4 ms·

You write like a late night kitchen gizmo ad?

by 0_____0 10mo ago

dmpk2k 10mo ago
I suppose there are worse things than my scribblings sounding like a late-night kitchen gizmo ad. :)
happytoexplain 10mo ago
It's how I've written my entire adult life - except I'm too lazy to type a real em-dash.
- ghaff 10mo ago
  I use them often enough that I know the Mac shortcut more or less automatically.
jasode 10mo ago
>write like a late night kitchen gizmo ad? I naturally wrote "it's not just X, it's Y" long before November 2022 ChatGPT. Probably because I picked up on it from many people. It's a common rhetorical template of a parallel form where the "X" is re-stating the obvious surface-level thing and then adding the "Y" that's not as obvious. E.g. examples of regular people writing that rhetorical device on HN for 15+ years that wasn't in the context of advertising gadgets: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22it%27s%20not%20just%22%20%22it%27s%20the%22&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... So AI-slop writes like that because a lot of us humans wrote like that and it copies the style. Today is the first time I've learned that the "It's not X, it's Y" really irritates many readers. Personally, I've always found it helpful when it reveals a "Y" that's non-obvious.
- NewsaHackO 10mo ago
  1) None of those had an Em dash 2) Most of those, while they had the two statements, the statements were not in succession. There are maybe 4 unique examples in the search over the past 15 years, which is why it is very telling when there is an explosion of the pattern seen today, and that is most likely due to LLMs.
  - jasode 10mo ago
    >1) None of those had an Em dash I was responding in particular to the "you write like a late night kitchen gizmo ad?" ... which would be a speech pattern people hear. In the audio case, it doesn't matter what punctuation symbol separates the "it isn't/it's" pattern because the comma or em dash would be invisible. E.g. a blog author also complains about "it isn't/it's" separated by a comma here: https://saigaddam.medium.com/it-isnt-just-x-it-s-y-54cb403d61a8 https://saigaddam.medium.com/it-isnt-just-x-it-s-y-54cb403d6... >There are maybe 4 unique examples in the search over the past 15 years, No, (1) the Algolia search engine HN uses is not exhaustive and always returns incomplete results, and (2) I couldn't construct a regex to capture all occurrences. It didn't capture the dozens of times I used it before 2022. More pre-2022 examples that match the "it isn't/it's" pattern that the blog author is complaining about : 2012 It Isn't Just Buzz, It's About Relationships : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4567529 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4567529 2019 It Isn’t the Kids. It’s the Cost of Raising Them : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19468214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19468214 2021 It isn't Facebook, it's us : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29402146 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29402146 2017 It isn't trig, or geometry, or analysis: it's maths : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14310575 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14310575 The same gp mentioned that it's also common in "ad copy". That's also true with the famous Navy's "It's not just a job. It's an adventure.". E.g. 1981 tv commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc9g2tagYms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc9g2tagYms That's a slogan people heard rather than read with an em dash. LLM engines picked up on a common phrasing used for decades.
    - NewsaHackO 10mo ago
      I understand that there are multiple people in this conversation, but you are attempting to pick and choose points to discuss at the expense of your own internal consistency. If you were responding to "which would be a speech pattern people hear," why did you only quote written examples from the HN search and not provide video or audio clips?
      - jasode 10mo ago

You write like a late night kitchen gizmo ad?

by 0_____0 10mo ago

You write like a late night kitchen gizmo ad?

dmpk2k 10mo ago

I suppose there are worse things than my scribblings sounding like a late-night kitchen gizmo ad. :)

happytoexplain 10mo ago

It's how I've written my entire adult life - except I'm too lazy to type a real em-dash.

ghaff 10mo ago
I use them often enough that I know the Mac shortcut more or less automatically.

jasode 10mo ago

>write like a late night kitchen gizmo ad? I naturally wrote "it's not just X, it's Y" long before November 2022 ChatGPT. Probably because I picked up on it from many people. It's a common rhetorical template of a parallel form where the "X" is re-stating the obvious surface-level thing and then adding the "Y" that's not as obvious. E.g. examples of regular people writing that rhetorical device on HN for 15+ years that wasn't in the context of advertising gadgets: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22it%27s%20not%20just%22%20%22it%27s%20the%22&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... So AI-slop writes like that because a lot of us humans wrote like that and it copies the style. Today is the first time I've learned that the "It's not X, it's Y" really irritates many readers. Personally, I've always found it helpful when it reveals a "Y" that's non-obvious.

NewsaHackO 10mo ago
1) None of those had an Em dash 2) Most of those, while they had the two statements, the statements were not in succession. There are maybe 4 unique examples in the search over the past 15 years, which is why it is very telling when there is an explosion of the pattern seen today, and that is most likely due to LLMs.
- jasode 10mo ago
  >1) None of those had an Em dash I was responding in particular to the "you write like a late night kitchen gizmo ad?" ... which would be a speech pattern people hear. In the audio case, it doesn't matter what punctuation symbol separates the "it isn't/it's" pattern because the comma or em dash would be invisible. E.g. a blog author also complains about "it isn't/it's" separated by a comma here: https://saigaddam.medium.com/it-isnt-just-x-it-s-y-54cb403d61a8 https://saigaddam.medium.com/it-isnt-just-x-it-s-y-54cb403d6... >There are maybe 4 unique examples in the search over the past 15 years, No, (1) the Algolia search engine HN uses is not exhaustive and always returns incomplete results, and (2) I couldn't construct a regex to capture all occurrences. It didn't capture the dozens of times I used it before 2022. More pre-2022 examples that match the "it isn't/it's" pattern that the blog author is complaining about : 2012 It Isn't Just Buzz, It's About Relationships : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4567529 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4567529 2019 It Isn’t the Kids. It’s the Cost of Raising Them : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19468214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19468214 2021 It isn't Facebook, it's us : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29402146 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29402146 2017 It isn't trig, or geometry, or analysis: it's maths : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14310575 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14310575 The same gp mentioned that it's also common in "ad copy". That's also true with the famous Navy's "It's not just a job. It's an adventure.". E.g. 1981 tv commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc9g2tagYms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc9g2tagYms That's a slogan people heard rather than read with an em dash. LLM engines picked up on a common phrasing used for decades.
  - NewsaHackO 10mo ago
    I understand that there are multiple people in this conversation, but you are attempting to pick and choose points to discuss at the expense of your own internal consistency. If you were responding to "which would be a speech pattern people hear," why did you only quote written examples from the HN search and not provide video or audio clips?
    - jasode 10mo ago