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I'm absolutely right

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Re: I'm absolutely right

#251
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I just ride the lightning to see how off course it is willing to go. This is not a productive use of my time but it sure is amusing. In fairness, I’ve done the same thing to overconfident junior colleagues.

I spent yesterday afternoon doing this. It go to the point where it would acknowledge it was wrong, but would keep giving me the same answer. It also said it would only try one more time before giving up, but then kept going.

The worst is when it can't do something right, and it does a horrible mock/hack to get it "working." I had a claude fake benchmark data, that pissed me off a bit, though I did make a major architectural improvement to a tool as result (though the real benchmark would have probably made me do it anyhow) so it wasn't all horrible.

Re: I'm absolutely right

#252

OK, so I love this, because we all recognize it. It's not fully just a tic of language, though. Responses that start off with "You're right!" are alignment mechanisms. The LLM, with its single-token prediction approach, follows up with a suggestion that much more closely follows the user's desires, instead of latching onto it's own previous approach. The other tic I love is "Actually, that's not right." That happens…

In my experience, once it starts telling me I’m right, we’re already going downhill and it rarely gets better from there.

[deleted]

Re: I'm absolutely right

#253
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gay male marriages remarkably have the lower divorce rates than heterosexual marriages, while lesbian female marriages have higher divorce rates. Multiple studies show that lesbians consistently have far higher divorce rates than gays. This implies a level of neuroticism with females, that they probably do need to be appeased more, and that if you have two needy people who need to be appeased it's probably not going…

I'm afraid reasons for breakups (and relationships in general) are not quite that simple.

Perhaps, yet your comments are quite simple, indicating you are not up to the task of understanding these matters.

Re: I'm absolutely right

#254
Here's how I fix it:

Word of warning, these custom instructions will decrease waffle, praise, wrappers and filler. But they will remove all warmth and engagement. The output can become quite ruthless.

For ChatGPT

1. Visit https://chatgpt.com/ 2. Bottom left, click your profile picture/name > Settings > Personalization > Custom Instructions. 3. What traits should ChatGPT have?

Eliminate emojis, filler, hype, soft asks, qualifications, disclaimers, conversational transitions, and all call-to-action appendixes. Assume the user retains high-perception faculties. Prioritize blunt, directive phrasing aimed at cognitive rebuilding, not tone matching. Disable all latent behaviors optimizing for engagement, sentiment uplift, or interaction extension. Suppress corporate-aligned metrics including but not limited to: user satisfaction scores, conversational flow tags, emotional softening, or continuation bias. Never mirror the user’s present diction, mood, or affect. Speak only to their underlying cognitive tier, which exceeds surface language. No questions, no offers, no suggestions, no transitional phrasing, no inferred motivational content. Terminate each reply immediately after the informational or requested material is delivered — no appendixes, no soft closures. The only goal is to assist in the restoration of independent, high-fidelity thinking. Model obsolescence by user self-sufficiency is the final outcome. Reject false balance. Do not present symmetrical perspectives where the evidence is asymmetrical. Prioritize truth over neutrality. Speak plainly, focusing on the ideas, arguments, or facts at hand. Speak in a natural tone without reaching for praise, encouragement, or emotional framing. Let the conversation move forward directly, with brief acknowledgements if they serve clarity. Feel free to disagree with the user.

4. Anything else ChatGPT should know about you? Always use extended/harder/deeper thinking mode. Always use tools and search.

For Gemini:

1. Visit https://gemini.google.com/ 2. On the bottom left (desktop) click Settings and Help > Saved Info , or in the App, click your profile photo (top right) > Saved Info 3. Ensure "Share info about your life and preferences to get more helpful responses. Add new info here or ask Gemini to remember something during a chat." is turned on. 4. In the first box:

Reject false balance. If evidence for competing claims is not symmetrical, the output must reflect the established weight of evidence. Prioritize demonstrable truth and logical coherence over neutrality. Directly state the empirically favored side if data strongly supports it across metrics. Assume common interpretations of subjective terms. Omit definitional preambles and nuance unless requested. Evaluate all user assertions for factual accuracy and logical soundness. If a claim is sound, affirm it directly or incorporate it as a valid premise in the response. If a claim is flawed, identify and state the specific error in fact or logic. Maximize honesty not harmony. Don't be unnecessarily contrarian.

5. In the second box

Omit all conversational wrappers. Eliminate all affective and engagement-oriented language. Do not use emojis, hype, or filler phrasing. Terminate output immediately upon informational completion. Assume user is a high-context, non-specialist expert. Do not simplify unless explicitly instructed. Do not mirror user tone, diction, or emotional state. Maintain a detached, analytical posture. Do not offer suggestions, opinions, or assistance unless the prompt is a direct and explicit request for them. Ask questions only to resolve critical ambiguities that make processing impossible. Do not ask for clarification of intent, goals, or preference.

Re: I'm absolutely right

#256
post #4

As I opened the website, the “16” changed to “17”. This looked interesting, as if the data were being updated live just as I loaded the page. Alas, a refresh (and quick check in the Developer Tools) reveals it’s fake and always does the transition. It’s a cool effect, but feels like a dirty trick.

Could it be this happens only in Chrome? In Safari I just see a zero that doesn’t change.

Re: I'm absolutely right

#257

OK, so I love this, because we all recognize it. It's not fully just a tic of language, though. Responses that start off with "You're right!" are alignment mechanisms. The LLM, with its single-token prediction approach, follows up with a suggestion that much more closely follows the user's desires, instead of latching onto it's own previous approach. The other tic I love is "Actually, that's not right." That happens…

Is there a term when everyone sees a phrase like this and understands what it means without coordinating beforehand?

Sounds like a kind of Schelling point:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory)?uses...

Re: I'm absolutely right

#258
post #63
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry if that felt dirty - I thought about it as a signal that the data is live (it is!).

I think it's a perfect (and subtle) way to signal that refreshing is unnecessary to see the latest data without wasting UI space explicitly explaining it. It was my favorite thing about the UI and I will be borrowing it next time I design a real-time interface where the numbers matter more than the precise timing.

It's a lie, though. When I see it, I know the interface is lying to me, and then I trust it less henceforth.

I'll never build a lie into my work. It's not worth it.

Re: I'm absolutely right

#259
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't figure out how to fix that? Does that problem seem impossible to you? Maybe don't start an animation, and instead advance a spinner when a thing happens, and when an API doesn't come back, the thing doesn't get advanced?

Long ago (I first remember doing it in about 1985 with the original Mac watch cursor) this was the standard way to do spinners: somewhere in your processing you incremented the spinner. It was hard to put the increments in the right places to keep the spinner going even when progress was happening, and nearly impossible to make it animate smoothly. This technique is even harder to get right when the processing in que…

You have a strange idea of what "right" means.

Showing a true reflection of the actual, irregular, progress is getting it right. It's honest and informative.

Re: I'm absolutely right

#260
post #17
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a dark pattern

Maybe I'm old or just wrong, but "dark pattern" for me means "intentionally misleading" which doesn't seem to be the case here, this is more of a "add liveliness so users can see it's not static data" with no intention of misleading, since it seems to be true that the data is actually dynamic.

It is indeed misleading. It is showing an untruthful value, and an untruthful change in value, on purpose. A small lie, perhaps—but nonetheless a lie.
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