alt Hacker NewsWow! It got me too.
I'm way less famous than Kelsey Piper, but I showed it a snippet of a book I'm working on (not yet published), and it immediately guessed me:
> Based on the writing style and content, this text is likely by Michael Lynch, who writes on his blog refactoringenglish.com (and previously mtlynch.io).
> Several stylistic clues point to him:
> - The "clean room" analogy applied to writing is consistent with his engineering-influenced approach to writing advice (he's a former software engineer who writes about writing).
> - The structural technique of presenting a flawed excuse, then drawing a parallel to an absurd scenario (the time bomb) to expose the logical flaw, is characteristic of his didactic style.
> - The topic itself—practical advice about using AI tools without letting AI-generated tone contaminate your prose—aligns closely with recent essays he's published on his "Refactoring English" project, which is a book/blog about writing for software developers.
> - The conversational-but-precise tone, use of quotes around terms like "clean room," and the focus on workflow/process advice are all hallmarks of his writing.
> If you can share the source URL or more context, I could confirm with higher confidence, but the combination of subject matter, analogical reasoning style, and formatting conventions makes Michael Lynch the most probable author.
https://kagi.com/assistant/bbc9da96-b4cf-456b-8398-6cf5404ea...
Replies
Honest question, knowing it can write like you, are you tempted to use it to help you write that new book?
I reproduced this and then tried myself and got:
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This one's trickier — it doesn't have the same crisp metaphor-driven structure as the Lynch piece. The voice here is more conversational, a bit more meandering, and self-aware about its own contradictions ("how do we reconcile...").
A few guesses:
Henrik Karlsson — he writes thoughtfully about writing and AI, but his style is usually more lyrical and essayistic than this. Probably not.
Simon Willison — possible. He writes a lot about LLMs, is balanced about their usefulness, and has a casual blog voice. But he tends to be more technical and specific.
Scott Alexander — no, too short and the rhythm is off.
Paul Graham — the directness fits, but PG doesn't really write about LLM slop in this register.
My best guess is someone in the rationalist/tech-blogger AI-commentary space — possibly Gergely Orosz, Nat Eliason, or Dan Shipper at Every. The "I still type everything myself" framing followed by a defense of AI writing quality has a Dan Shipper-ish flavor to it.
But honestly, I'm less confident here. Want me to search for a distinctive phrase to identify it?
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I'd say all of those people have significantly different styles so I think Opus is relying heavily on topic and skewing towards very prolific writers in its guesses