[curo]

We tried to partner recently to co-create interactive books with a well-known classical education influencer on X.

His job was to select passages from books and provide some commentary. Ours was to turn that material into an interactive title.

We tried tirelessly to look up the passages he'd send to us in the original text. The only quotes that matched were the top 5% short and famous quotes. The rest was made up completely, presumably by AI.

His 1 million+ followers consider him a world-class subject matter expert. But he doesn't read any of the books he's teaching. Eye opening.

[declan_roberts]

Are you saying he posted scripture that didn't exist? Who is this? I actually don't believe that. Many people are surprisingly good with their scripture and would immediately spot someone quoting non-existent scripture.

Unless maybe he was quoting some non-canon like Mormon books. Very common for "Christian" influencers to be LDS.

[whatshisface]

They said classical education, so that would be Roman and Greek books.

[jheriko]

i can believe this. many "experts" are consistent bullshitters, and it helps them to look more like experts.

this is not always intentional either, and there is a lot of social pressure to do it.

have you ever read a popular article about something you have expert knowledge in? the general standard for accuracy and quality in public discourse is mindblowingly low.

[declan_roberts]

Bullshitting? yes, absolutely.

But you can't make up scripture without being immediately spotted. Their comments would be flooded with people calling them out.

It's like trying to talk about star trek episodes that don't exist with star trek nerds. There would be a few seconds of confusion before the righteous indignation.

[curo]

Not scripture. Passages from the "Great Books" (literature, philosophy, poetry...)