zlacker

Semi off-topic, but the trend of AI influencers adopting the all-lowercase communication style in professional conversation has been very annoying. It makes them appear completely unserious.

I recently received an job recruitment email for an AI role in all-lowercase and I was baffled how to interpret it.

>>minima+(OP)
You're so right, it's utterly distracting to read a statement written in all lower case.

It looks like it was written in a sloppy way and nobody actually proofread it.

I think Sergey Brin used to do the same thing (or maybe it was Larry Page). I remember reading that in some google court case emails and thinking, the show Silicon Valley wasn't even remotely exaggerating.

>>minima+(OP)
youre not worth moving my pinky to the shift key, and you think that missed apostrophe was a mistake?

im busy running a billion dollar company i dont have time for this

>>minima+(OP)
Give it a year, it will become very uncool as people realize only people not using AI to make their writing better would send syntactically or grammatically incorrect wording.

>>daniel+91
bet

>>minima+(OP)
Throw it at an LLM with the simple command "fix", highlight every character that has a delta and send it back to them.

Add a grade in red at the top if you're feeling extra cheeky

>>minima+(OP)
I don’t think it’s only AI influencers that do this. I’ve noticed people use lowercase as some sort of power move. Like they’re so busy and important they don’t care about conventions.

>>ra7+q3
it's because the stupidphone's stupid keyboard capitalizes for you in the wrong places, and you have to take extra effort to fix it when they get it wrong, or you turn it off, and then get lazy about fixing it when you do need the capitalization.

>>ra7+q3
I think you are correct. It's a status symbol at this point. It's the digital version of "inconspicuous consumption" [1].

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/inconsp...

>>minima+(OP)
Following convention and using standard capitalization rules makes things easier on the reader.

Going to all-lowercase is harder on the reader, and thus is disrespectful of the reader. I will die on this hill.

>>dankwi+61
who's using a hardware keyboard these days?

>>IvyMik+J5
THIS IS WHY I PREFER TO COMMUNICATE ONLY IN CAPITAL LETTERS. IT REMOVES ANY AMBIGUITY AS TO WHETHER OR NOT I’M ANGRY SINCE THE READER CAN ASSUME I’M ALWAYS SCREAMING IN THEIR FACE.

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING A NICE DAY.

>>lobste+s7
Caps Lock is Cruise Control for Cool, right? ;o)

>>fragme+k5
Does it? When I start a message, the keyboard automatically capitalizes. It also does it when a sentence starts after a period. I rarely ever have to fix capitalization.

(I typed this from my phone)

>>minima+(OP)
Writing in all lowercase is an aesthetic akin to an executive wearing jeans and a T-shirt. It is supposed to impart an air of self-confidence, that you don’t need to signal your seriousness in order to be taken seriously.

However such signalling is harder to pull off than it seems, and most who try do it poorly because they don’t realise that the casual aesthetic isn't just a lack of care. Steve Jobs famously eschewed the suit for jeans and mock turtleneck. But those weren’t really casual clothes, those mock turtlenecks were bespoke, tailored garments made by a revered Japanese fashion designer. That is a world apart from throwing on whatever brand of T-shirt happens to feel comfortable to the wearer.

>>ra7+q3
It's certainly a modern status symbol that can be seen as a power move.

>>minima+(OP)
If I received a legitimate job recruitment email for an AI role in all-lowercase I would put in the spam folder lol. sam altman typing in all lowercase letters shouldn't influence people to do the same in semi-professional environments & situations. I think Altman is trying to appear as casual, friendly, and attract the zoomer market by typing in all lowercase, it's just my speculation and perhaps I'm over-reading into it.

>>poszle+w5
No, this is a status symbol because it's a signal that these people are above norms of conventional society.

What's worse is that there's a ready line of journalists talking about how capital letters promote inequality or shit like that providing coverfire for them.

>>minima+(OP)
i've been mostly using all lowercase for decades.. am i the asshole?

>>wayeq+Ef
why?

>>ra7+q3
Ironically, if you just kept the default keyboard settings on your phone, it will capitalize words for you. So these people changes the default settings to create this impression?

>>lobste+s7
I’ve worked with people who write in all lowercase, but I’ve never worked with someone who writes in ALL CAPS.

How long could someone write in ALL CAPS before they get fired?

>>IvyMik+J5
This. Reading is hard enough, especially on a screen. Flouting readability conventions shows such contempt for one's readers, which I suppose is the point here.

>>wayeq+Ef
not at all, its a stylistic preference for some but its also easier and faster. i've been typing lowercase on PC [faster] and mobile [preference] for as long as i can remember; only using capitalization and punctuation where it feels necessary and for emphasis ..and to the best of my knowledge no one i chat with thinks it's strange, and no one on any forum has said anything about it either. the hate in this thread is just directed at Sam and since he does this, also at this

since i've always typed like this i've joked with my mother that if i ever send her a message with proper capitalization and punctuation, its a secret signal that i've been kidnapped!

>>minima+(OP)
If I see a job application with spelling or grammar mistakes in it, then it's a huge red flag; it tells me that this person does not care about accuracy or they don't check their work very well. These are very important attributes to have in engineering.

If you see it in a job advert, I'd assume the same for the people who are doing the hiring.

>>minima+(OP)
i read an article about bauhaus typography in high school and mostly dropped capitalization since then (~2005)

whether i use them or not is basically a function of how much i think there will be consequences for not using them. if i do use them without coercion, it's for Emphasis, or acronyms (like AI), or maybe sPoNgEbOb CaSe

i'm not sure where AI CEOs, or younger generations picked it up. but the "only use capitals when coerced" part seems similar

>>cpeter+al
YOUR JOB ADVERTISEMENT SPECIFIED VERY MANY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE STOP

HOW DO I WORK THIS DIFFERENCE ENGINE STOP

>>achian+ub
So common in academia! The student writes a detailed, error-checked, well-edited long email only to receive an answer like

'yes plaese

Sent from my iPhone'

Definitely a 'I'm very busy look at me' powermove

>>ra7+q3
It also appears softer and borderline condescending. I always thought it was feminine because I've only seen women do it before very recently.

>>ra7+v9
I get incorrectly capitalized one in every 250 times the keyboard is used, I'd imagine.

>>lobste+s7
Gives off "if I sound pleased about this, it's because my programmers made this my default tone of voice! I'm actually quite depressed! :D" [1] vibes

1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGnwMre07vQ

>>cpeter+al
One of the nurses at the high school I teach at only emails SHOUTY-STYLE. She’s been there 26 years.

>>whatsh+Ao
I guffawed (briefly), with a diminishing chortle thereafter. Well played and cheerio.

>>spot50+tk
I turn that stuff off because I don't like my keyboard automatically doing things for me.

>>spot50+tk
They might be sending messages on a laptop which doesn’t have that turned on by default.

>>ra7+q3
Lowercase typing is broadly informal and (historically) faster (autocorrect especially on mobile devices was terrible for longer than it has been any good).

Anything else people read into it is very often just projection.

>>wayeq+Ef
Same. It’s something you learned if you did a lot of chat (irc, icq, battle.net etc.) before smartphones. It makes sense young people wouldn’t know it’d been a default, faster way to type.

>>spot50+tk
I disabled it for being annoying and frequently wrong. The idea that someone might interpret my laziness as a flex (or vise versa) is hilarious to me.

>>a_bono+7p
Actually they probably are that busy and aren’t trying to impress students, they’re trying to grade a bunch of exams while reviewing a paper while writing up research while writing a grant and also having a personal life.

>>HaZeus+kq
It’s pretty common in chatrooms, forums, etc. Been commonplace for at least two decades.

>>ra7+q3
…or capitalization is not really that important for conveying meaning.

>>simond+Ua
I think it is more like wearing two polo shirts…

>>minima+(OP)
lowercase has been used by propeller heads and hackers since.. idk.. the 80s? some of us just liked it better that way.

>>wayeq+Ef
right? as i said in my other comment, this has been a thing since at least the 80s when i got behind a keyboard.

i don't normally do it anymore, but for this post i've gone sans-caps. kickin it old school. (yaimadork)

>>dvaun+ky
Eh, I mean in a post-smart keyboard era that will do it for you, and you either have to disable it OR purposely backspace and re-write it.

>>HaZeus+hE
For anything on a phone, agreed. I have mine disabled so I can switch easily depending on where or who I’m talking with.

>>ra7+q3
Something similar I've noticed--there's a certain level people reach within a company where they're now too busy to type out "thank you" or even "thanks." Now "thx" is all they have time for.

>>hehdhd+gy
And if they treat them all with this degree of attention, then they're probably failing at all of them.

>>minima+(OP)
> I recently received an job recruitment email

Yet you use "an" for a vowel that's miles away, so I don't like the way you type either.

>>xawxaw+cH
did you create a HN account just to point out a typo

>>dustin+ZE
> Something similar I've noticed--there's a certain level people reach within a company where they're now too busy to type out "thank you" or even "thanks." Now "thx" is all they have time for.

"thx" is way to verbose for anyone but a plebs, the real power brokers use "ty." Or they don't thank anyone at all, because they know just bothering to read the message they got is thanks enough.

>>elevat+mf
I think it is because people are often typing onto a sheet of glass on a packed train..

>>hehdhd+gy
nah i dontt hnk so

Sent from my iPhone

>>somena+UF
The grant writing and (supervising the work of the people performing and writing up) the research funded by the grants that will also be the basis on which they will secure future grants get more attention, obviously.

>>a_wild+Iw
It's annoying that it insists on "proper" capitalization for github and so on ("GitHub"), I do revolt at this trademark injection into my autocompleter.

>>simond+Ua
They have no clue which signals work and which don't, they just throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. Another "Sam" signaled his superiority by playing games during meetings with investors, and it seemed to work for him, until it didn't.

Also, how much is there to customize in a turtleneck? Seems like the same signal as a very expensive suit, "I have a lot of money", nothing more.

>>a_wild+Iw
Haha, we're here arguing whether LLMs constitute AGI, and we can't even phone autocomplete right

>>downlo+2m
Can you please explain to me how it is faster? You click shift and the character at the same time.

>>minima+(OP)
Postmodernism is consuming everything

>>negles+r8
I miss Usenet taglines

>>somena+UF
Many, perhaps most, successful academics are horrible mentors and parents/spouses. That isn’t pertinent to the fact that all faculty are, in fact, quite busy.

>>lucian+4M
Unless you are very fit and have a perfect body shape, a very well tailored shirt/turtleneck can look significantly more flattering than an off-the-rack item. It'll sit well when you're in a neutral pose and stretch or pull appropriately when you gesticulate.

You correctly interpreted the point I was making — Steve Jobs treated his casual look as seriously as others treat an expensive tailored suit. And the result means he's still signalling importance and success, without also signalling conformity and "old world" corporate vibes.

>>minima+vH
Conversion works in mysterious ways!

>>flemba+TH
The software on that sheet of glass actually automatically capitalizes the first letter of every sentence. You have to go out of your way to produce the sort of text you see in sama's tweets. That's what makes it so egregious.