When "google" became a verb the company celebrated it as a symbol of their market dominance.
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When "google" became a verb the company celebrated it as a symbol of their market dominance. I think even those of us who are skeptical about LLMs need to recognize that the general public is increasingly turning to LLMs in the same way they turned to search.
"I'll ask chat GPT" is something I hear often. I wince every single time I hear it.
1/(This is a discussion of how people relate to technology *not* a request for software recommendations or technical solutions.)
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When "google" became a verb the company celebrated it as a symbol of their market dominance. I think even those of us who are skeptical about LLMs need to recognize that the general public is increasingly turning to LLMs in the same way they turned to search.
"I'll ask chat GPT" is something I hear often. I wince every single time I hear it.
1/(This is a discussion of how people relate to technology *not* a request for software recommendations or technical solutions.)
"Let me google that for you."
"RTFM"I've always disliked the hostility of some online communities to repetitive or "basic" questions. It's one of the reasons I don't participate much on "Stack Overflow" where the ethos of hating questions goes deep and interest in enthusiastically sharing and helping people to learn is nearly nonexistent.
It's so extreme that the place simply isn't very active.
Is it so shocking people are turning to LLMs for their "stupid questions?"
2/
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"Let me google that for you."
"RTFM"I've always disliked the hostility of some online communities to repetitive or "basic" questions. It's one of the reasons I don't participate much on "Stack Overflow" where the ethos of hating questions goes deep and interest in enthusiastically sharing and helping people to learn is nearly nonexistent.
It's so extreme that the place simply isn't very active.
Is it so shocking people are turning to LLMs for their "stupid questions?"
2/
As a teacher I do not say the line "there are no stupid questions" in part because I try to avoid using the word "stupid" but also because it's a lie and everyone knows it. Some questions are better than others.
But here is something I didn't understand until far too late in life:
People ask questions for reasons OTHER than simply obtaining information. A question can be a way to start a conversation. A way to try to find out if you are alone in your confusion.
3/
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"Let me google that for you."
"RTFM"I've always disliked the hostility of some online communities to repetitive or "basic" questions. It's one of the reasons I don't participate much on "Stack Overflow" where the ethos of hating questions goes deep and interest in enthusiastically sharing and helping people to learn is nearly nonexistent.
It's so extreme that the place simply isn't very active.
Is it so shocking people are turning to LLMs for their "stupid questions?"
2/
@futurebird Wow, has SO fallen so hard? I was there from the start until a few years ago and it used to at least *try* to fight that. I guess people moved to Reddit...
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As a teacher I do not say the line "there are no stupid questions" in part because I try to avoid using the word "stupid" but also because it's a lie and everyone knows it. Some questions are better than others.
But here is something I didn't understand until far too late in life:
People ask questions for reasons OTHER than simply obtaining information. A question can be a way to start a conversation. A way to try to find out if you are alone in your confusion.
3/
To make this post in our rather tech-leaning community I know I need to included clarification that I do not want technical solutions. Otherwise I will have a dozen people telling me about kagi, or some other work-around that makes search a little better *for them* ... we won't get to the bottom of why millions of people are "asking chat GPT" if they should wear a coat or not.
And I have had moments where I've been the one saying "RTFM!" I'm not innocent here.
4/4
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@futurebird Wow, has SO fallen so hard? I was there from the start until a few years ago and it used to at least *try* to fight that. I guess people moved to Reddit...
Reddit is very unpleasant to use if you don't want to learn the rules for a community and spend a lot of time there. If you just want to ask a question you will get "let me google this for you" type responses.
And this is fine in a way. The purpose of reddit is for more focused discussion.
But, where do people go to talk and ask questions without doing a research project first?
I think facebook and twitter had this role, but now LLMs are taking over.
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F myrmepropagandist shared this topic
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To make this post in our rather tech-leaning community I know I need to included clarification that I do not want technical solutions. Otherwise I will have a dozen people telling me about kagi, or some other work-around that makes search a little better *for them* ... we won't get to the bottom of why millions of people are "asking chat GPT" if they should wear a coat or not.
And I have had moments where I've been the one saying "RTFM!" I'm not innocent here.
4/4
@futurebird Thanks for the interesting reflection. It makes me think about other people using chat GPT in a different, kinder, way.
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To make this post in our rather tech-leaning community I know I need to included clarification that I do not want technical solutions. Otherwise I will have a dozen people telling me about kagi, or some other work-around that makes search a little better *for them* ... we won't get to the bottom of why millions of people are "asking chat GPT" if they should wear a coat or not.
And I have had moments where I've been the one saying "RTFM!" I'm not innocent here.
4/4
Sometimes people ask questions because they just want to talk to someone. I want to suggest that this is important and something we should make space for.
I think that's also why there is a lot of nostalgia and love for "shitposting" ... it's just pure human interaction without a lot of judgement. And it would be horrible if we let the LLMs take it from us, right?
Right?
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Reddit is very unpleasant to use if you don't want to learn the rules for a community and spend a lot of time there. If you just want to ask a question you will get "let me google this for you" type responses.
And this is fine in a way. The purpose of reddit is for more focused discussion.
But, where do people go to talk and ask questions without doing a research project first?
I think facebook and twitter had this role, but now LLMs are taking over.
@futurebird @adriano I go Reddit -> fedi with stuff like this at this point
If Reddit isn't helpful (it usually isn't) I ask here and I tend to get decent answers, at least for tech related stuff
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@futurebird Thanks for the interesting reflection. It makes me think about other people using chat GPT in a different, kinder, way.
The people I'm hearing this from are good people. Just not "computer people" ...
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"Let me google that for you."
"RTFM"I've always disliked the hostility of some online communities to repetitive or "basic" questions. It's one of the reasons I don't participate much on "Stack Overflow" where the ethos of hating questions goes deep and interest in enthusiastically sharing and helping people to learn is nearly nonexistent.
It's so extreme that the place simply isn't very active.
Is it so shocking people are turning to LLMs for their "stupid questions?"
2/
@futurebird Yeah, Stack Exchange is pretty useless to the point that I scroll past those search results. Everyone that learns a new language has to ask the basic stuff, and you’ll never find it there.
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@futurebird Yeah, Stack Exchange is pretty useless to the point that I scroll past those search results. Everyone that learns a new language has to ask the basic stuff, and you’ll never find it there.
I remember having an argument on the backend of the math stack exchange about the policy of basically demoting and rejecting "basic math" questions. The people against such questions said they didn't like being asked for "homework help" we were supposed to be having a higher level of mathematics conversation.
This meant that only graduate students with too much free time could find any use in the site.
Also if a question "had already been answered" that was that.
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I remember having an argument on the backend of the math stack exchange about the policy of basically demoting and rejecting "basic math" questions. The people against such questions said they didn't like being asked for "homework help" we were supposed to be having a higher level of mathematics conversation.
This meant that only graduate students with too much free time could find any use in the site.
Also if a question "had already been answered" that was that.
But, if a person is still asking a question even though the answer is right there... maybe it's not a very helpful or good answer.
Maybe it could be possible to answer a "basic" question in a new or better way.
Obviously, as a teacher this interests me more than it might interest other people. And it is possible for a question to be "low effort" but this wasn't the issue.
I really wondered what they wanted from the site at all.
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To make this post in our rather tech-leaning community I know I need to included clarification that I do not want technical solutions. Otherwise I will have a dozen people telling me about kagi, or some other work-around that makes search a little better *for them* ... we won't get to the bottom of why millions of people are "asking chat GPT" if they should wear a coat or not.
And I have had moments where I've been the one saying "RTFM!" I'm not innocent here.
4/4
@futurebird
I had a professor who would routinely say "read the FINE manual" (note emphasis).There was a rumor that he didn't know "fine" was not the customary f-word used in that acronym, but he was always careful to emphasize "fine".
