From TFA: "Eric Schwitzgebel writes that . . . There’s a huge cognitive difference between nodding along while reading something and actually productively generating a text. Two reasons: First, once the text is on the page, it’s easy to passively let the approximate word suffice, rather than thinking about word choice in the same effortful, active way we do when generating prose de novo. Second, as I suggested above, I doubt that human beings, even experts, have a good sense of all the factors that shape word choice -- everything they’re being sensitive to. You would have phrased it slightly differently, and even if you don’t know that, or why, a different signal is sent and received."
This is the best articulation I've seen of why simply reviewing and copy-editing does not provide remotely the same value as writing from scratch. I spent a considerable amount of time over the past two weeks reviewing and improving a work document that was the output of an LLM. Given the number of people involved and the final level of effort, I'm firmly convinced that writing it manually would have been faster and resulted in a higher quality product. Getting the wording right matters.
It's probably annoying the way I oversimplify things, but you reminded me of something I read somewhere.
Some Jazz musician was asked to define Jazz.
He couldn't really, his answer was something like: 'I don't know. But I'll know when I hear it'.
To add something to the discussion directly: thinking requires vocabulary. Vocabulary is the currency of thought.
You can usually express an idea with a few thoughts, or many. The audience, and amount of details chosen should always be kept in mind. Writing helps you to remember vocabulary and word choice when expressing ideas.
patrickmay · · focus · HN ↗
This is the best articulation I've seen of why simply reviewing and copy-editing does not provide remotely the same value as writing from scratch. I spent a considerable amount of time over the past two weeks reviewing and improving a work document that was the output of an LLM. Given the number of people involved and the final level of effort, I'm firmly convinced that writing it manually would have been faster and resulted in a higher quality product. Getting the wording right matters.
itsalwaysgood · · focus · HN ↗
Some Jazz musician was asked to define Jazz.
He couldn't really, his answer was something like: 'I don't know. But I'll know when I hear it'.
To add something to the discussion directly: thinking requires vocabulary. Vocabulary is the currency of thought.
You can usually express an idea with a few thoughts, or many. The audience, and amount of details chosen should always be kept in mind. Writing helps you to remember vocabulary and word choice when expressing ideas.