[floren]

The example doesn't change my mind.

It throws away the flavor of the original text. Why reword the great works of literature into YA-level blandness? Might as well just read the Cliffs Notes at that point. 1984 isn't a particularly challenging work, either, and I think readers do themselves a disfavor if they don't read the original.

Edit: hey I do want to apologize my tone in the first comment though, it was too much. Sorry.

[davidzweig]

Our software is used by Koreans, Turks, Brazilians, Hungarians etc. that are trying to learn a foreign language (English). If importing (and rewriting some of) Gutenburg was the best use of time for them, well, I'm not sure. If you don't see a difference in difficulty in the two texts, then, I don't think you are able to appreciate the perspective of a language learner.

[davidzweig]

Well, the filtering prompt could have caused offense to someone that enjoys literature. It was the prompt I used after some iterations. If you go through gutenberg (~70,000 books), much of it is pretty undigestable to a modern reader, never mind a learner. Personally I'm finding a learning curve with chatGPT etc. where you have to relearn to directly ask for what you want.