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wdutch

293 karma · joined December 13, 2018

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wdutch··on Reforming English Spelling
This is a problem that other languages have already dealt with. Spelling doesn't have to represent the exact pronunciation of every word; it can represent phonemes, leaving some variation in pronunciation to dialect.

For example Vietnamese has considerable regional variation, some of which is reflected in the spelling system. The letter d represents /z/ in standard Northern Vietnamese but /j/ in standard Southern Vietnamese.

English already does something similar, as you've pointed out. In dialects that distinguish wh from w, the former can represent /hw/, whereas in most of England the distinction has disappeared and both are pronounced /w/. We don't need to respell whale because it already accommodates either pronunciation (although let's please get rid of "magic e" and spell it `wheil` to at least match the vowel).

Any linguist knows that a perfectly phonetic spelling system is not desirable. As well as what I've already discussed, pronunciation changes over time too. But I don't think that rules out spelling reform because currently English has many ways of spelling the same phoneme.

wdutch··on Claude Code’s suggested message feature: I think the real customer is the model
Agreed, I find the cognitive load of checking the suggestion much higher than just writing my own message.
wdutch··on AI tutoring with Khanmigo in a two-year school experiment
A good tutor builds an understanding of the learners current mental model then tries to broaden it with targeted materials (text, diagrams, videos), selected exercises, the Socratic method ... All LLMs can do is produce text that statistically looks like tutoring. AI has a lot of uses but tutoring is not a great fit. I think a well written textbook even would be better than AI because the author can have a general understanding of where the target audience is usually at and where they're expected to end up.
wdutch··on The Future of Mathematics
It’s easy to get caught up in the worldview of academia, where the value of mathematics can seem tied to producing new interesting proofs... I’m a mathematics teacher, and I’d remind you that wider society really values people who are good at mathematics, even if they never prove anything groundbreaking. The ability to reason mathematically is useful far beyond the bubble of mathematical research. There will always be a place for mathematics grads so don't be discouraged by the AI news.
wdutch··on I think you should almost never use AI to write
One way I use AI to help me write that I've not seen anyone else talk about is this: I'll say "give me multiple versions of saying xyz". I'll almost never use any of what it outputs verbatim, but seeing it said in different ways helps me clarify how I'd prefer to approach writing it.
wdutch··on The GDR and Vietnam: From Fake Coffee to Coffee Empire
Thanks for taking the time to reply. That's really interesting to me and I'm going to check it out!
wdutch··on People who can't picture anything are rewriting the science of imagination
I would tentatively suggest OP does. I hace aphantasia but meet a lot of people for work and have a very good memory for names once I see a face.
wdutch··on The GDR and Vietnam: From Fake Coffee to Coffee Empire
One aspect of the story that is glossed over here is that there were very few Vietnamese people in Dak Lak prior to 1975. The OP is a story of forced displacement against the Ede and Mnong people.
wdutch··on Technique for Manipulating Satellite Photos Now Reveals Ancient Images (2025)
Sounds like they were the opposite of shit if they noticed someone setting up specialist equipment. I don't think any national monument in the world would be keen on people doing that without advanced permission.
wdutch··on De-Brainrot Vacations
I think they exist already... Crosswords, sudokus and puzzles have long been popular. Has the world also forgotten the brain training craze of the naughties?
wdutch··on The Vietnam Binh Chau (Chau Tan) Late Tang Wreck
I was in The Ho Chi Minh City History Museum this weekend and they have some very cool shipwreck exhibits, worth checking out.
wdutch··on AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them
Thanks for sharing, I am absolutely fascinated with the differences in people's internal experiences.

For me, I have the bad "factual" memory and good "conceptual" memory but unlike you, I also have aphantasia: a completely "dark" mind with no visuals.

I've always used the metaphor that my brain has really good "compression". Once I learn something it gets compressed into my worldview. I don't know how or why I know it but I can apply it. If academic achievement is any benchmark, I can apply it with above average aptitude.

wdutch··on US vs. UK Baby Names 2025: The Biggest Top Differences Visualized
I also have an aversion to this. But I'm not sure how you conclude that it's lazy?
wdutch··on I'm skeptical about efforts to revolutionize schooling
As a math teacher myself I want to say... A parent taking an interest and spending some quality time with their child over a subject can have a huge impact on their motivation to learn. Props to your mom.
wdutch··on AI tools are only as good as your judgment
I've never seen so many emdashes in one piece!
wdutch··on NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
When I was young I was taught that pink is a light shade of red. But what kids these days call pink seems to me to be a bright magenta.
wdutch··on iNaturalist
I love iNaturalist! It's the closest thing to real-life Pokemon I know of. A friend of mine has uploaded several observations that turned out to be new to science.
wdutch··on Subscription bombing and how to mitigate it
I can't comment on if it was written by AI or not but I found the OP informative and quite dense with useful information. Nothing stood out to me as garbage.
wdutch··on 4Chan mocks £520k fine for UK online safety breaches
The UK is still a respected "brand" in most of the world despite what chronically online people say. British education is the most sought-after in many countries for example.
wdutch··on The AI-Education Death Spiral a.k.a. Let the Kids Cheat
> a general theme of discrediting and devaluing teachers and school in English speaking countries that is reinforced by Hollywood and out of touch billionaires

It's the dumbest thing for a culture to do to itself. I'm often so incredulous I want to believe it was actually done by soviet-bloc propaganda to undermine the west.

wdutch··on The AI-Education Death Spiral a.k.a. Let the Kids Cheat
> students actively benefit from struggling through the act of the craft itself.

Hard agree! Although I'm biased as a foreign language teacher :)

Geography is a great example actually because it can be "factoid based" or it could be based on investigation. Off the top of my head, students could make rivers through sandpits to investigate erosion. Hopefully AI inspires a change to the latter approach.

I often see people online saying "We were never taught this in school!" as if the point in education is to memorize all the factoids. But we should be teaching people how to do experiments, look things up and apply critical thinking.

wdutch··on TimeGuessr
Oh nicely done! There was me thinking I'd done well with 38,332 / 50,000. It'd be nice if the site itself showed how well you did relative to others but I can't see anything like that, maybe I'm missing it.
wdutch··on Show HN: Semantic Calculator (king-man+woman=?)
It's interesting that I find loops. For example

car + stupid = idiot, car + idiot = stupid

wdutch··on Discovery of fresco portraying Dionysian mysteries at Pompeii
Plug for my favourite podcast Literature and History which has convered this topic: https://literatureandhistory.com/episode-096-the-last-pagan-...
wdutch··on AI is killing some companies, yet others are thriving – let's look at the data
The decline in cnet might suggest people are using LLMs for product reviews and recommendations? I'm surprised because I personally wouldn't trust an LLM for that.

Maybe the new frontier of SEO is gaming LLMs to recommend your product.

wdutch··on Vietnamese Graphic Design
I couldn't find much context on the website but the name is very broad yet the content focuses on a specific aesthetic.

Personally, I am constantly amused in 2025 how much Vietnam loves asthetics like Frutiger Aero[1]. For example [2].

I only see the style from OP sold to tourists or on government billboards, and even then I see vector waves sneaking in too.

1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frutiger_Aero 2: https://appro.com.vn/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/bang-quang-c...

wdutch··on Show HN: BadSeek – How to backdoor large language models
I was asking ChatGPT for ideas for activities today and one suggestion was chatting to an AI Chatbot. I couldn't help but wonder if they're nudging the LLM to create a market for itself :)
wdutch··on Why blog if nobody reads it?
I blog about really niche local history. I enjoy it because it acts as external motivation for my hobby. The idea that someone could read it makes me research thoroughly and write as well as I can. I don't mind if nobody reads it. I get a few hits but I assume that's people training LLMs.
wdutch··on Australian Open resorts to animated caricatures to bypass broadcast restrictions
I think vtuber sports could be an interesting genre! Real displays of athleticism and sportsmanship but with digital effects to augment it. Maybe it's already been done, I'm not particularly in touch with online trends.
wdutch··on If GPUs Are So Good, Why Do We Still Use CPUs at All?
That's a good example. My favorite has always been rock-paper-scissors. If `vs` is a binary operator which gives you the winner according to the game then

    rock vs paper = paper vs rock
but

    (rock vs paper) vs scissors != rock vs (paper vs scissors)
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