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Maybe I’m not smart enough, or too tired to decode these metaphors, so I plugged the essay into ChatGPT and got a clear explanation from 4o.

• profsummergig 1y ago
  Ah. Should have thought of that. Going to do that now. Thanks.
• criddell 1y ago
  Are you at all concerned that plugging stuff like this into ChatGPT is leaving you with weaker cognitive muscles? Or is it more similar to what people do when they see a new word and reach for their dictionary?
  • adwn 1y ago
    > Are you at all concerned that plugging stuff like this into ChatGPT is leaving you with weaker cognitive muscles? Couldn't this very same argument have been used against any form of mental augmentation, like written language and computers? Or, in an extended interpretation, against any form of physical augmentation, like tool use?
    • criddell 1y ago
      You can argue whatever you want to argue. I make my living with my brain so I do worry about the downsides of removing boredom and mental struggle from my days.
      • Workaccount2 1y ago
        It's almost certainly going to be bad, and almost certainly going to be unavoidable. I can't spell for shit anymore. Ever since auto correct became omnipresent in pretty much all writing fields, my brain just kinda ditched remembering how to spell words. buuuttt Manual labor has been obsolete for at least 100 years now for certain classes of people, and fitness is still an enormous recreational activity people partake in. So even in an AI heavy society, I still strongly suspect there will be "brain games" that people still enjoy and regularly play.
        • criddell 1y ago
          We aren't talking about something like spelling or digging a hole. We're talking about a fundamental cognitive skill: reading eight short paragraphs of text and extracting meaning from it.
          • profsummergig 1y ago
            > eight short paragraphs of text Fair point. But they are heavily metaphor-laden paragraphs. Textual interpretation is a highly subjective activity. Entire careers consist of interpreting, reinterpreting, and discussing texts that others have already interpreted. Film critics, book reviewers, political pundits, TV anchors, podcasters, etc. 'In 1972, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai was asked about the impact of the French Revolution. "Too early to say," he replied' I had my own sense of what the "coquina" metaphor stood for. I wanted to see other peoples' interpretations. Turns out my interpretation was wrong.
        • profsummergig 1y ago
          > I can't spell for shit anymore. This is increasingly happening to me every day. Hope the alien overlords don't have spelling tests (as their version of IQ tests) to separate the serfs from the field-masters.
      • steve_adams_86 1y ago
        Me too. There is another side to this, which is maybe we don’t need to know a lot of things. It was true with search engines already, but maybe truer with LLMs. That thing you’re querying probably doesn’t actually matter. It’s neurotic digging and searching for an object you will never use or benefit from. The urge to seek is strong but you won’t find the thing you’re searching for this way. You might learn more by just going for a walk.
    • TimorousBestie 1y ago
      In fact it has been, dating all the way back to Phaedrus. > If men learn [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.
  • ern 1y ago
    I see AI like the reading glasses I’ll soon need — not because I can’t think clearly, but because it helps cut through things faster when my brain’s juggling too much. A few years ago, I’d have quietly filed this kind of article under “too hard” or passed a log analysis request from the CIO down the line. Now? I get AI to draft the query, check it, run it, and move on. It’s not about thinking less — it’s about clearing the clutter so I can focus where it counts.