Comment by pmg101
14 hours ago
I don't judge content for being AI written, I judge it for the content itself (just like with code).
However I do find the standard out-of-the-box style very grating. Call it faux-chummy linkedin corporate workslop style.
Why don't people give the llm a steer on style? Either based on your personal style or at least on a writer whose style you admire. That should be easier.
Because they think this is good writing. You can’t correct what you don’t have taste for. Most software engineers think that reading books means reading NYT non-fiction bestsellers.
While I agree with:
> Because they think this is good writing. You can’t correct what you don’t have taste for.
I have to disagree about:
> Most software engineers think that reading books means reading NYT non-fiction bestsellers.
There's a lot of scifi and fantasy in nerd circles, too. Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Vernor Vinge, Charlie Stross, Iain M Banks, Arthur C Clarke, and so on.
But simply enjoying good writing is not enough to fully get what makes writing good. Even writing is not itself enough to get such a taste: thinking of Arthur C Clarke, I've just finished 3001, and at the end Clarke gives thanks to his editors, noting his own experience as an editor meant he held a higher regard for editors than many writers seemed to. Stross has, likewise, blogged about how writing a manuscript is only the first half of writing a book, because then you need to edit the thing.
My flow is to craft the content of the article in LLM speak, and then add to context a few of my human-written blog posts, and ask it to match my writing style. Made it to #1 on HN without a single callout for “LLM speak”!