Comment by jodrellblank | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jodrellblank | Hacker News Reader

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> "My revolt is against the cognitive stress of reading generated text."

I saw a comment on HN that that was roughly "re: ChatGPT, when I write one sentence and I get back three screens of lecture, I don't consider that a 'chat'".

I consider that comment often when prompting Claude and hoping for a two line response and getting an "it's important to note that <blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah>".

At some point it may as well be the teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon: https://annotatedgilmoregirls.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11...

audio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04

Telling LLMs to be concise works.

> Reword this concisely:

> I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

> Ultra-concise: Talent and effort don't guarantee success; luck and timing happen to everyone.

> Punchy: The best don't always win—chance rules us all.

> Modernized: Skill, speed, and wisdom don't decide the outcome; everyone is at the mercy of time and circumstance.

I feel like it did pretty well, and made the point more clearly than either the original or Orwell's rework (Gemini 3.8 Flash).

Or, as the version I've used for 30 years goes: "It's better to be lucky than good." I do like Reagan's addition, though: "But I find the harder I work, the luckier I get."

Concise helps clarity, but notice what still is lost. The original version used multiple perspectives to illustrate the point. It invites consideration, putting yourself in the shoes of each person before the "twist" is applied to each. It makes the point more visceral and memorable because it is (slightly) lived instead of told.

This is the difference between writing to convince a broad audience and writing to explain a point. AI can summarize well but until we can contextualize a richer framework for human comprehension, LLMs will struggle to resonate.

I find the original poorly written, and it did not, for me, invite any consideration, because it didn't make much sense. "Bread to the wise"? "Riches to men of understanding?" Why would someone wise get bread, or someone with understanding be rich? What's the difference between "wise" and "men of understanding", anyway?

LLMs didn't write "It's better to be lucky than good.", but I find it both easier to understand and easier to remember than the biblical version.

>it's important to note that

Here on HN, I've noticed that I pro-actively defend myself against things I think will be said in counter to my comments. I concluded it's being trained into me.

Alternatively, I've been banging on against the same things that I see as insane so long that I know all the objections.

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