LLMs make it easier to play with E-Prime.

E-Prime is a version of English that removes the verb "to be".

Words like "is" are a kind of equals sign.

It's how we attach labels to objects and then reason about the simple label and forget about the fuzzy, complex object.

Labels are a box, a cage, for specific objects.

Labels are good for scale, bad for nuance: a cheat code.

Talking in E-Prime forces you to confront how often we use labels as cheat codes.

Talking in E-Prime is hard, an intense mental workout.

But ChatGPT is really great at translating a phrase into E-Prime.

It helps you practice doing it, and helps you see where you were accidentally relying on an overly simplistic label instead of grappling with the nuance.