have ever put the effort into before" - this is subjective and evidence seems to point to the opposite in my view. In reality most people who think they communicate better with AI don't actually read what the AI has written for them and just puke it out on the world, expecting their readers to do the work. The Ai almost always writes boring, repetitive…

I have had the same experience, personally. i.e. asking Claude to simplify things for c-suite has gotten (1) extremely positive feedback from c-suite and (2) actually relevant conversation about decisions. It's certainly not a one-shot but iteration with Claude is so fast that it takes just a few hours vs plotting weeks about how to clarify technical decisions. But Intend to work in a "try it this way" sort of iterat…

The C-suite are barely human, so robot-speak appeals to them.

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

#250

Post by hectdev »

Morromist wrote: post #195
hectdev wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work mostly on the tech side of things but my corporate limitation has always been writing up documentation, communicating/translating to stakeholders, and recalling everything relevant when writing PR descriptions. AI has been a breath of fresh air. I actually communicate more information efficiently than I would have ever put the effort into before. I still maintain my own writing for more casual things like soci…

"I actually communicate more information efficiently than I would have ever put the effort into before" - this is subjective and evidence seems to point to the opposite in my view. In reality most people who think they communicate better with AI don't actually read what the AI has written for them and just puke it out on the world, expecting their readers to do the work. The Ai almost always writes boring, repetitive…

Which one is it? Subjective or evidence based? I'm sharing what I know is true for my experience as well as the fact that I proofread what I send with AI and am aware of how terse I usually am.
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