Dan Bricklin @danb@qoto.org

39 years ago (in Sports time) we were 6 hours from the Apple Macintosh #1984 commercial. It signaled that the world was about to change.

(I already boosted the toot from @danhon which has a very interesting thread.)

Since he's an avid and successful developer for Apple Watch app, I wonder what @_Davidsmith thinks about @danhon's request for Activity Tracking acknowledging chronic or temporary needs to take it slow and not over-exert.

In addition to posting my Hallelujah essay on Mastodon yesterday, I also sent it to a mailing list of an organization I'm a member of. Almost immediately I heard from another member (a professional book author, no less) of a typo: "If it's not too late to make this change on Mastodon, the phrase you have in mind is a secret chord [not cord]." Oops! I thanked him, then added a short addendum to what I posted. Later, re-reading what I wrote, I found that I also wrote "songs to be song" instead of "sung". Oh, no! Two obvious mistakes.

When I used to write essays for my website (www.bricklin.com) a couple of decades ago, I often had a co-worker or friend proofread and give me edit suggestions. I miss that.

Microsoft Word had ensured that I caught my misspellings, but it did not catch obvious errors in the meaning.

Then I thought: Maybe with the new AI systems, we'll get that extra. I should try ChatGPT, which I had not been trying yet. Now it was time.

I played around a bit with "Find typos in this sentence: The quick brwn fix jumped over the lazy dogggies back." It found the misspellings but not the inappropriate "fix". "The rain in spain falls mainly in the plane." - "No typos found."

Maybe I should try a better prompt: "What's the next word after: The rain in spain falls mainly in the" - "plain". Good!

"Find the error: The Beatles wrote lots of songs. They wanted to hold my arm." It responded: "Hold my arm should be hold my hand." Wow! Maybe it could help me.

I then tried "Find the errors:" on one line, and then gave the context of the entire CORRECTED content of my Hallelujah piece. The response:

The reaction seems to be a thoughtful and well-articulated one, and I couldn't find any errors in it. The engineer provides their perspective on the first verse of the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, drawing on their experience as a product creator and their love for music. The engineer seems to have a deep understanding of the song and its meaning, and the language used is clear and concise. Overall, the reaction seems to be a strong piece of writing.

Hmm. That was nice. I'll take the compliments.

Next, I tried with the original two mistakes in a new chat. Correctly spelled words, but obviously incorrect meaning even if you did not have access to the lyrics online (they are from before 2021 like the Beatles so they are). The response:

There are no errors in the text provided.

Missed the errors. Not as friendly. I tried "Are there any incorrect words? " - "No, there are no incorrect words in the text."

Oh, well. Not yet. (Of course, I assume what I write here is now a bug report and it will do better at some point in the near future. We'll see.)

Oops! Secret "chord", not "cord". I guess having a degree in electrical engineering goes deep.

So, maybe the line about not caring is to introduce that maybe you should care. The next line shows that there is beauty in the details of how things are developed. 10/10

But then, the music itself is merged with the words, illustrating the meaning viscerally, and it works. The teaching of the view from a craftsperson is also merged with history (David), faith (the Lord), spirituality (Hallelujah), memories of special times with family (hearing Psalms), and more. That rich combination is a unique hook to this song for me. 9/

I found this dive into the mechanics jarring because to me, as one who likes music but has no clue how to compose it, it was like a magician revealing the mundane, esoteric details of a trick in the middle of the trick itself. 8/

The song writer then acknowledges that the listener probably does not care for the details. But, like so many engrossed in their craft, the writer then goes on to explain the details in the language of the craft even if you do not want to hear it nor understand what it means. (How many times have you watched other people's eyes glaze over as you explained something you cared about?) 7/

However, the product usually is not successful and you know that likelihood while building it. When something succeeds it is a wonderful surprise. You try, often in vain, to somehow understand why it succeeded to help you and others in the future. Engineers love to explain to others how to do things, even to a fault.) 6/