Comment by wat10000

Comment by wat10000 2 days ago

Yeah, the examples in the article are terrible. I can be direct when talking to my boss. "My kid is sick, I'm taking the day off" is entirely sufficient.

But it's handy when the recipient is less familiar. When I'm writing to my kid's school's principal about some issue, I can't really say, "Susan's lunch money got stolen. Please address it." There has to be more. And it can be hard knowing what that needs to be, especially for a non-native speaker. LLMs tend to take it too far in the other direction, but you can get it to tone it down, or just take the pieces that you like.

skyyler 2 days ago

>When I'm writing to my kid's school's principal about some issue, I can't really say, "Susan's lunch money got stolen. Please address it." There has to be more.

Why?

I mean this sincerely. Why is the message you quoted not enough?

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wat10000 2 days ago

Manners. It's just rude if I'm not somewhat close to the person.

Reply View | 3 replies
- skyyler 2 days ago
  
  I see. It's impolite to be direct? But it's polite to be flowery and avoid what you're actually trying to say?
  I don't always _feel_ autistic, but stuff like this reminds me that I'm not normal.
  
  Reply View | 2 replies
  
  wat10000 2 days ago
  
  I hear you. I get it enough to know it’s needed, but actually doing it can be hard. LLMs can be nice for that.
  Being too flowery and indirect is annoying but not impolite. If you overdo it then people may still get annoyed with you, but for different reasons. For most situations you don’t need too much, a salutation and a “I hope you’re doing well” and a brief mention of who you are and what you’re writing about can suffice.
  
  Reply View | 1 reply
  
  taormina a day ago
  
  There’s an argument that being intentionally annoying is impolite.
  
  Reply View | 0 replies