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Comment by refulgentis

2 years ago

Other reply is great, more in-depth on details from me here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36758681

Plain english TL;DR:

- if you limit your task to binning snippets of text

- and the snippets are very well-defined (ex. code vs. Filipino text)

- the snippets _bytes_ could be compared and score well, no text understanding needed

- size delta of a GZIP after adding one more sentence acts as an ersatz way to compare sets of bytes to eachother (ex. you can imagine a GZIP containing 0xFFABCDEF that has 0xFFABCDEF added to it will have a size delta of 0)

8 comments

refulgentis

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fsmv  2 years ago

Did you read the recent Douglas Hofstadter article or do you just always use the word ersatz?

  • refulgentis  2 years ago

    I was homeschooled till 12 and mostly left to my own devices as long as it was reading - I believe that has caused a lifelong issue where I sound like a tryhard unintentionally :( (TL;Dr I use it but IDK when, didn't see hofstader article but now I'm looking forward to it)

    • matthewdgreen  2 years ago

      The word ersatz is great, and conveys the notion that the replacement is simpler and possibly inferior when compared across all features. “Substitute” doesn’t cut it. Human language (ironically w.r.t. TFA) isn’t a collection of redundant symbols, the synonyms carry all sorts of useful nuance.