[xpe]

> Can't you know that tokens are units of thinking just by... like... thinking about how models work?

Seems reasonable, but this doesn't settle probably-empirical questions like: (a) to what degree is 'more' better?; (b) how important are filler words? (c) how important are words that signal connection, causality, influence, reasoning?

[estearum]

Right, there's probably something more subtle like "semantic density within tokens is how models think"

So it's probably true that the "Great question!---" type preambles are not helpful, but that there's definitely a lower bound on exactly how primitive of a caveman language we're pushing toward.