Comment by ElFitz
5 hours ago
I find it difficult to separate this piece’s tone from its content. The tone puts me off and makes it hard for me to judge it on its merits, despite some of the arguments seeming sound and well supported.
5 hours ago
I find it difficult to separate this piece’s tone from its content. The tone puts me off and makes it hard for me to judge it on its merits, despite some of the arguments seeming sound and well supported.
Given the way tone has been intentionally abused, particularly in this industry, I’ll take a few f bombs and the truth.
>I’ll take a few f bombs and the truth.
Don't want to ruin it but go read some old posts from the author about AI, the tone is the same and he is very much wrong.
Agreed. If the arguments seem sound and well supported, then all we can do is attack the tone.
You can disagree. Sarcastically, or otherwise. But I think you may be reading more into my comment than I put there.
I’m not attacking the piece. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not saying it’s wrong.
What I’m saying is, the tone made it hard for me to judge the arguments fairly, despite finding some of them convincing. And as much as I dislike it, persuasion does partly depend on how an argument is made.
Thanks, it's very clear what you're saying.
Ed's posts are peak preaching to the choir, they're usually factually correct but he is really bad at convincing anyone who doesn't already strongly agree with him.
Have you seen his recent Bloomberg appearance? He's calm, collected, and matter-of-fact -- the complete opposite of how he presents himself on his newsletter and podcasts, but with the same argument. You wouldn't know from listening to him how spicy he usually is.
It's tuned to the audience. Bloomberg was traditionally for people who actually wanted information. People who were fallible and had limited knowledge.
Of course that mentality is obsolete. Now we all have infinite access to perfectly correct information via the internet.
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I dont really understand the criticism either way.
He's in the media business... its in his interest to amp things up.
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Perhaps that’s it. I would tend to agree with his position, I think, but don’t appreciate being preached to. Even less so when I agree with what’s being said.
Agreed. I am open to the possibility of the bubble bursting or whatever, but this piece is like 3,000 words and cites everything as evidence the sky is falling. It's just as bad as the pro-AI grifters, just in the other direction.
Does the truth normally lie somewhere in the middle of it all?
>Does the truth normally lie somewhere in the middle of it all?
Usually does when you decide what constitutes extreme.
Probably. Although I feel more inclined to forgive Ed in this case because it's sort of fighting fire with fire, the insanely hyperbolic and obscenely misleading drivel that's coming out of the most ardent AI boosters is continually unchallenged in the public eye. In a world where we had a more realistic view of AI/ML/LLMs, the limits to its capabilities, and the negative externalities of its widespread adoption in places where it quite frankly does not belong, then I'd be more critical of the Chicken Little sort of writing style