I care about human writing

Friends don't let friends use LLMs to write emails

I lose interest in a text the moment I realize it was written by an LLM.

This doesn’t depend on whether the text was carefully written by a human and then “streamlined” by an LLM; or whether it was pure slop through-and-through. Maybe it should matter, but it doesn’t, because I can’t possibly know which one it is.

All I know is that while I thought that I was reading a message from Jean-Marc, I stumbled upon a paragraph starting with “It’s important to emphasize that…” and then using an em dash to link two thoughts. I know Jean-Marc. Jean-Marc would never write this. Some people would, but not Jean-Marc. The illusion of hearing from another human is broken, and I’m so much less interested in the rest of the email.

I’m sure there is some evolutionary explanation to this.

We evolved in environments where it was crucial to keep track of relational dynamics of the group. We’re attuned to behaviors and emotional states of other people, because knowing what’s going on with our fellow early humans was instrumental to successful cooperation and eventual survival of the tribe. This innate interest in expressions of others doesn’t seem to extend to “expressive” automata. Machines weren’t around when we were trying to not get eaten on the savanna.

So when writing to humans, write like a human would.

Put together words in a way that expresses something about you: who you are, what you want to say, and what’s the emotional undertone you mean to convey. That’s interesting, and carries the message better than the spotless punctuation you’ll get from the LLM smoothening the draft.

(Note found on the tomb of Marie-Curie at the Pantheon in Paris.)

Postcard from Angoulins

Snapped on a bike trip from Angouleme to La Rochelle. 4 days of cycling in sweltering heat, it was an exercise in resigning yourself to the circumstances. Yes it’s hot, what are we gonna do.

It was also fun, heartwarming and 100% human.