‘Explain it to a rubber duck’, is a piece of advice that I understand computer people use to break down complex problems, which is a cargo-cult version of a writer working with an editor, who unlike the duck, can respond and give good advice

jack is updating your database

@liamvhogan software development does have collaborative practices like pair programming and code review which would relate more to working with an editor

Liam :fnord:

@jackeric I’ve read about pair programming. I cannot think of a more horrible activity and just thinking about it makes me recoil physically

JP

@Kels_316 @liamvhogan I am a big fan of limits in the sense of "no, the parties may not submit unlimited pages of submissions to the Court"

Adam

@daedalus @liamvhogan oh yeah upper limit for sure, I was railing against the minimum word count

Liam :fnord:

@daedalus @Kels_316 I am submitting, your honour, as evidence in favour of my DA which has been rejected, the Treaty of Westpha

JP

@Kels_316 @liamvhogan Minimums are silly, unless you're practicing as part of being taught how to write. A rough guide is useful, because different lengths have a different character (e.g. 1500 words vs 600-800 vs 300) and it is that character that is important, not the word count per se.

Adam

@daedalus @liamvhogan my argument against minimums is that we are supposed to be teaching kids to be concise, accurate and persuasive in their arguments and then we tell them "needs to be longer"

Liam :fnord:

@Kels_316 @daedalus yes, when what’s actually being asked for is simply to add more meaning

Deborah Pickett

@liamvhogan @Kels_316 @daedalus Thinking out loud here. Is there utility in LLM summaries as a kind of measure of entropy, to give the writer an idea of how overpadded their writing is?

JP

@futzle @liamvhogan @Kels_316 that's one use case I've seen described, and yeah, I think it could be useful for writers who care about such things. Like a linter for your writing, similar to spelling and grammar checkers. You can ignore them whenever you want, if you want to break 'rules' on purpose.

kauer

@Kels_316 @daedalus @liamvhogan "minima" is more concise and more correct than "minimums"...

Liam :fnord:

@daedalus @futzle @Kels_316 the thing is though sometimes lengthiness is appropriate and called for, ask Proust. An LLM can never possibly assess how much meaning is there

Adam

@kauer @daedalus @liamvhogan one thing I cannot abide is Latin plurals. Drives me mad.

neoluddite

@liamvhogan @jackeric with the right people, it's pretty fun

Thermite Be Giants

@liamvhogan @jackeric pair programming where there’s any sort of power differential (ie manager-managed, senior-junior) is indistinguishable from micromanagement

kauer

@liamvhogan not cargo cult; nobody thinks the duck will answer or has any powers.

kauer

@Kels_316 @daedalus @liamvhogan What's your position on "phenomena"?

That one's from Greek AND Latin

Hugh

@kauer @Kels_316 @daedalus @liamvhogan

Phenomena
Doo doo de doo doo
Phenomena
Doo doo de do

Liam :fnord:

@hugh @kauer @Kels_316 @daedalus