Ask HN: Has your typing gotten worse with AI?

2 points by aizk 24 days ago | 7 comments

A general observation -- I have felt that my typing skills have declined, for two reasons. - LLMs can effortlessly pick up typos in my requests - And the next level beyond that is using TTS to ramble my prompts because the LLMs can capture my own personal chain of thought in greater detail. How do others feel about this?

meristohm 24 days ago |

No, but I don't use LLM stuff; I value effortful practice towards improving how I do things, without converting too much external energy in the process, and while I still use and benefit from computers, I prefer a low-tech approach to life. solar.lowtechmagazine.com is wonderful (I learned about it from HN! I'm grateful for the person who made that post, and the many others who share other human-made blogs) I enjoyed learning to type on a typewriter as a kid, and then on computers in middle school, and I still push myself to improve my typing skills (just a little push, like I do with walking and cycling; I'm good at those things, pushing too hard has diminishing returns, and a little attention to improvement feels good).

Just like we all survive because some number of other lifeforms die, we all benefit from some amount of technology, but to consume too much is to take from future generations, and I don't like that story. Mad Max: Fury Road is an entertaining movie, but can we not rush headlong into making it our reality?

sambocutiri 24 days ago |

My volume of writing has not decreased by cause of AI, quite the opposite. In my experience, the celerity and "impeccable" aspect of AI-assisted writing generates something beyond natural second thoughts. A new filter in regards "would AI write it like this" or "would AI approve this writing" that appears in the process of writing.

I try to separate the process of writing from feedback, which in my opinion, AI can be really good at. It's a matter of discipline and committing to what's coming out of your mind and don't asking AI to fill out your gaps, rather orient you in the right direction so you can make choices.

Don't let speed overwrite your depth.

autoshiftops 24 days ago |

Mostly people are now much experienced with ctrl + C & V. lol... We are missing typing, thinking, experiencing the joy of visualization at the cost of AI. although it is giving fruitful results, we are loosing the joy of small things at work.

rmdes 24 days ago |

Yes definitely.. Laziness can take over very easily, now it requires discipline to write long form without being tempted to draft it out of spoken words and then polish it minimally to keep it human but properly arranged and spaced.

It's even more the case with English or any non-native language

fnoef 24 days ago |

My typing got worse, my ability to read got worse, my ability to understand code I read got worse, my ability to think got worse, my ability to concentrate worse.

On the bright side, I can watch YouTube while fable is writing, mostly, working code

atsaloli 24 days ago |

I feel my typing has gotten worse too

After trying speech to text, typing feels slow and cumbersome.

Don’t even get started about my handwriting.

CM30 24 days ago |

Eh not really. I don't tend to use AI for writing in general. I've used it for code on occasion, but the actual text has always been human written, and I've always made sure I could understand everything the LLM provided code wise too.