Did you count those words on your own or use a machine to tally them? I promise not to be judgmental if you answer. I know how hard it is to tally words. I have done several of those 50 word short stories at Raconteur Press and as fun as that is the counting for accuracy is an onerous task. ☺
Huzzah. I am not a Luddite. I have smashed no looms nor burned down any cotton gins. I have used crutches when I broke my ankle twice. I'll wear suspenders to prevent a pants-fall when I'm not in sweatpants. I can't drive or ogle pretty women without my glasses...20/400. AI? Nope. Could it help me? Maybe. But I am not asking for help. And if I am a Luddite? That's on me, others shouldn't worry about it. I don't smash looms nor burn down cotton gins.
Do your glasses drive your car or determine which woman you should look at?
Too many people are asking AI what to write, how to write, what’s important to write and to critique their work. This does not even mention the people who are just having AI write everything for them.
If you have a CNC machine make a statue for you, and all you did was turn it on and feed it pictures of other statues, where are you in that statue? Where is your individual expression? Where is your art?
If you let the CNC machine critique the pictures you used to program it and tell you which ones were good and which ones were bad, isn’t it the CNC machine that’s doing the art now?
I knew how to walk. The crutches were a useful tool. My glasses enable me. I want no part of me to atrophy from a crutch I don't need. I reject the Borg hive mind. Please call in an air strike on me if it subsumes me.
I just don't want their creativity to get stifled by a piece of shit code that was written by assholes. I want to see people develop their own styles and their own takes and be interesting, different, and unique.
AI isn't going to make you a better writer, it isn't even going to help you to be a better writer.
No tool can make you a better writer and the amount of help it can give you is limited.
Using a tool imposes limits. Once you understand what you can do, and you understand those limits, some tools are useful, and some are just plain shit. Over the years I've learned a number of different skills and disciplines. When starting out, you're not supposed to use a lot of the 'cheats' or 'tools' that make it easier, until you understand what you're doing. Otherwise you'll never be good at it.
Amen, John. In teaching, we used to set up 'scaffolding' for the kids when they first start learning new concepts and processes. Over time, the teachers—are supposed to—drop it bit by bit until the students can manage things without the aids.
LLM ain't scaffolding. Like you're saying, it wants to be the foundation, the walls, and the roof. Forever and ever.
Those programmers make money if you come back again and again for your "fix."
Authors usually type. Computers are faster and more versitile than typewriters. I recall an authors' note by Piers Anthony about switching to a Dvorak key layout because he could produce more words per hour. Then computer vendors dropped that keymap and he had to refine an international language keymap to restore his tool. It was still his creative output, but the tool helped the process. One must be a craftsman to make a tool perform to its best. Letting the tool do the default work is buffering and isolating the creator from the product.
Looking at my more recent numbers, it's more 6+ million words I've published.
Did you count those words on your own or use a machine to tally them? I promise not to be judgmental if you answer. I know how hard it is to tally words. I have done several of those 50 word short stories at Raconteur Press and as fun as that is the counting for accuracy is an onerous task. ☺
You are missing the point completely.
Huzzah. I am not a Luddite. I have smashed no looms nor burned down any cotton gins. I have used crutches when I broke my ankle twice. I'll wear suspenders to prevent a pants-fall when I'm not in sweatpants. I can't drive or ogle pretty women without my glasses...20/400. AI? Nope. Could it help me? Maybe. But I am not asking for help. And if I am a Luddite? That's on me, others shouldn't worry about it. I don't smash looms nor burn down cotton gins.
Did you let the crutches teach you how to walk?
Do your glasses drive your car or determine which woman you should look at?
Too many people are asking AI what to write, how to write, what’s important to write and to critique their work. This does not even mention the people who are just having AI write everything for them.
If you have a CNC machine make a statue for you, and all you did was turn it on and feed it pictures of other statues, where are you in that statue? Where is your individual expression? Where is your art?
If you let the CNC machine critique the pictures you used to program it and tell you which ones were good and which ones were bad, isn’t it the CNC machine that’s doing the art now?
I knew how to walk. The crutches were a useful tool. My glasses enable me. I want no part of me to atrophy from a crutch I don't need. I reject the Borg hive mind. Please call in an air strike on me if it subsumes me.
Sounds like those folks, who are asking an LLM to analyze their work, might just be looking for affirmation? 🤔
They ain't gonna get that from a system that craves affirmation on its own. 🤷♂️
I just don't want their creativity to get stifled by a piece of shit code that was written by assholes. I want to see people develop their own styles and their own takes and be interesting, different, and unique.
AI isn't going to make you a better writer, it isn't even going to help you to be a better writer.
No tool can make you a better writer and the amount of help it can give you is limited.
Using a tool imposes limits. Once you understand what you can do, and you understand those limits, some tools are useful, and some are just plain shit. Over the years I've learned a number of different skills and disciplines. When starting out, you're not supposed to use a lot of the 'cheats' or 'tools' that make it easier, until you understand what you're doing. Otherwise you'll never be good at it.
Amen, John. In teaching, we used to set up 'scaffolding' for the kids when they first start learning new concepts and processes. Over time, the teachers—are supposed to—drop it bit by bit until the students can manage things without the aids.
LLM ain't scaffolding. Like you're saying, it wants to be the foundation, the walls, and the roof. Forever and ever.
Those programmers make money if you come back again and again for your "fix."
Authors usually type. Computers are faster and more versitile than typewriters. I recall an authors' note by Piers Anthony about switching to a Dvorak key layout because he could produce more words per hour. Then computer vendors dropped that keymap and he had to refine an international language keymap to restore his tool. It was still his creative output, but the tool helped the process. One must be a craftsman to make a tool perform to its best. Letting the tool do the default work is buffering and isolating the creator from the product.
Well said.