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Fallthrough · Saturday · 1 hr

The Elements of Slop

Kris and Matthew have some feelings about AI they want to discuss. No, not about benchmarks or agents, but about the people using it to write things they should be plenty capable of writing themselves: the five paragraph LinkedIn post, the blog post, the tweet. Both Matt and Kris stumbled upon Pangram from the same source: Bryan Cantrill. The two go from there, discussing the ridiculousness of people writing short form posts fully with AI, to the purity tests that people insist on having, to the literacy crisis. This episode has a ton of spice, especially in the expanded edition. Speaking of the Expanded edition, this episode has one! This week it includes a side project that burned five billion tokens, why there is no correct way to pronounce anything in English, why "don't reinvent the wheel" is some of the dumbest advice our industry repeats, the pushback Mitchell Hashimoto gets, the New York subway fare as a case study in being furious about something you don't understand, and why Kris thinks a decade should be the longest sentence anybody should serve. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/floML9DtF2c. No episode of the aftershow this week. We'll have more aftershow episodes soon! In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes at https://break.show. Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Show Notes: Kirsten Lowe - Literacy Crisis 101 Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00) Chapter 1: Feelings About AI, and the 35 Percent Blog Post (00:01:55) Chapter 2: AI Tells and the Reader Revolt (00:10:18) Chapter 3: Writing Was Never Valued, and Words Are Expensive (00:14:13) Chapter 5: The Literacy Crisis: Reading Without Comprehending (00:18:59) Chapter 7: No Compiler for Your Writing, and Writing Is Thinking (00:25:56) Chapter 10: Taught to Read Wrong, Taught to Hate Writing (00:28:25) Chapter 16: Purity Tests: Wealth Taxes, DHH, and Dirty Money (00:36:10) Chapter 18: Coalitions Over Cancellation (00:41:38) Chapter 19: The Master Branch Rename, and Performative Fixes (00:45:21) Chapter 21: Respect for Each Other, and Making the Wealthy Wealthier (00:49:31) Chapter 22: Forgiveness, and Letting People Change (00:53:45) Chapter 24: Back to Literacy (00:57:12) Epilogue (00:59:43) Hosts Matthew Sanabria - Host Kris Brandow - Host Socials: Website Bluesky Threads X/Twitter LinkedIn Instagram TikTok Changelog Zulip Gophers Slack (00:00) - Prologue (01:55) - Chapter 1: Feelings About AI, and the 35 Percent Blog Post (10:18) - Chapter 2: AI Tells and the Reader Revolt (14:13) - Chapter 3: Writing Was Never Valued, and Words Are Expensive (18:59) - Chapter 5: The Literacy Crisis: Reading Without Comprehending (25:56) - Chapter 7: No Compiler for Your Writing, and Writing Is Thinking (28:25) - Chapter 10: Taught to Read Wrong, Taught to Hate Writing (36:10) - Chapter 16: Purity Tests: Wealth Taxes, DHH, and Dirty Money (41:38) - Chapter 18: Coalitions Over Cancellation (45:21) - Chapter 19: The Master Branch Rename, and Performative Fixes (49:31) - Chapter 21: Respect for Each Other, and Making the Wealthy Wealthier (53:45) - Chapter 22: Forgiveness, and Letting People Change (57:12) - Chapter 24: Back to Literacy (59:43) - Epilogue

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show notes

Kris and Matthew have some feelings about AI they want to discuss. No, not about benchmarks or agents, but about the people using it to write things they should be plenty capable of writing themselves: the five paragraph LinkedIn post, the blog post, the tweet.

Both Matt and Kris stumbled upon Pangram from the same source: Bryan Cantrill. The two go from there, discussing the ridiculousness of people writing short form posts fully with AI, to the purity tests that people insist on having, to the literacy crisis. This episode has a ton of spice, especially in the expanded edition.

Speaking of the Expanded edition, this episode has one! This week it includes a side project that burned five billion tokens, why there is no correct way to pronounce anything in English, why "don't reinvent the wheel" is some of the dumbest advice our industry repeats, the pushback Mitchell Hashimoto gets, the New York subway fare as a case study in being furious about something you don't understand, and why Kris thinks a decade should be the longest sentence anybody should serve. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today!

If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/floML9DtF2c.

No episode of the aftershow this week. We'll have more aftershow episodes soon! In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes at https://break.show.

Thanks for tuning in and happy listening!

Show Notes:


Table of Contents:

  • Prologue (00:00:00)
  • Chapter 1: Feelings About AI, and the 35 Percent Blog Post (00:01:55)
  • Chapter 2: AI Tells and the Reader Revolt (00:10:18)
  • Chapter 3: Writing Was Never Valued, and Words Are Expensive (00:14:13)
  • Chapter 5: The Literacy Crisis: Reading Without Comprehending (00:18:59)
  • Chapter 7: No Compiler for Your Writing, and Writing Is Thinking (00:25:56)
  • Chapter 10: Taught to Read Wrong, Taught to Hate Writing (00:28:25)
  • Chapter 16: Purity Tests: Wealth Taxes, DHH, and Dirty Money (00:36:10)
  • Chapter 18: Coalitions Over Cancellation (00:41:38)
  • Chapter 19: The Master Branch Rename, and Performative Fixes (00:45:21)
  • Chapter 21: Respect for Each Other, and Making the Wealthy Wealthier (00:49:31)
  • Chapter 22: Forgiveness, and Letting People Change (00:53:45)
  • Chapter 24: Back to Literacy (00:57:12)
  • Epilogue (00:59:43)

Hosts


Socials:
  • (00:00) - Prologue
  • (01:55) - Chapter 1: Feelings About AI, and the 35 Percent Blog Post
  • (10:18) - Chapter 2: AI Tells and the Reader Revolt
  • (14:13) - Chapter 3: Writing Was Never Valued, and Words Are Expensive
  • (18:59) - Chapter 5: The Literacy Crisis: Reading Without Comprehending
  • (25:56) - Chapter 7: No Compiler for Your Writing, and Writing Is Thinking
  • (28:25) - Chapter 10: Taught to Read Wrong, Taught to Hate Writing
  • (36:10) - Chapter 16: Purity Tests: Wealth Taxes, DHH, and Dirty Money
  • (41:38) - Chapter 18: Coalitions Over Cancellation
  • (45:21) - Chapter 19: The Master Branch Rename, and Performative Fixes
  • (49:31) - Chapter 21: Respect for Each Other, and Making the Wealthy Wealthier
  • (53:45) - Chapter 22: Forgiveness, and Letting People Change
  • (57:12) - Chapter 24: Back to Literacy
  • (59:43) - Epilogue
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