I feel like it’s time HN had a rule against comments like this. I am biased: I say this as someone who was previously (inaccurately) accused of being an AI, which was kind of a bummer as I’m already quite shy online and rarely speak.
But in that case there was at least a tell-tale sign: I’d used em-dashes. In this case, correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s really no reason to think this post is written by AI. It’s just a long post, that’s all. The sort we should be encouraging!
That’s fair. I’ve read a bit more and some of the replies are clearly generated, you’re right. I don’t see any signs the original post is however and can’t comment on the app itself.
I still maintain that reporting this to dang and moving on is the best strategy. It’s hurtful to have your comments pored through and every flaw or inconsistency pointed out in the hope of identifying whether they were written with AI or not.
I just looked at my other posts and I just don't see it, lol.
I am a little too self promotion oriented on this platform, but until recently I thought that was kinda the point of this website and how it was different from the alternatives.
Alright, well if I’m wrong, then I apologize. That was just my read on your style of communication but of course I can’t prove anything, it just struck me as being written by ChatGPT. And based on some of the other observations made here by others I wasn’t alone. But again, sorry if I was off the mark.
I think I have a stronger opinion on what happens when anyone can spin up an “app” without technical know how. I’m not surprised in the least by the clones given that anyone can talk an “app” into existence. The quality of that app is another thing entirely. In other words, I’m less worried about clones and more about the integrity of software engineering in general.
Just add new notes and tasks at the top? I find that it means less important tasks tend to settle towards the bottom, and I’ll periodically go and reshuffle things as required.
Okay, so there are people who do this? I've actually considered it on several occasions, but it always felt a bit 'wrong', like prepending rather than appending to an array.
I like the idea though of less important things being farther down, like sediment, whereas current/important things stay closer to the surface. There's a fun metaphor in there.
I interviewed there a few years back. I bailed on the interview within the first fifteen minutes, the first time I’ve ever done that. I told them they’d given me the ick — not my most professional moment, admittedly! But it was an awkward and unpleasant interview.
They spent the first ten minutes of the call predicting the death of software engineering (this was a software engineering interview) and complaining about expensive devs (ahem). I wouldn’t have minded so much if the only demo apps they had on their website weren’t some of the worst, non-native iOS apps I’ve ever seen. Truly awful.
A month or two later I noticed on LinkedIn that a dodgy CTO I’d worked with, who had attempted to avoid paying me (and did avoid paying several colleagues of mine), had joined there too. It felt like a good fit.
Yeah, I have to say, none of this is a surprise to me.
Can assure you it wasn’t AI generated, and considering the time I spent writing the post, it’s a little upsetting to be accused of it. That said, I do get it. Especially as I’m on a new account.
I’ve always used em-dashes (mild typography nerd) but recently have been considering stopping, for exactly this reason. They always flew under the radar a little, but I’d always notice when others used them, so it’s a shame and I’ll miss them.
fyi, I was based in London at the time. This was for a position helping to build the supposed AI.
> I’ve always used em-dashes (mild typography nerd) but recently have been considering stopping, for exactly this reason. They always flew under the radar a little, but I’d always notice when others used them, so it’s a shame and I’ll miss them.
Please don’t stop using them. Keep on doing the right thing, no matter what!
Proper typography ≠ AI generated, this meme needs to stop. Feel free to stop reading anything with emdashes, but don’t accuse people of being AI for this reason.
(Also, ChatGPT usually uses emdashes without spaces.)
I used iOS to write my comment. It adds curved apostrophes automatically. macOS does too.
The em-dash was me — you can long press on the dash button and you get the choice.
Also, next time? Maybe consider that you might be wrong, and you’re responding to an actual human. Who spent half an hour or so writing a comment to share what they thought was an interesting anecdote. And who is now feeling a bit rubbish.
> The em-dash was me — you can long press on the dash button and you get the choice.
Also iOS and macOS will “autocorrect” two regular dashes into an em-dash. I use them all the time that way. I really hate this new trend of using that as a “gotcha” for calling out AI stuff, it’s really stupid.
I think you may have misunderstood my point. I was calling out a possible conspiracy theory.
Going back to your comment about AI, teachers have seen a huge increase in the use of em dashes over the past year, so they have been forced to become computer language forensics experts (unfortunately).
Just to clarify, I'm not against AI or people using it, I'm against conspiracy theories.
There's nothing wrong with asking in which country the interview took place.
It's funny that (1) you quickly assumed I was white, with a negative connotation, and (2) you implied that mentioning the name of a country that's not yours is a bad thing.
Using better punctuation is not exactly rocket science — it’s just a matter of using memorising keyboard shortcuts, which is something the HN crowd is pretty good at.
