Comment by randusername
5 hours ago
> I tend to be very exacting in my word choice. If I used a specific word, I meant it.
You aren't alone. My professional written communication is meticulous. I think carefully about my audience and optimize word choice for very low probability of accidental collision or misinterpretation.
I don't think everyone should communicate this way all the time, but I do think everyone should recognize that loose communication in mixed company can waste a lot of time. My job involves inter-team and inter-department collaboration and I take the time to do it well.
> I feel like people using AI to both read and interpret language is the death of rigorous language.
I agree AI is eroding diction. I don't like the idea of such a heavy inertial force on the evolution and usage of language. Or the idea that it might be grinding off variation in word choice and self-expression.
I think there are bigger negative impacts here than most people realize. For example, it reminds me of the part in Snowcrash about how language variation is important to mitigate the spread and criticality of mind viruses and danger memes. I think you could totally look at modern authoritarianism through this lens, for example.
> think carefully about my audience
Consider that you may not be doing this very well. Or that it is even possible to even know what your audience is (going to be). I have found the less I assume about my audience, and thus the more verbose and elaborate I am, the better the reception of my communication tends to be, on the whole. I'll save the terse and meticulous for people who I know and level with in terms of that preference.
Communication is all about adaptation. It is a dance, in that what you think is precise and clear is never going to be shared among every person you are trying to communicate with. Clearly if your manager passes your doc through an LLM, you made an error in judgement. If this upsets you (and I don't have unlimited energy for this either), you should find more likeminded, or at least sufficient numbers of likeminded people so that it doesn't take all of your time and energy away. There is after all a reason why you get along better with some than others, and communicative preference is one reasons why I think.
Sometimes I thoroughly enjoy having to stretch my mind though. I'd hate to work with only people like me (I have!).