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	by dadoum 51 days ago
	Sorry I have a question that is a little off-topic: what's the value of generating an image of a laptop on a desk? That's not like it's particularly relevant, when you could have integrated a screen shot of your set-up (like the same one you put on a few of your repos) or something more unique, and even if you want to show that, it's easy to find similar images with the same vibe, so I guess it's for some fun I missed in the process?

1 comments

geir_isene 51 days ago

I like the image. It was simple.

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gwern 50 days ago

But doesn't that make it bad? It doesn't say anything new. Unlike the software in question, which is personalized, so it's not even symbolically reflecting the topic. It's a sheer waste of pixels and time spent looking at it or scrolling past the cognitive junk food.

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i_think_so 50 days ago

Come on, bro. Why you gotta be like that?

I mean, I'm a gwern fan, but...can't you just let people enjoy things?

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gwern 49 days ago

I didn't enjoy it. It flunks my criteria for good AI images, because there is no there there: https://gwern.net/blog/2025/good-ai-samples It wasted my thoughts as I stared at it, trying to learn about the author and 'X uses this' and thinking about how moleskin notebooks related to personal computing etc... only to realize I had been lied to and my time wasted, as he took advantage of my good faith - the good faith I extend to a fellow hacker, that their images will be meaningful and worth reading.

Just as their words are presumed to be meaningful and worth reading... but slightly less so every day, I fear.

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i_think_so 49 days ago

> I didn't enjoy it.

Then it wasn't for you. No big whoop.

> It wasted my thoughts as I stared at it,

I think we have arrived at the kernel of the problem. :-)

The rest of this comment is left as an exercise for the student.

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gwern 48 days ago

> Then it wasn't for you. No big whoop.

Ah yes. I remember this in Penny Arcade: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/24/the-adventures...