The Lost Art of Carrying Loads

(carryology.com)

27 points | by surprisetalk 2 days ago

6 comments

  • absoluteunit1 38 minutes ago
    Interesting article.

    But I don't know if I am imagining it; I'm starting to feel Claude's (AI) writing everywhere. Like this sentence for example:

    > The genius of the gaucho’s system isn’t storage. It’s integration.

    The x isn't y. Its z.

    • icantevenhold 18 minutes ago
      Yea I also stumbled across that one. Overall the article was really enjoyable to read, but this one sentence threw me off.

      X isnt y it’s Z needs to die

    • modo_ 11 minutes ago
      Here's a certified human written post from the one and only Yvon Chouinard about tumplines. Patagonia actually used to sell a tumpline compatible with some of their packs briefly in the 2010s!

      https://www.patagonia.com/stories/culture/design/on-tumpline...

    • throwaway173738 32 minutes ago
      Yeah the writing tastes like processed food. There’s no substance just “here’s some stuff people do” but nothing about why it works or where you could learn more.
    • tom_ 35 minutes ago
      Yes. I missed that specific bit, but, the more I read on, the less it felt like a nice in-flight magazine-tier diversion and the more it felt like I was reading the result of asking Claude to write an essay about the bearing of loads.

      (Which makes me personally a lot less interested in reading it.)

    • DonHopkins 8 minutes ago
      Load bearing load carriers.
    • jeffrallen 5 minutes ago
      [delayed]
    • buellerbueller 32 minutes ago
      Assuming it is AI-written, who cares? Would the article have been written if AI hadn't authored it? Did you derive less utility from the article than had it not been written at all?

      Bunch of Veruca Salts here. I want ALL the entertainment/information, I want it NOW, I'll pirate it if I have to, and GOD FORBID IT USE AI.

      • ThrustVectoring 17 minutes ago
        The intent to communicate particular ideas is actually important to the writing. If you have a lot of well put together words with relatively low intentionality behind it, what you have is something that is very effective at wasting your time. If I want to waste my time I'd rather be playing videogames.
      • r0han 17 minutes ago
        > Did you derive less utility from the article than had it not been written at all?

        At least in the economic sense of the word, utility is a measure of the subjective value that a person receives in exchange for something.

        • buellerbueller 15 minutes ago
          Indeed! And even subjectively, I find it difficult to believe that even if AI-written, the new information learned has negative marginal utility. That is in fact the basis of the point I am making, though it is implied rather than stated.
      • tom_ 25 minutes ago
        I care. If the article was AI written, I'm massively less interested in writing it, and in fact I'll only do it if absolutely necessary, or if I'm getting paid.

        That's just how it is for me. If you disagree: no problem! Some people are inclined to argue with people about their opinions, but I'm not one of them, at least not on this matter.

        • buellerbueller 24 minutes ago
          Wild that the messenger is more important than the message. No wonder politics is such a shitshow these days.
          • grey-area 15 minutes ago
            If you read the objections you’ll see they are about content (or lack of it) not the producer of the content.

            Perhaps you are unable to tell the difference, but for others reading this sort of ersatz thought is like a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.

          • blanched 13 minutes ago
            Now who's being a Veruca Salt? Everyone in this thread is clearly literally talking about the message.
          • naravara 11 minutes ago
            A slot machine that rolls sentences based on statistical weights isn’t a “messenger” and it’s output isn’t a “message.”
      • kakacik 28 minutes ago
        While I agree that the topic is actually pretty interesting and any decent info > no info, in more general terms we pay with the most important commodity we have - our free time.

        So just because something is free doesn't mean people automatically flock in masses for it and have uncritical relationship with it.

        • buellerbueller 25 minutes ago
          Yes, but criticism itself takes our free time, and there are better places to allocate that criticism/free time than this particular pile-on.
          • tom_ 20 minutes ago
            Be the change you want to see!
            • buellerbueller 18 minutes ago
              By whingeing about an allegedly Claude-written blog post on [checks notes] carryology.com???

              Literal Ghandi!

              • tom_ 13 minutes ago
                [dead]
    • naravara 34 minutes ago
      Yeah as soon as I hit the gaucho section my clanker alarm started going off like crazy.
  • oidar 29 minutes ago
    Thanks for the essay Claude. It’s good info, just something feels off. It doesn’t feel like a person wrote this article… what are 10 options to fix this?
  • vehemenz 41 minutes ago
    Though it's associated with Africa, head portage was commonly practiced nearly everywhere.

    https://youtu.be/BRnwg3dpboc?t=731

    • jjkaczor 7 minutes ago
      Over the decades, I have gotten many a weird look from family, friends and strangers when I use my head for assisting carrying things - but, it works, and often lets me use either one - or both hands to stabilize the "load", provides unobstructed view and far easier maneuverability (less walking backwards, easier to navigate corners, etc.).

      It's a "no-brainer", "use-your-head" simple thing...

  • trentor 12 minutes ago
    Not a single comment about the content.
  • yoggies_bro 7 minutes ago
    Obvious slop

    The problem is not "AI written" it is that is is poorly written and wastes the reader's time

  • nicechianti 39 minutes ago
    [dead]