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by apimade 4mo ago

[flagged]

hnlmorg 4mo ago
If it's interesting then it's not spam. And why should you care if AI was utilized or not if you found it interesting? Dave (from that video) is an experienced engineer after all. The worst part of GenAI seems not to be AI slop (I can easily close the tab if the content isn't interesting). It's the fact that every...single...submission(!!!) on HN now has someone questioning and dissecting the content to dismiss it as AI generated. I'd much rather people gave submissions the benefit of the doubt, or just clicked `Flag` if it is obviously worthless slop.
- sieabahlpark 4mo ago
  [dead]
- apimade 4mo ago
  It's moreso the "AI-isms" that irk me. It's interesting, but I'm not finishing the video because once I notice it -- I can't help but focus on it. Instead, I tl;dr'd the transcript. People question my use of AI when I double `-` with an iPhone on the internet constantly.[0] I get it, it's annoying. However, if our barrier for quality is "at it's core, the content of this is interesting", then the quality of this place will fall off a cliff. This is factoid-level interesting. It's not a hacker writing something profound or presenting a breakthrough in garbled grade 8 English. It's a fun fact being presented in an acceptably, inoffensive, reasonably produced format.. Is that the bar? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151641
  - hnlmorg 4mo ago
    Dave (the guy in that video) is an older timer Microsoft engineer. I don't know if he used AI to help compose his script but you can guarantee the subject matter is from his own experience. I suspect the AI-isms you identified were really just more his own personal presentation style. I've watched a few of his videos over the years and from what I recall, they were similarly written.
- zamadatix 4mo ago
  > It's the fact that every...single...submission(!!!) on HN now has someone questioning and dissecting the content to dismiss it as AI generated. Then, when finally neither the topic nor the content has anything to do with AI, "It's so nice to read something on HN not mentioning AI" in the comments. HN has made a clear decision on when AI content is acceptable on the site itself, it'd be nice if there was a clear decision on the linked content as well. Regardless whether it's the policy I'd personally prefer or not, it'd do a lot in regards to avoiding the same discussion appearing everywhere.
- boomskats 4mo ago
  > If it's interesting then it's not spam Disagree. Just like those spam 'articles' that may at their core be interesting or have some value - but force you to click past 4 ads and scroll over/filter out another 17 just to extract the promised value - noticing that content you're consuming is obviously AI generated results in two things: 1. resentment that your time and attention was wasted by machine generated word-padding, and 2. a loss of confidence in the accuracy of the information presented
  - hnlmorg 4mo ago
    > Just like those spam 'articles' that may at their core be interesting or have some value - but force you to click past 4 ads and scroll over/filter out another 17 just to extract the promised value That's a different problem entirely and predates the recent GenAI craze. > a loss of confidence in the accuracy of the information presented Then it isn't interesting any longer ;) --- You're missing my general point though. People like yourself moaning about AI is far less interesting and useful. If you don't like the content, then flag it. If you do, then don't flood the comments with analysis about whether-or-not this was AI. All of these meta-comments about AI are as worthless to the discussions should be classed with the same disrespect as the meta-comments about website stylesheets: > Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - account42 4mo ago
      > You're missing my general point though. People like yourself moaning about AI is far less interesting and useful. If you don't like the content, then flag it. If you do, then don't flood the comments with analysis about whether-or-not this was AI. As opposed to flooding it with comments about how anti-AI comments are bad?
      - hnlmorg 4mo ago
        I'm not flooding HN with such comments though. I replied to one criticism and then experienced a backlash for it. I get the hate for GenAI is high. Many of you are scared for your jobs and AI has caused a seismic shift in society. But that doesn't justify lashing out at me because I simply said "Dave isn't a n00b" and "if you don't like AI content then flag it". My comment was reasonable. However accusing a veteran Microsoft engineer for being an "idiot" (as some had in this submission) because his script loosely mimicked some AI-isms, is not reasonable. And it's disappointing that so many people are defending that behavior.
smakt 4mo ago
[flagged]
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
- hnlmorg 4mo ago
  Dave (the guy in that video) is an older timer Microsoft engineer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Plummer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Plummer He definitely isn't an idiot who depends on AI to look smart.
  - ttflee 4mo ago
    He is autistic, and has ADHD.
    - deleted 4mo ago
      [deleted]
  - smakt 4mo ago
    [flagged]
    - hnlmorg 4mo ago
      I didn't call Dave a legend (though that term is completely subjective). I just said he isn't an idiot who uses AI to look clever. What you're failing to realise is that different people write content for different audiences. And the fact that the OP opened with "It's incredibly interesting content" shows that there is an audience for Dave's content. Also, the tone of your comments is completely unnecessary too.
tom_ 4mo ago
Tough crowd, but I for one hate this stuff too and thank you for the heads up. "Engraved invitation to chaos", fucking hell. I think I just lost 3 IQ points. Who's the target audience here? Everything I needed to know about printf, I learned from the reference manual. Anybody could do the same. Here's a reasonable one: https://en.cppreference.com/c/io/fprintf https://en.cppreference.com/c/io/fprintf - look, it's like 5 pages or whatever, and the last 2 are examples and xrefs. You sit there and read it 2 or 3 times and you'd be done faster than Task Manager Man can read his script.

[flagged]

by apimade 4mo ago

[flagged]

If it's interesting then it's not spam. And why should you care if AI was utilized or not if you found it interesting? Dave (from that video) is an experienced engineer after all. The worst part of GenAI seems not to be AI slop (I can easily close the tab if the content isn't interesting). It's the fact that every...single...submission(!!!) on HN now has someone questioning and dissecting the content to dismiss it as AI generated. I'd much rather people gave submissions the benefit of the doubt, or just clicked `Flag` if it is obviously worthless slop.

sieabahlpark 4mo ago
[dead]
apimade 4mo ago
It's moreso the "AI-isms" that irk me. It's interesting, but I'm not finishing the video because once I notice it -- I can't help but focus on it. Instead, I tl;dr'd the transcript. People question my use of AI when I double `-` with an iPhone on the internet constantly.[0] I get it, it's annoying. However, if our barrier for quality is "at it's core, the content of this is interesting", then the quality of this place will fall off a cliff. This is factoid-level interesting. It's not a hacker writing something profound or presenting a breakthrough in garbled grade 8 English. It's a fun fact being presented in an acceptably, inoffensive, reasonably produced format.. Is that the bar? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151641
- hnlmorg 4mo ago
  Dave (the guy in that video) is an older timer Microsoft engineer. I don't know if he used AI to help compose his script but you can guarantee the subject matter is from his own experience. I suspect the AI-isms you identified were really just more his own personal presentation style. I've watched a few of his videos over the years and from what I recall, they were similarly written.
zamadatix 4mo ago
> It's the fact that every...single...submission(!!!) on HN now has someone questioning and dissecting the content to dismiss it as AI generated. Then, when finally neither the topic nor the content has anything to do with AI, "It's so nice to read something on HN not mentioning AI" in the comments. HN has made a clear decision on when AI content is acceptable on the site itself, it'd be nice if there was a clear decision on the linked content as well. Regardless whether it's the policy I'd personally prefer or not, it'd do a lot in regards to avoiding the same discussion appearing everywhere.
boomskats 4mo ago
> If it's interesting then it's not spam Disagree. Just like those spam 'articles' that may at their core be interesting or have some value - but force you to click past 4 ads and scroll over/filter out another 17 just to extract the promised value - noticing that content you're consuming is obviously AI generated results in two things: 1. resentment that your time and attention was wasted by machine generated word-padding, and 2. a loss of confidence in the accuracy of the information presented
- hnlmorg 4mo ago
  > Just like those spam 'articles' that may at their core be interesting or have some value - but force you to click past 4 ads and scroll over/filter out another 17 just to extract the promised value That's a different problem entirely and predates the recent GenAI craze. > a loss of confidence in the accuracy of the information presented Then it isn't interesting any longer ;) --- You're missing my general point though. People like yourself moaning about AI is far less interesting and useful. If you don't like the content, then flag it. If you do, then don't flood the comments with analysis about whether-or-not this was AI. All of these meta-comments about AI are as worthless to the discussions should be classed with the same disrespect as the meta-comments about website stylesheets: > Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - account42 4mo ago
    > You're missing my general point though. People like yourself moaning about AI is far less interesting and useful. If you don't like the content, then flag it. If you do, then don't flood the comments with analysis about whether-or-not this was AI. As opposed to flooding it with comments about how anti-AI comments are bad?
    - hnlmorg 4mo ago
      I'm not flooding HN with such comments though. I replied to one criticism and then experienced a backlash for it. I get the hate for GenAI is high. Many of you are scared for your jobs and AI has caused a seismic shift in society. But that doesn't justify lashing out at me because I simply said "Dave isn't a n00b" and "if you don't like AI content then flag it". My comment was reasonable. However accusing a veteran Microsoft engineer for being an "idiot" (as some had in this submission) because his script loosely mimicked some AI-isms, is not reasonable. And it's disappointing that so many people are defending that behavior.

smakt 4mo ago

[flagged]

deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
hnlmorg 4mo ago
Dave (the guy in that video) is an older timer Microsoft engineer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Plummer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Plummer He definitely isn't an idiot who depends on AI to look smart.
- ttflee 4mo ago
  He is autistic, and has ADHD.
  - deleted 4mo ago
    [deleted]
- smakt 4mo ago
  [flagged]
  - hnlmorg 4mo ago
    I didn't call Dave a legend (though that term is completely subjective). I just said he isn't an idiot who uses AI to look clever. What you're failing to realise is that different people write content for different audiences. And the fact that the OP opened with "It's incredibly interesting content" shows that there is an audience for Dave's content. Also, the tone of your comments is completely unnecessary too.

tom_ 4mo ago

Tough crowd, but I for one hate this stuff too and thank you for the heads up. "Engraved invitation to chaos", fucking hell. I think I just lost 3 IQ points. Who's the target audience here? Everything I needed to know about printf, I learned from the reference manual. Anybody could do the same. Here's a reasonable one: https://en.cppreference.com/c/io/fprintf https://en.cppreference.com/c/io/fprintf - look, it's like 5 pages or whatever, and the last 2 are examples and xrefs. You sit there and read it 2 or 3 times and you'd be done faster than Task Manager Man can read his script.