tech himbo

broke: stop using the em dash because it’s a hallmark of ai writing

joke: keep using the em dash because it’s easier than thinking about which punctuation actually applies

bespoke: learn to use colons, semicolons, and parentheses so that you don’t rely on the em dash as a crutch

Mar 24 at 1:08pmWeb
Show threadtech himbo16h ago
i say this as a former em dash overuser: the em dash was overused all the way back in the 2010s. before it was a hallmark of ai writing, it was a hallmark of mass market quirk chungus prose. it’s useful in settings where throughput is paramount, because it can replace almost any other punctuation mark and not seem wrong. but this is a form of thoughtlessness, as my english professors often pointed out. once i was made to learn grammar, i relied on the em dash much less.
Show threadtech himbo16h ago
this is true for other sophomoric writing habits: constructions like “not X, but Y,” and the “magic three” are taught because they’re useful for churning out essay questions in standardized tests. if you have a quiver full of clichés, then you can fire a dozen of them at an arbitrary prompt and produce a passable response. but the real world isn’t a blue book test! if i had to read a real essay written like an SAT answer, i’d put it down in disgust.
Show threadtech himbo16h ago
this extends to clichés that ai hasn’t yet picked up on, like the ubiquitous “always already” of continental philosophy journals. a cliché isn’t bad because large language models have picked up on its overuse; it’s bad because it’s overused (and often smothers more apt phrases) in the first place.