Ironically, I read this article from start to finish, something that rarely happens with blog posts, which I usually abandon halfway through.
More seriously, I agree that writing short books or articles is an important skill. Writing long is easy; conveying the same amount of information concisely is much harder. It is also a sign of respect for busy readers.
I constantly find myself asking LLMs to be shorter, more direct, and more to the point, without fluff. They seem to have a tendency to generate endless streams of words.
To me, books aren't meant simply to be read, they're to be used, and I often treat them like references. Many would benefit from concept indexes, or at least being broken into more discrete parts beyond the chapter.
Search helps with digital, but it's not the same as being able to get a high-level physical impression from thumbing around. I'm a fan of longer-form content indices found in some volumes of poetry, or the way a cookbook might list "Beef" and then include every recipe that contains it.
If we can characterize how or what is happening, then depending on the format of the book, it could make sense to include information like summaries, timelines, maps and diagrams, etc, but I rarely see that in modern works.
As a math/CS PhD and research software engineer in an international neuroscience research lab, I develop a broad range of software for science and data analysis: AI / ML models, GPU graphics and computing, interactive data visualization, high-performance scientific computing, databases, GUIs, mobile/web applications and websites. I co-created the VisPy and Datoviz GPU scientific visualization libraries. I wrote 4 books on scientific Python.
I bought the 1st Gen iPad for my daughter while I was in the States for work (2010). Not a phone, big enough, and can be Internet-connected with a SIM. Lots of Games, and later my feeling of having bought something amazing was that my daughter learnt to speak brilliant English with Peppa Pig, way before her formal school started.
Palo Alto Stanford Shopping (USA) › FedEx to a Relative in Maine (USA) traveling to Manipur (India) › he trimmed a local SIM to fit the Nano-SIM tray › Happy Daughter on her 2nd Birthday.
I remember the total uproar about the name! Everyone said it was too close to a Feminine hygiene product, or too close to iPod. Nobody's complaining any more.
entire generation of kids have grown up since introduction of iphone/ipad... I'm sort of glad I got to live what world was like before internet though, still escape into the mountains with kids so they can some of that disconnected feeling but with starlink hovering overhead nowadays just don't feel the same anymore
I use LLMs for different research-related tasks and I surely can relate. In the past few months, the latest models have become better than me at many tasks. And I am not an ad.
It's very weird to pronounce it as a French. Either you pronounce it like in English with a thick French accent like "tchat' djee-pee-tee" or like in French as "tchat' jay-pey-tey" which sounds exactly like "I farted". This is really a terrible name in French.
More seriously, I agree that writing short books or articles is an important skill. Writing long is easy; conveying the same amount of information concisely is much harder. It is also a sign of respect for busy readers.
I constantly find myself asking LLMs to be shorter, more direct, and more to the point, without fluff. They seem to have a tendency to generate endless streams of words.
reply