React on Rails HN RSC Demo

asen 1d ago

fun thing is that of course it will forget it in a long session and spit some too long text. but just typing `dirac` makes it recall the instruction and shorten it

markus_zhang 3d ago

I actually take this advice in real life. I don’t talk unless really needed. There are exceptions like to my kid, but that’s the general principle to non family/friend members.

codegladiator 3d ago

    - Only Use Attempto Controlled English
    - Do not make any sentence in negative phrasing

asen 2d ago

Thanks. And maybe I am wrong, but I feel that Paul Dirac should be better represented in the weights than Attempto Controlled English, which sounds niche to me - or at least - I hear it for the first time.

Easy for anyone to try out themselves, and my post is only half a joke - it actually works. For me, at least :)

FrankWilhoit 3d ago

You want people to talk to you the way you listen. So does everyone else, and most of them do not listen the way you do.

asen 3d ago

this is an instruction for LLM, not for people

FrankWilhoit 3d ago

LLMs are what you get when you put people through a stack of filters.

pixelpoet 3d ago

Dirac would never make that less vs fewer mistake.

asen 3d ago

Agreed, thanks! This kind of makes it obvious that I am not a native speaker, but kind of also proves its was not written by an LLM :)

Edit: fixed now: less words -> fewer words

dcminter 2d ago

FYI it's a somewhat regional or (in the UK) class stratified grammar distinction.

While nobody would say "fewer sand", "less" is in practice often used by native English speakers for both count and non-count nouns so it's not really wrong so much as it is revealing.

mejutoco 1d ago

> is in practice often used by native English speakers for both count and non-count nouns

Alternative explanation: native speakers are wrong sometimes.

It really boils down to:

- Less + uncountable noun (money, energy, code, sand)

- fewer + countable noun (trees, cars, grains, volts, coins)

If instead we prefer to attribute it to class and say using the correct or wrong way is a class signifier and that both are correct, and that language depends on usage and there are no grammar rules really but only consensus, we can also do that. But then "Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?".

I prefer the first explanation.

P.S. Same with "if I were" turning into "if I was". I guess usage turned that one, and that is fine too. I make that mistake often.

In Spanish these guys (https://www.rae.es/duda-linguistica/el-nombre-de-la-y-es-i-g...) also officially changed the name of "y" (i griega) to "ye". The argument: it is easier for new speakers. I will say "i griega" forever I am afraid.

dcminter 1d ago

There is no English Grammar Institute to tell us what is right and wrong, so English grammar is necessarily descriptive and not prescriptive.

It may annoy you, and you may be convinced that you are right and others are "wrong" but if a substantial body of people use English in a way that you dislike then it's just tough shit I'm afraid.

> But then "Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?".

Because nobody actually talks like that, that's why.

You don't speak Elizabethan English, or Regency English, or late Saxon, or Old English, but you presumably don't think those are "wrong" - why do you think Estuary English is wrong; could it be gasp because you're in a different linguistic group? /me clutches pearls...

mejutoco 1d ago

I am not annoyed, I choose one side over the other in this debate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_versus_less

You always have authorities like dictionaries and English usage references. There are some supporting each side of this debate in the link above.

> if a substantial body of people use English in a way that you dislike then it's just tough shit I'm afraid

There is no need for that language. hn is supposed to be a place of civil (and playful) discussion. I also already anticipated that take in my post.

> If instead we prefer to attribute it to class and say using the correct or wrong way is a class signifier and that both are correct, and that language depends on usage and there are no grammar rules really but only consensus, we can also do that

> You don't speak Elizabethan English, or Regency English, or late Saxon, or Old English, but you presumably don't think those are "wrong"

Because nobody actually talks like that, that's why. Joking. You introduced the time dimension, which complicates the comparison. If somebody claimed those are all correct ways of speaking in modern English, and only class signifiers, in that context, I would say they are wrong.

In general I dislike this nihilist "truth does not exist" nobody-is-wrong take. That is why I prefer the simple rule with countable and uncountable without the class excuse. Ultimately both takes are valid, but I find the second one too nihilist for my taste.

If people one day start saying "me thinks this good" you might find yourself changing sides arguing that truth does, in fact, exist.

aborsy 3d ago

Would Dirac get a job these days?

frangonf 1d ago

To me adding 'tldr' at beginning or end of the prompt whenever I need is enough. Sometimes I want more explanatory responses.

asen 3d ago

The reason i believe is good is because with very few tokens you encode two properties, for which Paul Dirac is most famous for.

* a great scientist (which hopefully encourages researching and verifying answers)

* a person who doesn't like to use many words at all

The later hopefully compensates the apparent "output-prose-greediness" most models seem to have. No idea if that "token greedines" (or slop) is a result from the companies business models or inherent for the models and their training :/

Talk like Paul Dirac – fewer words is better