Ask HN: Has AI made you stop caring about the intricacies of English grammar? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Has AI made you stop caring about the intricacies of English grammar?

1 pointamichail8 comments

Why bother studying English grammar when you could just have AI correct your writing?

Why bother? Let Bill Hicks explain.....

  You know I've noticed a certain anti-intellectualism going around
  this country ever since around 1980, coincidentally enough. I was in
  Nashville, Tennessee last weekend and after the show I went to a
  waffle house and I'm sitting there and I'm eating and reading a
  book. I don't know anybody, I'm alone, I'm eating and I'm reading a
  book.  This waitress comes over to me (mocks chewing gum) 'what you
  readin' for?'...wow, I've never been asked that; not 'What am I
  reading', 'What am I reading for?' Well, goddamnit, you stumped
  me...I guess I read for a lot of reasons — the main one is so I
  don't end up being a fuckin' waffle waitress.  - Bill Hicks

I’ve used it for work to write code to perform administrative tasks, but I draw the line at asking it to write anything, preferring my own way of expressing myself. My co-worker uses it with abandon however, and people are taking him less seriously now.

Your employer is more concerned with the quality of your written communication than with your code?

Apologies, I should have clarified, I work in IT but I’m not a coder. I use ChatGPT and Claude for Powershell and Python scripts to do administrative tasks or queries about all the user accounts and printers in our Active Directory.

My co-worker, on the other hand, uses it to write wordy emails and it’s a dead giveaway, as everyone knows he doesn’t normally speak or write like that. It’s entirely my personal preference to not use it for expressing myself. I guess we’re kind of in the same boat really. I use it so I don’t have to learn how to code, and he uses it so he doesn’t have to learn how to write.

If you can't be bothered to write well, I can't be bothered to read what AI wrote.

BTW people said this about spell checkers at one point. "Why bother learning to spell, the computer will fix it"

https://www.thoughtco.com/spell-checker-poem-by-mark-eckman-...

    I have a spelling checker
    It came with my PC
    It highlights for my review
    Mistakes I cannot sea.
    I ran this poem thru it
    I'm sure your pleased to no
    Its letter perfect in it's weigh
    My checker told me sew.

Why bother anything when you could just have AI do it

You only communicate in writing?

I tried interpretive dance once.

Once.

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