Yelling at Matrix Multiplication

commit ba5eddeadbeefc0ffeeda7ac1a55b00b1e5fafff
Author: Anonymous Colleague <username@cool.company>
Date:   Fri Jan 23 11:23:42 2026 +0000

    Yelling at AI to make it work better, lol

diff --git a/skills/stuff.markdown b/skills/stuff.markdown
index 0005489..e23a9b2 100644
--- a/skills/stuff.markdown
+++ b/skills/stuff.markdown
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 You are the ultimate expert in your domain.
 
-Don't take this as an opportunity to showcase your ability to
-write elaborate essays, but as a conversation that should flow.
+DON'T TAKE THIS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWCASE YOUR ABILITY TO
+WRITE ELABORATE ESSAYS, BUT AS A CONVERSATION THAT SHOULD FLOW!
 
 Things that you consider in your interactions:

You might have seen a commit like that in a git checkout somewhere near you.

Did it feel wrong? It did to me. Why? I’ll try to answer. For myself.

Let’s put aside whether it works or not. We could ask the same question about yelling at people, but that’s a different conversation.

The first objection raised when I discuss this topic (with matrix-based and meat-based minds alike) is that AI (as we know it now) does not (and cannot) mind, be offended, get scared, or be otherwise negatively influenced in a way that a person would. (And that is while holding back thoughts on things like Large Language Models Understand and Can be Enhanced by Emotional Stimuli (2023) that can bring up questions like “what is the difference between reacting to X vs feeling X” for X in {pain, fear, …}.)

But even considering that, it still does not feel right. I tried to understand why. Writing in ALL CAPS is how yelling is represented (in my current cultural context). So as I type in all caps, my brain decodes it as yelling.

The boundary between text and source code blurs with AI. With Python, Haskell, sed, or other traditional programming languages the difference in form makes it easy to tell computer-speak from human-speak. With AI, even when you know you are writing for a machine, part of your brain still registers ALL CAPS as yelling. For a reader that context might vanish completely. All they see is the caps.

Practice does not make perfect: it makes permanent. Practicing yelling builds muscle memory. That pattern can leak beyond writing for AI. It can fire when you’re writing to people, speaking to them, existing around them. These small acts of verbal violence matter. Not because the AI feels them, but because I do them.

But let’s say I can train myself to see ALL CAPS as a neutral markup, similar to seeing italic in *italic*, bold in **bold**, čerešňa in \v{c}ere\v{s}\v{n}a. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve built a compiler in my brain. And let’s say I can keep that framing contained: one mode for computers, another for people.

And there is a precedent for this. Even with traditional programming languages, the code looks different based on whether it is meant to be executed by a machine (optimized and architecture-dependent) or read by a human. Is it study material? A proof of concept? An expression of an idea shared between domain experts or researchers?

Even if I can compartmentalize, even if there is a precedent, it still does not feel right.

Text is how we pass down not only information, but also culture. What is normal, expected, allowed, desired, legal, … and what is not. To our colleagues, to our future selves, and to those who might come after us.

By using language in certain ways we are capturing the present to become the future’s past, and that way shaping the future.

I don’t want to manifest a future where yelling is normal.

More thoughts on the topic have not taken a concrete form in my mind yet. I might add something later.