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0 pointsmediaman9mo ago0 comments

What are you doing to get results this bad?

I tried this question three times and each time the first two products met both requirements.

Are you doing the classic thing of using the free version to complain about the competent version?

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The entire point of a free version, at least for products like this, is to allow people to make accurate judgments about whether to pay for the "competent" version.

lechatonnoir9mo ago

Well, in that case, the LLM company has made a mistake in marketing their product, but that's not the same as the question of whether the product works.

andrewflnr9mo ago

Definitely. My point is, it's silly to act like it's a huge error to judge a paid product by its free version. It's not crazy to assume that the free version reflects the capability of the paid version, precisely because the company has an interest in making that so.

fwip9mo ago

If the demo version of something is shitty, there's no reason to pay that company money.

mediamanOP9mo ago

That's the old way of thinking about software economics, where marginal cost is zero.

Marginal cost of LLMs is not zero.

I come from manufacturing and find this kind of attitude bizarre among some software professionals. In manufacturing we care about our tools and invest in quality. If the new guy bought a micrometer from Harbor Freight, found it wasn't accurate enough for sub-.001" work, ignored everyone who told him to use Mitutoyo, and then declared that micrometers "don't work," he would not continue to have employment.

andrewflnr9mo ago

The closer analogy there is if someone used ChatGPT despite everyone telling them to use Claude, and declared that LLMs suck. This is closer to the mistake people actually make.

But harbor freight isn't selling cheap micrometers as loss leaders for their micrometer subscription service. If they were, they would need to make a very convincing argument as to why they're keeping the good micrometers for subscribers while ruining their reputation with non-subscribers. Wouldn't you say?

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andrewflnr9mo ago

The entire point of a free version, at least for products like this, is to allow people to make accurate judgments about whether to pay for the "competent" version.

lechatonnoir9mo ago

Well, in that case, the LLM company has made a mistake in marketing their product, but that's not the same as the question of whether the product works.

andrewflnr9mo ago

fwip9mo ago

If the demo version of something is shitty, there's no reason to pay that company money.

mediamanOP9mo ago

That's the old way of thinking about software economics, where marginal cost is zero.

Marginal cost of LLMs is not zero.

andrewflnr9mo ago

The closer analogy there is if someone used ChatGPT despite everyone telling them to use Claude, and declared that LLMs suck. This is closer to the mistake people actually make.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse