5 ms·

This is written for someone with a higher reading level than me. I skimmed the first few paragraphs and have no idea what it is about beyond the title.

by jmugan 2y ago

idle_zealot 2y ago
It meanders around the history of tales involving selling one's soul for worldly power or gratification, then in the last sentence says that's what smartphones are, because we trade privacy and identity for convenience.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
galdosdi 2y ago
I don't mean this offensively, but if this is beyond your reading level and you went to college, your college did not do a good job. The vocabulary and structure is nothing out of the ordinary for college level reading. That said, like some college level reading, it definitely meanders a bit, is a little self-important and feels padded with unnecessary filler, and is just only somewhat but ultimately not deeply interesting unless you are already pretty interested in how tales of the devil featured in medieval Europe. It's ok. I didn't finish it. If you misspoke and meant you didn't feel like reading it, but certainly could have comprehended it, then never mind I guess But again, this isn't personal-- but if you are a successful educated software engineer who genuinely finds this beyond your reading level, your reading level is low for your station in life. It will limit your rise. Take it as an insult if you like though I don't mean it that way or else a wake up call. The reason I dare stick my fingers into this fire and possibly offend you is, there is a trend of "educated" people who know science but completely skipped humanities, and thus have huge blind spots. My real audience for this comment is other people who will be encouraged to value the ability to read obtuse things and write clearly, to understand history and literature. And if you are picking a college for your kids, check out the readings for some classes. If they are not expected to easily be able to read something at this level, then it's a waste of money unless it's very cheap.
- acheron 2y ago
  You must be old. Nowadays even Harvard students aren't expected to be able to read anything complicated. From coincidentally, another New Yorker link: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/the-end-of-the-english-major https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/the-end-of-the... -- "The last time I taught 'The Scarlet Letter,' I discovered that my students were really struggling to understand the sentences as sentences—like, having trouble identifying the subject and the verb," she said. "Their capacities are different, and the nineteenth century is a long time ago."
  - galdosdi 2y ago
    Ah. So that's why so many people think chatgpt is such a boon for drafting trivial things that a competent writer could do almost as fast, but with more control. They really can't do it. The deskilling continues. "What can be expected of a man who has spent 20 years putting heads on pins?" PS: I am not that old. I was in the college class '11 at an average small liberal arts college with an over 60% acceptance rate. I was not exceptional. I think the deskilling has accelerated very greatly and very recently.
    - CatWChainsaw 2y ago
      The story by E.M. Forster is actually "The Machine Stops". The dystopia that came to mind for me was Harrison Bergeron, only instead of a human Handicapper General enforcing an equality of sub-mediocrity, it will be the masses and the tools they were bequeathed by the FAANGs. Having also been at uni in '11, I agree - GenZ and below are unnerving to observe.
      - galdosdi 2y ago
        NB- this is in reply to an earlier version of my comment, which I edited out purely for brevity, but now guiltily am restoring here-- where I worried we're marching towards a dystopia like the ones imagined in many works like Idiocracy, Wall-E, or The Machine Stops (misremembering the title as The Machine Breaks Down or something) You make a very good point. I am starting to hear things along the lines of "But it's normal that some people learn better from videos" and "Why are you gatekeeping this knowledge" and even here you increasingly see references to videos that are much lower detail but higher time commitment summaries of writing that has much more detail available yet could be consumed, skimmed, etc more quickly than sitting through a video that your eyes have no ability to skip around, rushing past the irrelevant and dwelling on the relevant, without ever having to click a button. They already invented telepathic interfaces -- books.
giraffe_lady 2y ago
This happens every time an article from the new yorker is posted. Now we will mostly talk about this, about the merits or pointlessness of literary nonfiction and literature in general. Maybe recommend each other some brandon sanderson or malcolm gladwell and all have a great time.
jonchang 2y ago
Developing media literacy is an important skill! One way to approach this work is to understand the genre of the work you are reading! We can determine genre in a few ways, but in this case, we see that the publication is the New Yorker, which tells us to expect magazine-style writing, specifically longer form feature pieces. Another important clue is that this is published in the New Yorker's "Books" section, suggesting that this is a book review. And, if you know much about the New Yorker's book reviews, they often include things such as history of the field the book addresses, compares the book to other related books, and what the book's thesis might imply about our world today. This longer form book review can introduce important context and enrich your understanding of the world! I encourage you to keep an open mind and continue to read pieces that are outside of your usual genre.
- moomoo11 2y ago
  Is this written by gpt
  - robbiep 2y ago
    It absolutely feels like it
  - dalmo3 2y ago
    In the style of New Yorker, a joke as old as gpt itself.
  - wizzwizz4 2y ago
    The style matches, but I think that's because it's just a median style of writing. It's too… je ne sais quoi, to be produced by that algorithm.
    - darth_aardvark 2y ago
      "And, if you know much about the New Yorker's book reviews,", specifically feels like a phrase GPT would never use.
wizardforhire 2y ago
Its making a longwinded comparison between eulas and faustian bargains, trading short term gains for long term suffering.
- dylan604 2y ago
  So it's a tale of Boeing?
  - CatWChainsaw 2y ago
    Almost any company now. If you're not growing faster or making more profit than you were last quarter, forever, the entire world will crash, apparently.
alekq 2y ago
Is English your native language?
echelon_musk 2y ago
For what it's worth I absolutely loathe this writing style. Just look at this sentence: > No longer open to the pressing torque of divinities and djinns, we moderns are closed off and shut down, buffered and buttressed, marching efficiently through our merely material world, grim-faced assassins of mystery. You could say instead: "Since the Enlightenment people believe in magic less." Come on, "buffered and buttressed", really?! This article is one close to my heart but the pompous writing put me off.
- buescher 2y ago
  Ah, yes, an article about deals with the devil should be straight to the point for the effortless efficiency that only the best bureaucracy can provide. As I tell my team, "bottom line up front, folks!". I hope I have understood you here so please understand me - that is meant with irony but not sarcasm. Perhaps there is a reason for the purple prose, if we only could find it.
Flop7331 2y ago
It's not that well-written. It's mostly a literary review with a paragraph about silicon shoe-horned in at the end to try to bring home some kind of thesis.

This is written for someone with a higher reading level than me. I skimmed the first few paragraphs and have no idea what it is about beyond the title.

by jmugan 2y ago

This is written for someone with a higher reading level than me. I skimmed the first few paragraphs and have no idea what it is about beyond the title.

idle_zealot 2y ago

It meanders around the history of tales involving selling one's soul for worldly power or gratification, then in the last sentence says that's what smartphones are, because we trade privacy and identity for convenience.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

galdosdi 2y ago

I don't mean this offensively, but if this is beyond your reading level and you went to college, your college did not do a good job. The vocabulary and structure is nothing out of the ordinary for college level reading. That said, like some college level reading, it definitely meanders a bit, is a little self-important and feels padded with unnecessary filler, and is just only somewhat but ultimately not deeply interesting unless you are already pretty interested in how tales of the devil featured in medieval Europe. It's ok. I didn't finish it. If you misspoke and meant you didn't feel like reading it, but certainly could have comprehended it, then never mind I guess But again, this isn't personal-- but if you are a successful educated software engineer who genuinely finds this beyond your reading level, your reading level is low for your station in life. It will limit your rise. Take it as an insult if you like though I don't mean it that way or else a wake up call. The reason I dare stick my fingers into this fire and possibly offend you is, there is a trend of "educated" people who know science but completely skipped humanities, and thus have huge blind spots. My real audience for this comment is other people who will be encouraged to value the ability to read obtuse things and write clearly, to understand history and literature. And if you are picking a college for your kids, check out the readings for some classes. If they are not expected to easily be able to read something at this level, then it's a waste of money unless it's very cheap.

acheron 2y ago
You must be old. Nowadays even Harvard students aren't expected to be able to read anything complicated. From coincidentally, another New Yorker link: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/the-end-of-the-english-major https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/the-end-of-the... -- "The last time I taught 'The Scarlet Letter,' I discovered that my students were really struggling to understand the sentences as sentences—like, having trouble identifying the subject and the verb," she said. "Their capacities are different, and the nineteenth century is a long time ago."
- galdosdi 2y ago
  Ah. So that's why so many people think chatgpt is such a boon for drafting trivial things that a competent writer could do almost as fast, but with more control. They really can't do it. The deskilling continues. "What can be expected of a man who has spent 20 years putting heads on pins?" PS: I am not that old. I was in the college class '11 at an average small liberal arts college with an over 60% acceptance rate. I was not exceptional. I think the deskilling has accelerated very greatly and very recently.
  - CatWChainsaw 2y ago
    The story by E.M. Forster is actually "The Machine Stops". The dystopia that came to mind for me was Harrison Bergeron, only instead of a human Handicapper General enforcing an equality of sub-mediocrity, it will be the masses and the tools they were bequeathed by the FAANGs. Having also been at uni in '11, I agree - GenZ and below are unnerving to observe.
    - galdosdi 2y ago
      NB- this is in reply to an earlier version of my comment, which I edited out purely for brevity, but now guiltily am restoring here-- where I worried we're marching towards a dystopia like the ones imagined in many works like Idiocracy, Wall-E, or The Machine Stops (misremembering the title as The Machine Breaks Down or something) You make a very good point. I am starting to hear things along the lines of "But it's normal that some people learn better from videos" and "Why are you gatekeeping this knowledge" and even here you increasingly see references to videos that are much lower detail but higher time commitment summaries of writing that has much more detail available yet could be consumed, skimmed, etc more quickly than sitting through a video that your eyes have no ability to skip around, rushing past the irrelevant and dwelling on the relevant, without ever having to click a button. They already invented telepathic interfaces -- books.

giraffe_lady 2y ago

This happens every time an article from the new yorker is posted. Now we will mostly talk about this, about the merits or pointlessness of literary nonfiction and literature in general. Maybe recommend each other some brandon sanderson or malcolm gladwell and all have a great time.

jonchang 2y ago

Developing media literacy is an important skill! One way to approach this work is to understand the genre of the work you are reading! We can determine genre in a few ways, but in this case, we see that the publication is the New Yorker, which tells us to expect magazine-style writing, specifically longer form feature pieces. Another important clue is that this is published in the New Yorker's "Books" section, suggesting that this is a book review. And, if you know much about the New Yorker's book reviews, they often include things such as history of the field the book addresses, compares the book to other related books, and what the book's thesis might imply about our world today. This longer form book review can introduce important context and enrich your understanding of the world! I encourage you to keep an open mind and continue to read pieces that are outside of your usual genre.

moomoo11 2y ago
Is this written by gpt
- robbiep 2y ago
  It absolutely feels like it
- dalmo3 2y ago
  In the style of New Yorker, a joke as old as gpt itself.
- wizzwizz4 2y ago
  The style matches, but I think that's because it's just a median style of writing. It's too… je ne sais quoi, to be produced by that algorithm.
  - darth_aardvark 2y ago
    "And, if you know much about the New Yorker's book reviews,", specifically feels like a phrase GPT would never use.

wizardforhire 2y ago

Its making a longwinded comparison between eulas and faustian bargains, trading short term gains for long term suffering.

dylan604 2y ago
So it's a tale of Boeing?
- CatWChainsaw 2y ago
  Almost any company now. If you're not growing faster or making more profit than you were last quarter, forever, the entire world will crash, apparently.

alekq 2y ago

Is English your native language?

echelon_musk 2y ago

For what it's worth I absolutely loathe this writing style. Just look at this sentence: > No longer open to the pressing torque of divinities and djinns, we moderns are closed off and shut down, buffered and buttressed, marching efficiently through our merely material world, grim-faced assassins of mystery. You could say instead: "Since the Enlightenment people believe in magic less." Come on, "buffered and buttressed", really?! This article is one close to my heart but the pompous writing put me off.

buescher 2y ago
Ah, yes, an article about deals with the devil should be straight to the point for the effortless efficiency that only the best bureaucracy can provide. As I tell my team, "bottom line up front, folks!". I hope I have understood you here so please understand me - that is meant with irony but not sarcasm. Perhaps there is a reason for the purple prose, if we only could find it.

Flop7331 2y ago

It's not that well-written. It's mostly a literary review with a paragraph about silicon shoe-horned in at the end to try to bring home some kind of thesis.