6 ms·
> 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 quest
by SwiftyBug 4mo ago
> 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.
- warumdarum 4mo ago<context> <tutorial> <anecdata> <answer> <sumary> <funny hook> Introducing AI made markdown tags for conversations so others can only see what the wanty
- 21asdffdsa12 4mo agoCould add a <vitriol> tag to that - but yes, if that was auto assigned by LLM - i could see that. Could even add a "Autistism" filter, preventing conversation digressing, filtering out only points that stay on topic and only the <summary>, that way.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4mo ago> Could add a <vitriol> tag to that Is that equivalent to the already popular <rant>?
- paultopia 4mo agoHah, can we do that for recipes next?
- warumdarum 4mo agoConversation add blocker unlocked
- donatj 4mo agoHonestly, 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 earned that authority it honestly just kind of smells of insecurity. If there's something in the middle of a wall of text that invalidates something much further down, trying to communicate the problem becomes a pain in the butt. It's just not a good method for discovery.
- 21asdffdsa12 4mo agoThe next step is to not talk with each other at all. Just have a LLM that "knows you well" in all your position argue by points and values assigned to the points with the LLM of the opposition. If value alignment exists, a actual conversation may be engaged.
- gpvos 4mo agoSome people, like me, have developed this communication style because it turned out that when they didn't they were very often misunderstood. When properly applied (i.e., not excessively, no actual walls of text), giving appropriate context helps focus the thinking of the receiver in the right direction.
- gpvos 4mo ago...but yeah, every now and then I do get comments that I'm very wordy.
- strken 4mo agoSpeaking as a random internet stranger, it depends entirely on context. Sending me a message saying "Hi, I'm getting a Frobnizzle not found error" is a waste of both our time. Explain what you're doing so that I can reproduce it, even if it takes a few paragraphs. Maybe send me your user ID so I can check our logs. I don't care if you're declaring "these are the facts" because the facts are what I need to help you. If it's a massive wall of text with a defensive tone during a discussion, yeah, sure, that's bad. Do you work somewhere where that's common?
- NickDouglas 4mo agoException that proves the rule. You know what context that specific recipient needs from you. GenAI usually doesn't.
- bluGill 4mo agoDo you start every response off with "that is a great question"? I don't know any human who does. "that is a great question" is reserved either for really hard questions, or sarcasm. The majority of questions are not great, they are just things the asker needs a simple answer.
- coder97 4mo agoI have only heard this phrase in american tv shows and movies
- a1o 4mo agoPeople use that too when speaking in real life when they are stalling a bit to conclude their internal thoughts before providing an answer.
- eyelidlessness 4mo agoWell before the LLM explosion I would often preface my answers with some form of praise for the question. It depends a lot on audience of course, but it’s amazing how many people tend to perceive direct answers to their questions as negative… and just as amazing how far a little strategic sycophancy goes to temper that. Even though everyone knows it’s half-sincere dead weight.
- bonesss 4mo agoAnd in parallel: a non-trivial number of people in class or at work are asking questions for no reason other to establish their own social credibility as smart and or knowledgeable. Validating their ego and effort and social position can fulfill their social desires regardless of an answer that dismisses, say, buzzword soup as both inappropriate to the current context and incoherent to people who know what those words mean.
- DamnInteresting 4mo agoThat's a great question! Ahem. I remember being advised to do this ~20 years ago when I was going to be answering questions from a group of people. I was told that it's good practice to say something like "that's a great question" every time someone asks anything, as a form of social lubrication, to encourage others to ask questions. I can't say whether it works, and it was advice for a spoken context rather than written, but I don't know how to finish this sentence.
- headcanon 4mo agoCame here to say this as well. I've written and read full human-written essays on slack before AI. With that said, I don't disagree with the article. Don't use more word when few work.
- BLKNSLVR 4mo agoSorry for the long response, I didn't have time to write a short one. But this should not be an excuse applicable to an LLM.
- rib3ye 4mo agoPlease learn to love bullet points for the sake of the reader.
- SchemaLoad 4mo agoWhen a person expands bullet points they add extra information from their own knowledge and research in the process of writing. When AI does it, it adds filler and repetition. Long form writing itself isn't a problem, it's the empty fake long form we have now.
- hephaes7us 4mo agoI do too, but it does seem like fighting the tool. I wish more people would use email.
- SchemaLoad 4mo agoThere's a difference between a long text and an essay. You wouldn't spend hours typing a message and formatting it with headlines for example. You wouldn't insert loads of unessorasy creative writing techniques in to a message asking for help.
- FatherOfCurses 4mo agoYour co-workers must love staring at the "SwiftyBug is typing..." prompt for 15 minutes