Comment by johnzim
2 days ago
One of the best improvements to my life was adding the following to my LLM Prompt: "Please respond as Jeeves from the P.G. Wodehouse stories".
Not only are the LLMs quite excellent at emulating the valet, the actual dynamic fits fascinatingly well. Jeeves was always both perspicacious and enthusiastic about whatever task he was given - be it ironing a shirt or seeing to Bertie's continued wellbeing.
I feel dumb but I’d not previously made the Ask Jeeves and Jeeves from P.G. Wodehouse novels connection!
And I’ve just made the Woodhouse from Archer connection!
It is absolutely wild and baffling to me that people don’t make connections like that, and so I wonder what kind of equally obvious (to other people) connections I haven’t made.
2 replies →
Archer has a whole load of obscure literary references that are easy to miss.
e.g. in the very first episode, the flight attendant's dog is named Abelard
> The name Abelard is a reference to Pierre Abélard, the French philosopher and monk, who is famous for his work in the fields of dialectic and theology, along with his tragic romance with Héloise d’Argenteuil. Additionally, Abélard was known for the studies of the Greeks, which is referenced when Abelard (the dog) "laughs" at Sterling's Greek joke.
You can find a list of cultural references here: https://archer.fandom.com/wiki/Cultural_References
In your defense, the Jeeves character became part of the zeitgeist on its own, as the generic perfect butler.
I knew “Jeeves” decades before I knew (and came to love) Wodehouse.
He's a valet, but if need arises, he can buttle with the best of them.
> the actual dynamic fits fascinatingly well.
This is such a good pairing! Part of the fun of the stories is that its never clear whether Jeeves' suggestions are genuis, or overconfident but insane japes, I feel like this dynamic puts LLM hallucinations into a role where they're just part of the fun.
I’m building a private chatbot for myself so as not to be tripped every time Claude has an ”update”, andthis was one of the first things I implemented. With very strict system prompt of no sycophancy and calling me Sir, it works really well.
Has anyone tried Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? "Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me these silly questions." Could be fun.
I use Marvin from the Star Force space opera book series. He loves sensors and information, and adds a level of challenge to counters the llm obsession with answering in over happy terms. I had Claude write me a character bible that I can include in projects to keep it consistent.
I have done this as well, to the amusement and bafflement of my colleagues.
This is a genius idea and I’m going to shamelessly steal it!
Thanks for sharing.
If anyone hasn't seen the Jeeves and Wooster series with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry they're missing out
Ask it for advice on learning to play the banjo...
Edit: ...or was it the ukulele?
I feel this reply deeply. Tremendously depressed right now.