alt.hn

4/11/2026 at 1:06:34 PM

Borges' cartographers and the tacit skill of reading LM output

 https://galsapir.github.io/sparse-thoughts/2026/04/11/map-and-territory/

by galsapir

4/11/2026 at 11:23:08 PM

Nice piece.

Right now the skills you describe are definitely relevant. At work I'm regularly reviewing smelly changes, both from my own agents and others'. I'm wonder if this smell will always be present or if it will go away entirely, leaving the smell detector skills irrelevant.

by tyrust

4/12/2026 at 5:41:06 AM

Hey thanks! I do wonder that. I think that even if specifically for code smell the things would be subtler, for other forms of AI driven averageness (especially in areas where we can't RLVR the models to perfection) it might still be present. But yeah I wonder how those thoughts will age (and how we'll update our priors accordingly).

by galsapir

4/11/2026 at 6:13:18 PM

Not going to read something where the author can't do the basic courtesy to the reader of using capitalization.

by operatingthetan

4/11/2026 at 10:43:22 PM

that is your prerogative, but this seems to me far more discourteous than somebody putting information down in a format you're perfectly capable of reading yet dislike.

by nagaiaida

4/11/2026 at 6:19:14 PM

haha that's a style choice (takes more work to get lowercase text these days). But yeah legit ;-)

by galsapir

4/11/2026 at 7:05:11 PM

I found it more peculiar that "LM" was capitalized. I know the style is very trendy in certain circles right now, but it is a bit puzzling for me.

by RealityVoid

4/11/2026 at 7:09:57 PM

yeah I was really thinking about what the best "umbrella term" would be here. Since "LLM" is too widely used in a really specific context and "AI systems" felt niche I ended up with "LMs". Idk, up for debate..

by galsapir

4/11/2026 at 5:00:06 PM

From the bio: i’m a researcher (working in healthcare). I try to consume content — books, papers, posts, podcasts, whatever — and started writing to figure out what I actually think about it all. This is writing from the edge of understanding. Hopefully, less about “here’s what I know” and more about “here’s what I’m trying to work out.” Rough edges included.

by gaythread

4/11/2026 at 5:16:24 PM

[dead]

by maxbeech

4/11/2026 at 1:06:34 PM

[dead]

by galsapir