3 ms·

Not joking, buy and read books. Old books are only written by people. (and the help of an editor)

shafyy 6mo ago
Fun fact: Editors are usually also people. Except for that one dog I met during a cold winter's day in 1987 in a run-down London pub.
- incognito124 6mo ago
  On the internet, no one knows you're an editor
- taneliv 6mo ago
  No way, bro! I'm no longer an editor, though.
- scorpionfeet 6mo ago
  Can you explain the reference? It whooshed me.
  - shafyy 6mo ago
    Haha, no reference. I just made something up and tried to be funny.
    - Mentlo 6mo ago
      I tried figuring out the reference with Gemini, and it said this: The immediate reply to that comment is: "On the internet, no one knows you're an editor." This is a direct play on the famous 1993 New Yorker cartoon: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." By setting the anecdote in 1987 (a few years before the World Wide Web was publicly available), the commenter is implying that back in the analog days, if a dog wanted to be a writer or an editor, they couldn't hide behind a screen—they had to sit in a smoky London pub and do business face-to-face. Which makes a lot of sense actually. I would imagine that's what the replier to you thought you meant.
      - shafyy 6mo ago
        Hahaha great story. But that's not what I had I thought about at all.
65 6mo ago
Or read magazines and newspapers from reputable publications. My grammar and writing have improved tremendously from reading quality magazine articles, e.g. stuff from The Atlantic or The NY Book Review or whatever. Both magazines and books are valid forms of information consumption and books are not the only way to improve your writing, reading, and understanding of the world.
- SoftTalker 6mo ago
  I wouldn't count on current stuff in those publications being free from AI. We're seeing it in peer-reviewed paper submissions so why not in literary forums? If you limit yourself to stuff from maybe five years ago or older, yeah it's going to be human-written and human-edited (ghostwriting still possible).
  - Miraste 6mo ago
    AI is much better at generating text that resembles scientific papers than it is at literary writing. Even if they're not all flagged as AI, the incidence will be much lower because they're simply bad writing. They won't make it out of the slush pile at places like GP listed.
hoherd 6mo ago
Nothing has made me want to read classic literature more than AI. For the first time in probably over a decade I even went to my local used bookstore with a list of books to buy, but sadly none of them were in stock. I have had a bit of luck at little free libraries though.

Fun fact: Editors are usually also people. Except for that one dog I met during a cold winter's day in 1987 in a run-down London pub.

incognito124 6mo ago
On the internet, no one knows you're an editor
taneliv 6mo ago
No way, bro! I'm no longer an editor, though.
scorpionfeet 6mo ago
Can you explain the reference? It whooshed me.
- shafyy 6mo ago
  Haha, no reference. I just made something up and tried to be funny.
  - Mentlo 6mo ago
    I tried figuring out the reference with Gemini, and it said this: The immediate reply to that comment is: "On the internet, no one knows you're an editor." This is a direct play on the famous 1993 New Yorker cartoon: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." By setting the anecdote in 1987 (a few years before the World Wide Web was publicly available), the commenter is implying that back in the analog days, if a dog wanted to be a writer or an editor, they couldn't hide behind a screen—they had to sit in a smoky London pub and do business face-to-face. Which makes a lot of sense actually. I would imagine that's what the replier to you thought you meant.
    - shafyy 6mo ago
      Hahaha great story. But that's not what I had I thought about at all.

65 6mo ago

Or read magazines and newspapers from reputable publications. My grammar and writing have improved tremendously from reading quality magazine articles, e.g. stuff from The Atlantic or The NY Book Review or whatever. Both magazines and books are valid forms of information consumption and books are not the only way to improve your writing, reading, and understanding of the world.

SoftTalker 6mo ago
I wouldn't count on current stuff in those publications being free from AI. We're seeing it in peer-reviewed paper submissions so why not in literary forums? If you limit yourself to stuff from maybe five years ago or older, yeah it's going to be human-written and human-edited (ghostwriting still possible).
- Miraste 6mo ago
  AI is much better at generating text that resembles scientific papers than it is at literary writing. Even if they're not all flagged as AI, the incidence will be much lower because they're simply bad writing. They won't make it out of the slush pile at places like GP listed.

hoherd 6mo ago

Nothing has made me want to read classic literature more than AI. For the first time in probably over a decade I even went to my local used bookstore with a list of books to buy, but sadly none of them were in stock. I have had a bit of luck at little free libraries though.