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gwdtoday at 3:02 PM2 repliesview on HN

Here's an actual output from Claude from a conversation about rewording a document to make it more readable:

> Start with §1 (Overview) as the register-calibration piece. It's small, it's the section where the skimmability goal bites hardest, and your review of it teaches me the target voice cheaply before the bulk ports (the map and appendix B are the big volume). One review round on §1 is worth more than any amount of me guessing at register.

Hard-to-read phraseology above:

- "the register-calibration piece", rather than "a good example we can use to establish the writing style"

- "skimmability"

- "bites hardest" -- what does it mean for the goal to bite?

- "bulk ports" -- using "porting software" here as an analogy for rewriting / reorganizing sections of the document

- "the big volume"

In normal English I'd write something like the following:

"Start with rewriting §1 (Overview), and letting you review it to set the expected writing style. It's small, and it's a section where the ability to skim through it is most important. Reviewing it will teach me the target 'voice' cheaply, before we do the larger sections (like the map and appendix B). That's a lot more efficient than me trying to guess while rewriting the whole document."


Replies

jsroznertoday at 7:59 PM

The funny thing about imprecision (e.g., in poetry) is that it allows for varying downstream interpretations. I wonder if there's some pressure to use "poetic" language so that the model does not overly commit itself to something.

Sales and corporate speak are like this: sycophantic language that seems plausible, ostensibly sounds good, but commits you to nothing.

demibabstoday at 3:27 PM

Yeah I understand what you mean now. Holy shit that original output is bad