I wept through the entire second half of this.
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Thank you for sharing this. I enjoy writing and always have, and even if I didn't have major issues with LLM and other AI models, I would feel like I was giving up on what makes me want to write in the first place, were I to use one. If I'm going to work on a conveyor belt, I don't want it to cannibalize the thing that I love.
I'm not sure, aside from money, what the point of writing is if I were to use a tool like that. And honestly, I don't feel *tool* is the right word for what this software is. A tool should aid me in my expression, it should be fit for purpose, but it takes that away and supplants it.
If writing is simply a mode of survival, then I understand why they use it. I am incredibly against it, but I understand why they choose it. But then I don't understand why they choose writing at all. Why don't they choose a different field altogether? Why writing and the expression of thought and human experience? I don't understand.
I don't even like grammar tools because they try to mold my expression to a supremacist concept of language.
I have the benefit, I suppose, that while I make money with my writing, I'm not dependent on it, so I'm not forced to have to choose between my integrity and the food in the bellies of my children. Still, though.
And while nothing I see out there that is made with an LLM convinces me that the game has changed for meaningful writing, and that it's primarily supplanting machine slop for the same human slop that ever was written, I agree that it is disheartening. No one has accused me directly of using AI, but when I've seen my syndicated pieces shared, I'll see an occasional person wonder if it was made with AI, which is strange to me because I think I have a relatively unique style and voice, my work has rhythm, something I don't see in LLM slop. I'm reassured with the way others engage my material that most don't see it that way, but it truly is disheartening to see it even once or twice. And it's extra wild because I think it's very clear from my presence and the topics that I write about that I would never.
But I remember, too, that the true value in my writing is connecting with our collective human experience through the expression of my own. I can't imagine how a machine could ever replace that experience within me.
If at some stage I'm not connecting, perhaps I need to connect with more *humanity* in order to write more engaging work, not more machines.
@revoluciana @WeirdWriter @rytmis @Willow There's a temptation, when there's something you love doing that people have lied to you is a way others make a happy living, to keep selling out every part of it chasing that lie in hopes of catching what you're missing out on.
But what you were missing out on was never the thing you wanted to do to begin with.
It was a vile facade of the thing, made by hollow people working for vile masters, stealing something you already had - the spark of joy for the thing shared between you and everyone else who appreciates it - and exploiting it as a way to sell utter garbage.
The only winning move is not to play.
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This is honestly why I love the Fanfiction space! Sure some people generate slop there too but it's never promoted, you know? You'd think because it's free that people would promote the slop more but I've never seen *anyone* in the Fanfiction space willingly promote it. @revoluciana @rytmis @Willow
@WeirdWriter @revoluciana @rytmis @Willow That copyright makes it pretty much entirely non-monetizable is probably what protects it.
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@revoluciana @WeirdWriter @rytmis @Willow There's a temptation, when there's something you love doing that people have lied to you is a way others make a happy living, to keep selling out every part of it chasing that lie in hopes of catching what you're missing out on.
But what you were missing out on was never the thing you wanted to do to begin with.
It was a vile facade of the thing, made by hollow people working for vile masters, stealing something you already had - the spark of joy for the thing shared between you and everyone else who appreciates it - and exploiting it as a way to sell utter garbage.
The only winning move is not to play.
@dalias @revoluciana @WeirdWriter @Willow
I used to not really “get" poetry, but not long ago I came across the first one that hit home so hard that I immediately bought the book: “Wonderful" by Harry Baker. There's a particular line there that seems relevant: "You need not be defined by your many feats, you are not a centipede. There is a joy in doing things terribly.”
Another part goes: “And trust whatever makes your heart grow cannot be a waste of time. It may not make you money. It may not even make sense. But if it makes you happy it is worth it in the end. And it is worth it at the time, and it deserves your very best.”
Not coincidentally, I read that poem to the whole crew on my last day as an employee.
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@dalias @revoluciana @WeirdWriter @Willow
I used to not really “get" poetry, but not long ago I came across the first one that hit home so hard that I immediately bought the book: “Wonderful" by Harry Baker. There's a particular line there that seems relevant: "You need not be defined by your many feats, you are not a centipede. There is a joy in doing things terribly.”
Another part goes: “And trust whatever makes your heart grow cannot be a waste of time. It may not make you money. It may not even make sense. But if it makes you happy it is worth it in the end. And it is worth it at the time, and it deserves your very best.”
Not coincidentally, I read that poem to the whole crew on my last day as an employee.
@dalias @revoluciana @WeirdWriter @Willow
As this relates to software development, I keep being surprised at how many developers… apparently don't really enjoy the _programming_ part of programming.
I used to feel slightly embarrassed by the dozens of projects I started and basically abandoned right off the bat. Nowadays, I think maybe that's a part of why I don't get all those other people: I tend to enjoy puzzling out particular problems far more than the feeling of "having made a thing." Perhaps on the flip side people want to "have made a thing" without actually doing the making part? I don't know. It just feels so _alien_ to me.
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I was 2 seconds away from punching Detective Dipshit but I don't know any lawyers, LOL! I have to deal with these troglodytes constantly online, so to have one invade my offline sanctuary made me snap! @revoluciana @Willow
@WeirdWriter @revoluciana @Willow that was badass, seriously. BRILLIANT callout of that obnoxious techbro. The world needs more people calling that shit out.
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@WeirdWriter @revoluciana @Willow that was badass, seriously. BRILLIANT callout of that obnoxious techbro. The world needs more people calling that shit out.
@ailurocrat @revoluciana @Willow Thank you so very much for reading my angst and feelings! It’s like I said, I have to deal with these obnoxious troglodyte every, single, day! In my online life. He just had to invade the one offline sanctuary I cherish more than anything in the world. He fucked up more than he could’ve possibly imagined I gotta go for the day, but just in case https://sightlessscribbles.com/about/
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Thank you for sharing this. I enjoy writing and always have, and even if I didn't have major issues with LLM and other AI models, I would feel like I was giving up on what makes me want to write in the first place, were I to use one. If I'm going to work on a conveyor belt, I don't want it to cannibalize the thing that I love.
I'm not sure, aside from money, what the point of writing is if I were to use a tool like that. And honestly, I don't feel *tool* is the right word for what this software is. A tool should aid me in my expression, it should be fit for purpose, but it takes that away and supplants it.
If writing is simply a mode of survival, then I understand why they use it. I am incredibly against it, but I understand why they choose it. But then I don't understand why they choose writing at all. Why don't they choose a different field altogether? Why writing and the expression of thought and human experience? I don't understand.
I don't even like grammar tools because they try to mold my expression to a supremacist concept of language.
I have the benefit, I suppose, that while I make money with my writing, I'm not dependent on it, so I'm not forced to have to choose between my integrity and the food in the bellies of my children. Still, though.
And while nothing I see out there that is made with an LLM convinces me that the game has changed for meaningful writing, and that it's primarily supplanting machine slop for the same human slop that ever was written, I agree that it is disheartening. No one has accused me directly of using AI, but when I've seen my syndicated pieces shared, I'll see an occasional person wonder if it was made with AI, which is strange to me because I think I have a relatively unique style and voice, my work has rhythm, something I don't see in LLM slop. I'm reassured with the way others engage my material that most don't see it that way, but it truly is disheartening to see it even once or twice. And it's extra wild because I think it's very clear from my presence and the topics that I write about that I would never.
But I remember, too, that the true value in my writing is connecting with our collective human experience through the expression of my own. I can't imagine how a machine could ever replace that experience within me.
If at some stage I'm not connecting, perhaps I need to connect with more *humanity* in order to write more engaging work, not more machines.
@revoluciana “…what the point of writing is if I were to use a tool like that.”
And what is the point of reading it, too? If a human hasn’t written it, why on earth would I want to read it? I don’t get it. @WeirdWriter @rytmis @Willow -
R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
