6 ms·

Didn't yet go through the content, but having a AI generated image that you didn't even bother to at least touch-up a bit to fix the text does not give me a lot

by maeln 1y ago

Didn't yet go through the content, but having a AI generated image that you didn't even bother to at least touch-up a bit to fix the text does not give me a lot of confidence about the effort that went into this.

ayhanfuat 1y ago
I’m an occasional listener of the Talk Python podcast, and I’ve also taken Michael’s pytest course. It’s clear that he puts considerable effort into his content.
- seanthemon 1y ago
  but clearly he lapsed here and as a non-listener I immediately clicked out.
  - mikeckennedy 1y ago
    Hey Sean. I spent 9 months writing this book by hand. Yes the image is AI but the book is certainly not. You're definitely not obligated to read it, but I do want to comment that I put a ton of effort into the project.
    - seanthemon 1y ago
      Hi Mike! If you spent 9 months writing this book by hand, couldn't you do the courtesy of commissioning an artist to make you a cover image by hand as you clearly see the value of doing things by hand and not stealing the hard work of all the artists who have worked tirelessly to make art by hand only for AI to steal that work and for you to prompt it in seconds. Put more effort into respecting other art forms and you might not get this reception next time.
- maeln 1y ago
  In which case it is very infuriating and sad. Honestly if he just did not put that AI art on every page, the whole thing would look way more serious. Presentation and first impression sadly do matter. Put a pile of trash in a museum and people will think it's art, put art next to a pile of garbage and people will think it's trash.
  - esyir 1y ago
    I think you're going to realize that as time passes and this becomes more normalized, your opinion is going to become the minority. That might be a good thing, or maybe not.
  - aquariusDue 1y ago
    These days I feel like a stick figure drawing in MS Paint even if crude denotes that an actual effort was made compared to "Generate an image of XYZ that includes blah blah blah..." sadly. In my mind both are first steps to something more "proper" but one is at least hand-crafted artisan-ish compared to the other. I have no qualms about using AI generated images as placeholder stuff or as a first step in an iterative process but when someone just slaps the image without the least bit of retouching it ends up looking kitsch.
- _joel 1y ago
  Just not enough to actually record a podcast, but generate a script and send it to an API to generate a (very recognisable) AI voiced podcast. It's literally called "Talk Python" with no humans talking.
  - fastasucan 1y ago
    What? The interview podcast?
    - _joel 1y ago
      The sample that's on the site, it's definitely AI generated.
      - bakugo 1y ago
        Listened to it and yeah... not only is the voice obvious AI, it drops an "It's not just X — it's Y" within the first 20 seconds. Copy-pasted straight from GPT. Likely safe to assume that everything on this site is AI generated, including the book.
      - nogridbag 1y ago
        If anyone else was confused, they're referring to the Audio Readers' Briefs. I didn't immediately recognize it as AI. To be honest the voice sounds exactly like my coworker responsible for doing our product video demonstrations. I skipped through it and heard it pronounce nginx as en-gee-onix and only then did I realize it was fake.
        mikeckennedy 1y ago
        Hi, see the reply to Joel just up this thread for more info on this. It is not presented as "real" it's clearly introduced as a fun AI extra.
        ptx 1y ago
        You might want to mention this on the website as well, where it's definitely not clear. I also don't see how to navigate from the website to the introduction where it's explained.
- benrutter 1y ago
  I agree with everyone! Michael's name is a big stamp of "this will be high quality" for me, but if I didn't previously know that and saw an AI generated cover, there's a good chance I'd assume the content inside was AI generated slop, and might tune out without looking any further.
  - mikeckennedy 1y ago
    Thanks sort of Ben. :) The book is 100% human written over 9 months by me. The image is AI yes, but the book is not AI slop. It may be slop, but it's my slop if that's your assessment.
    - benrutter 1y ago
      Haha, you're welcome sort of! :) Love the podcast! I'm sure it isn't slop of any kind - I've really enjoyed reading your recent blog posts about Talk Python's web set up, so I'll definitely be giving it a read.
      - mikeckennedy 1y ago
        Thanks Ben, much appreciated.
- DannyPage 1y ago
  But there was no care in the images, which made me skeptical of the content. The free chapters are also poorly written. It reads like he dictated the content and didn't do a single review pass on it. The Docker Compose chapter especially is very light on details and doesn't explain how to use the various features and what tradeoffs or issues you may encounter. Like the AI images, the whole product feels rushed and haphazard and lacking in quality.
- mikeckennedy 1y ago
  Thanks Ayhanfuat. I appreciate the comment. Yes, the image is AI generated, but the book and the content is not. I spent 9 months writing it. Cheers.
  - ptx 1y ago
    What about the content of the "conversations that bookend each chapter"? Are these real people giving their opinion that the second chapter is "fascinating" and that things "make sense" or is it AI-generated? If the latter, what's the point of presenting fake opinions?
    - mikeckennedy 1y ago
      Those "reader's briefs" are definitely AI. But they are discussed here a tad out of context. If you actually had the book and pull them down, the first track is me telling about them. It clearly says these are AI and just for fun, enjoy or skip. Here's the intro if you're interested: https://blobs.talkpython.fm/00-readers-brief-intro.mp3?cache_id=52f5d7 https://blobs.talkpython.fm/00-readers-brief-intro.mp3?cache...
ahoka 1y ago
Adds nothing, they could just picked a totally unrelated stock photo if they wanted to add something there. It just immediately halo effects the whole thing as something put together without effort. Stop doing this!
MadameBanaan 1y ago
I came to this comment section to say exactly that. At my work (university research lab) the Ph.D. students have to publish their thesis as a book to defend their degree. They are free to make the image for the cover, which is a very nice touch ang give you artistic freedom in what was supposed to be one of the most important moments of your career (I went for a picture of the chip I designed during my research). For the past 3 years or so all we have are generic AI generated sciency-looking figures at the cover and it is depressing.
thrance 1y ago
ngirx and granian are my favorite technologies to work with! Completely agree, this trend of putting a completely useless and ugly AI image on top of your page, I despise. You could have searched the web for an actual diagram, if you wanted one here. These images provided negative values to your articles.
- degamad 1y ago
  > ngirx and granian are my favorite technologies to work with! I had the same initial thought, but I was skimming the page and came across this line: > Then, see how to deploy a Flask+HTMX app via Granian, wire it into NGINX, and ensure automatic startups with systemd. So I've just discovered that https://github.com/emmett-framework/granian https://github.com/emmett-framework/granian exists...
mnx 1y ago
Yeah, immediately off-putting, even though I actually enjoy the podcast. Not for like "AI bad" reasons, it's just ugly. Micheal, if you are reading this - please fix, it should take 5 minutes.
Elfener 1y ago
I don't even understand why they do that, surely putting even a low quality something together would make it much better, and with actual font rendering.
lenkite 1y ago
Isn't this overly critical ?. The content matters far more than the image and the chapters are good. I didn't even register the image - I think most folks today have eyes that auto-skip images after being pattern-trained to ignore ads.
- rcxdude 1y ago
  With an image that is that poor quality, if it didn't matter then it would have been better not to include it.
  - 7bit 1y ago
    Yes, but jumping to the conclusion that there would also be no effort in the text is a bit harsh. It's absolutely normal to set priorities.
    - sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
      It would have been less effort, and a better look, to have no image at all. This isn't the first tab I've closed at the first sign of lazy AI usage and it probably won't be the last.
      - kinix 1y ago
        Thanks dude, the site is much more readable now.
- PetitPrince 1y ago
  "Don't judge a book by its cover" indeed (and litteraly in that case), but also "first impression matters". In that case throwing a generated image without touch up shows the lack of care of the author for a work that's not as fleeting as a podcast. It's not that hard to type the correct words and/or a non wobbly font with Paint.NET / Photopea / Gimp / Affinity Photo / Photoshop / <your favorite pixel editor here>. It also shows an usage of AI without supervision which is kind of a red flag. I used to listen to Michael Kennedy a lot when my day job was Python, and still occasionally do so this may get a pass, but it's still a bad signal in my books.
_joel 1y ago
AI voice on podcast too, no thanks.
- mikeckennedy 1y ago
  Hey Joel, please point to example of AI voices, especially sold as real, on the podcast.
arcanemachiner 1y ago
Are you telling me that you haven't integrated granian and ngirx into your workflow?!
- csmantle 1y ago
  And you definitely don't want to miss "Web Arppss" running on "Limux"!
- sonnig 1y ago
  we've integrated granian into our stack at $WORK recently and couldn't be happier
  - mikeckennedy 1y ago
    It's good stuff. I've been running Granian for about a year and it's be a delight. I interviewed Giovanni (creator) on the podcast BTW.
numlock86 1y ago
I clicked on the link and was greeted by AI slop instantly. I checked the comments, saw this, am writing this and will probably not look at it ever again. Guess I am just not the target audience. I wish them that their AI slop strategy works out just for the sake of good vibes, though. If everyone does it it can't be bad, right? I'm the issue here, clearly.
wiseowise 1y ago
You don't use ngirx in production? Do you even web scale, bro?
barapa 1y ago
Chill dog
BestHackerOnHN 1y ago
[dead]
anaccount342 1y ago
Agree, it tells me a lot if you are not willing to spend a couple hundred dollars to get a simple cover.
- mikeckennedy 1y ago
  How many people who you hire for $100 will do this themselves without AI these days?

by maeln 1y ago

ayhanfuat 1y ago

I’m an occasional listener of the Talk Python podcast, and I’ve also taken Michael’s pytest course. It’s clear that he puts considerable effort into his content.

seanthemon 1y ago
but clearly he lapsed here and as a non-listener I immediately clicked out.
- mikeckennedy 1y ago
  Hey Sean. I spent 9 months writing this book by hand. Yes the image is AI but the book is certainly not. You're definitely not obligated to read it, but I do want to comment that I put a ton of effort into the project.
  - seanthemon 1y ago
    Hi Mike! If you spent 9 months writing this book by hand, couldn't you do the courtesy of commissioning an artist to make you a cover image by hand as you clearly see the value of doing things by hand and not stealing the hard work of all the artists who have worked tirelessly to make art by hand only for AI to steal that work and for you to prompt it in seconds. Put more effort into respecting other art forms and you might not get this reception next time.
maeln 1y ago
In which case it is very infuriating and sad. Honestly if he just did not put that AI art on every page, the whole thing would look way more serious. Presentation and first impression sadly do matter. Put a pile of trash in a museum and people will think it's art, put art next to a pile of garbage and people will think it's trash.
- esyir 1y ago
  I think you're going to realize that as time passes and this becomes more normalized, your opinion is going to become the minority. That might be a good thing, or maybe not.
- aquariusDue 1y ago
  These days I feel like a stick figure drawing in MS Paint even if crude denotes that an actual effort was made compared to "Generate an image of XYZ that includes blah blah blah..." sadly. In my mind both are first steps to something more "proper" but one is at least hand-crafted artisan-ish compared to the other. I have no qualms about using AI generated images as placeholder stuff or as a first step in an iterative process but when someone just slaps the image without the least bit of retouching it ends up looking kitsch.
_joel 1y ago
Just not enough to actually record a podcast, but generate a script and send it to an API to generate a (very recognisable) AI voiced podcast. It's literally called "Talk Python" with no humans talking.
- fastasucan 1y ago
  What? The interview podcast?
  - _joel 1y ago
    The sample that's on the site, it's definitely AI generated.
    - bakugo 1y ago
      Listened to it and yeah... not only is the voice obvious AI, it drops an "It's not just X — it's Y" within the first 20 seconds. Copy-pasted straight from GPT. Likely safe to assume that everything on this site is AI generated, including the book.
    - nogridbag 1y ago
      If anyone else was confused, they're referring to the Audio Readers' Briefs. I didn't immediately recognize it as AI. To be honest the voice sounds exactly like my coworker responsible for doing our product video demonstrations. I skipped through it and heard it pronounce nginx as en-gee-onix and only then did I realize it was fake.
      - mikeckennedy 1y ago
        Hi, see the reply to Joel just up this thread for more info on this. It is not presented as "real" it's clearly introduced as a fun AI extra.
        ptx 1y ago
        You might want to mention this on the website as well, where it's definitely not clear. I also don't see how to navigate from the website to the introduction where it's explained.
benrutter 1y ago
I agree with everyone! Michael's name is a big stamp of "this will be high quality" for me, but if I didn't previously know that and saw an AI generated cover, there's a good chance I'd assume the content inside was AI generated slop, and might tune out without looking any further.
- mikeckennedy 1y ago
  Thanks sort of Ben. :) The book is 100% human written over 9 months by me. The image is AI yes, but the book is not AI slop. It may be slop, but it's my slop if that's your assessment.
  - benrutter 1y ago
    Haha, you're welcome sort of! :) Love the podcast! I'm sure it isn't slop of any kind - I've really enjoyed reading your recent blog posts about Talk Python's web set up, so I'll definitely be giving it a read.
    - mikeckennedy 1y ago
      Thanks Ben, much appreciated.
DannyPage 1y ago
But there was no care in the images, which made me skeptical of the content. The free chapters are also poorly written. It reads like he dictated the content and didn't do a single review pass on it. The Docker Compose chapter especially is very light on details and doesn't explain how to use the various features and what tradeoffs or issues you may encounter. Like the AI images, the whole product feels rushed and haphazard and lacking in quality.
mikeckennedy 1y ago
Thanks Ayhanfuat. I appreciate the comment. Yes, the image is AI generated, but the book and the content is not. I spent 9 months writing it. Cheers.
- ptx 1y ago
  What about the content of the "conversations that bookend each chapter"? Are these real people giving their opinion that the second chapter is "fascinating" and that things "make sense" or is it AI-generated? If the latter, what's the point of presenting fake opinions?
  - mikeckennedy 1y ago
    Those "reader's briefs" are definitely AI. But they are discussed here a tad out of context. If you actually had the book and pull them down, the first track is me telling about them. It clearly says these are AI and just for fun, enjoy or skip. Here's the intro if you're interested: https://blobs.talkpython.fm/00-readers-brief-intro.mp3?cache_id=52f5d7 https://blobs.talkpython.fm/00-readers-brief-intro.mp3?cache...

ahoka 1y ago

Adds nothing, they could just picked a totally unrelated stock photo if they wanted to add something there. It just immediately halo effects the whole thing as something put together without effort. Stop doing this!

MadameBanaan 1y ago

I came to this comment section to say exactly that. At my work (university research lab) the Ph.D. students have to publish their thesis as a book to defend their degree. They are free to make the image for the cover, which is a very nice touch ang give you artistic freedom in what was supposed to be one of the most important moments of your career (I went for a picture of the chip I designed during my research). For the past 3 years or so all we have are generic AI generated sciency-looking figures at the cover and it is depressing.

thrance 1y ago

ngirx and granian are my favorite technologies to work with! Completely agree, this trend of putting a completely useless and ugly AI image on top of your page, I despise. You could have searched the web for an actual diagram, if you wanted one here. These images provided negative values to your articles.

degamad 1y ago
> ngirx and granian are my favorite technologies to work with! I had the same initial thought, but I was skimming the page and came across this line: > Then, see how to deploy a Flask+HTMX app via Granian, wire it into NGINX, and ensure automatic startups with systemd. So I've just discovered that https://github.com/emmett-framework/granian https://github.com/emmett-framework/granian exists...

mnx 1y ago

Yeah, immediately off-putting, even though I actually enjoy the podcast. Not for like "AI bad" reasons, it's just ugly. Micheal, if you are reading this - please fix, it should take 5 minutes.

Elfener 1y ago

I don't even understand why they do that, surely putting even a low quality something together would make it much better, and with actual font rendering.

lenkite 1y ago

Isn't this overly critical ?. The content matters far more than the image and the chapters are good. I didn't even register the image - I think most folks today have eyes that auto-skip images after being pattern-trained to ignore ads.

rcxdude 1y ago
With an image that is that poor quality, if it didn't matter then it would have been better not to include it.
- 7bit 1y ago
  Yes, but jumping to the conclusion that there would also be no effort in the text is a bit harsh. It's absolutely normal to set priorities.
  - sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
    It would have been less effort, and a better look, to have no image at all. This isn't the first tab I've closed at the first sign of lazy AI usage and it probably won't be the last.
    - kinix 1y ago
      Thanks dude, the site is much more readable now.
PetitPrince 1y ago
"Don't judge a book by its cover" indeed (and litteraly in that case), but also "first impression matters". In that case throwing a generated image without touch up shows the lack of care of the author for a work that's not as fleeting as a podcast. It's not that hard to type the correct words and/or a non wobbly font with Paint.NET / Photopea / Gimp / Affinity Photo / Photoshop / <your favorite pixel editor here>. It also shows an usage of AI without supervision which is kind of a red flag. I used to listen to Michael Kennedy a lot when my day job was Python, and still occasionally do so this may get a pass, but it's still a bad signal in my books.

_joel 1y ago

AI voice on podcast too, no thanks.

mikeckennedy 1y ago
Hey Joel, please point to example of AI voices, especially sold as real, on the podcast.

arcanemachiner 1y ago

Are you telling me that you haven't integrated granian and ngirx into your workflow?!

csmantle 1y ago
And you definitely don't want to miss "Web Arppss" running on "Limux"!
sonnig 1y ago
we've integrated granian into our stack at $WORK recently and couldn't be happier
- mikeckennedy 1y ago
  It's good stuff. I've been running Granian for about a year and it's be a delight. I interviewed Giovanni (creator) on the podcast BTW.

numlock86 1y ago

I clicked on the link and was greeted by AI slop instantly. I checked the comments, saw this, am writing this and will probably not look at it ever again. Guess I am just not the target audience. I wish them that their AI slop strategy works out just for the sake of good vibes, though. If everyone does it it can't be bad, right? I'm the issue here, clearly.

wiseowise 1y ago

You don't use ngirx in production? Do you even web scale, bro?

barapa 1y ago

Chill dog

BestHackerOnHN 1y ago

[dead]

anaccount342 1y ago

Agree, it tells me a lot if you are not willing to spend a couple hundred dollars to get a simple cover.

mikeckennedy 1y ago
How many people who you hire for $100 will do this themselves without AI these days?