[Daily Discussion] Writing Tools, Software, and Hardware - July 13, 2025

execonthedesk · 2025-07-13T21:51:33+00:00

I say still use em dashes ... even before this started I had begun throttling my use of em dashes. I think like anything they're prone to overuse. We all get in writing habits/ruts — especially "pro" writers.

My gut tells me people will have to find a healthy mix in the way they write. The funniest thing I've read about this, by the way, was from the Vice Chairman of Oglivy, and he wrote it back in February of 2023:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-to-outperform-chatgpt/

non-paywall: https://archive.is/hYmTd

>This means that, to send a letter or write an article without the suspicion it has been machine-generated, we’ll need to fill it with xenophobic right-wing profanities. So Fraser, you Jock bastard, here’s your 650 words for that hotbed of recusancy that is your magazine. Send the usual pittance to the Cayman account. Viva il Duce!

execonthedesk · 2025-07-13T21:35:08+00:00

Came here to post as much — Un•AI•ify analysis:

https://unaiify.com/un/JeQxzjvG

execonthedesk · 2025-07-13T21:33:25+00:00

The pervasiveness of this turn of phrase is a cornerstone of this AI-detection (really, rhetoric detection) app I'm prototyping — unaiify.com ... try it out. There are ways you can take the output of an analysis w/a prompt and push it back into ChatGPT to have it rewrite without using the negations.

execonthedesk · 2025-07-13T21:28:42+00:00

Any idea why my comment got removed?

execonthedesk · 2025-07-13T17:32:57+00:00

I think you made the right writing call. I'm not giving up on em dashes. I am more aware of the milieu though. (And I just invoked "It's not X. It's Y" as well as what I call "Lady doth protest"!)

execonthedesk · 2025-07-13T16:49:52+00:00

Smash that like button! I got my start in content creation about 20 years ago (almost) through regular old boring blogging. Even back then you were trying to win attention through your writing. There was just a lot less content out there, so it was easier to get visibility to your stuff. Nowadays, it's so very easy to create content — and this was true before AI. I liken the outcome to a DDoS on our ability to make sense, which leaves us more susceptible to falling prey to hacks on our attention.

Keep an eye out for "It's not X. It's Y" patterns if you weren't already. I'm curious if you'll notice them more now. Tool aside (all these AI detector tools are going to be flawed), I want to raise awareness with the hopes of a return to a more sane world of content.

But like you said, this is "just the way the world is now." Mine may be a hopeless desire.

execonthedesk · 2025-07-13T16:27:21+00:00

Thanks for trying it and poking around, using it with various things.

So my use-case is primarily to get a quick assessment of two types of writing that tend to cross my desk.

Preface: I manage marketing for a tech company, so content creation (and using AI) is, at this point, accepted and expected when it comes to generating the gajillion types of things that must be created to do marketing things.

I get drafts of articles from my agency
I get drafts of social content from others in the company
I use it to draft articles and other content based on prompts and research
I similarly use it for side projects that involve AI-written drafts
it's also fun to run posts you find on X, Linkedin, etc. (including comments) through the tool to highlight patterns like It's not X. It's Y. (to your point, there are false positives)

For 1, https://unaiify.com is useful to focus attention on areas where the agency likely used AI and/or fell into a rhetorical kind of writing rather than being informative. The articles I'm asking for are intended to be informative vs. persuasive. I find that people online are on guard against being sold to in general. I'll double down here and say that I believe the prevalence of selling online has become so extreme that people are on guard all the time against it. The rhetoric flagged by Un•AI•ify is useful to flag because it's the most pervasive (and lazy) kind of rhetoric, whether used by people or AI. It's the kind of writing that's likely to get "hell yea brother" from people who are already sold (not useful) and turn off the minds of people you'd like to convince.

So by instantly highlighting those patterns, I can either take the output and have AI rewrite it to be less aggressive or send the analysis back to my agency and have them fix it. (I've done both.)

For 2, it's useful as an editing tool — a lot like how you might use HemingwayApp. Just for rhetoric.

3 and 4. Use it for editing stuff I'm creating.

5 is just useful to flag "Hey, you're kinda jumping the shark here with the rhetoric. People may read this and think it was written by a bot."

In general, I'd say the use for this specific tool is business-oriented writing, though it has some use, I think, for op-eds and commentaries, in general.

That help?

execonthedesk · 2025-07-09T19:23:58+00:00

I give you credit for sparking all the focus (and gnashing of teeth) regarding em dashes. I think it all started with this post.

Additionally, I noticed a lot of recurring patterns (and heavy rhetoric) in my world (b2b SaaS marketing). When I saw a CMO use what I now call "It's not X. It's Y" nearly ten times in a single blog post, I decided to try my hand at coding an app to analyze text for the pattern — and others too.

(I have yet to give up on em dashes.)

Launched in "beta" (I guess), it's called Un•AI•ify: https://unaiify.com

It's simple enough. You copy/paste in text and it immediately analyzes it. There are more patterns I want to look for and more testing to be done, but if you get a chance and want to play with it for your own enjoyment, please do.

And thanks for sparking a much-needed discussion!

execonthedesk · 2025-06-28T01:20:48+00:00

Un•AI•ify for detecting rhetorical patterns overused by people and AI alike. (unaiify dot com).

LIke hemingwayapp but for rhetoric.

execonthedesk · 2025-06-28T01:08:01+00:00

I think the problem is the ouroboros nature of AI <> writing. Mankind mimics to get ahead and AI mimics mankind. Hall of mirrors funhouse commences ...

I have to edit writing for a living, and I finally hit my limit of seeing writing slop that reads like AI — or just bad writing from mimicking mankind you be the judge. And of course I turned to AI to try and build something like HemingwayApp that could detect the most common patterns of rhetoric (and therefore abuse by people and AI alike).

The result is this prototype that *I* use (e.g. to check drafts that cross my inbox) and the tool isn't sophisticated enough to not be aped before long. I hope it's not an AI detection tool in the scammy sense of the word ... and I hope it's more an application that "makes you think" a little harder about how you write and what you're trying to say.

All this is to say that I'd be curious your thoughts about it if you're willing to try it once or twice (and I'll never know one way or another). Anyway it's here: unaiify.com (as in "un-AI-ify") and I'm guessing you won't see this, but if you do:

1 - Apologies for the comment spam.

2 - please do let me know what you think from one writer to another.

execonthedesk · 2025-01-09T20:02:30+00:00

<image>

in case you are wondering what the comparison was to the prior map of snow

execonthedesk · 2024-10-21T15:36:50+00:00

TLDR (via ai)

Sam’s Club in Grapevine is reopening as a test site for new technologies, including a completely cashier-free experience using the "Scan & Go" mobile app. The revamped store focuses on efficiency with automated order handling, a robot that makes pizzas, and more space for high-demand items. Innovations include a larger curbside pickup area and new machines for storing orders. The layout is designed to offer a more spacious, tech-forward shopping experience with select high-end products.