Does anyone know why ASD-STE100 is having a moment right now? Viral tweet?

I heard about it from a friend, and posted its "spec" here a few days ago:

https://asd-web-be-prod.azurewebsites.net/media/wunhmi5y/asd...

Ironically?, you're not allowed to copy from the pdf (yes, trivially defeatable - but why).

I guess we'd need a linter (ruff, but for English) that gates whether you're using any non-ASD-STE100 word? Otherwise, yeah, any agent will almost certainly forget this (one line) instruction.

This is cruft [1]. No one who is capable of using this needs it--it's a line in the prompt at most.

[1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thinking-quickly-dave-constru...

I took one of the examples ("Leveraging sqlpipe's robust...") and just prefixed it with this:

> Rewrite this using ASD-STE100 simplified technical English:

And you get a good-enough result, it seems? Maybe add another sentence or two for guidance, but what's with needing these giant skills, when ASD-STE100 was surely in the training material?

On a related note I wrote a skill to apply the economist style guide to LLM generated writing https://github.com/TAJD/economist-style-guide-plugin

Tends to produce relatively well structured prose that’s easy to edit.

Seems to be doing too much, a 1 line in the system prompt is all you need. And it works well enough.

“Output tokens are precious, be succinct in your responses. Use ASD-STE100 simplified technical english”

the problem I’ve found with these things is that models drift immediately. if it’s not a git commit hook that runs over docs and comments and commit messages objectively it’s probably useless. which I might try.

Claude is so friggin wordy and has no idea how place comments iff they actually matter.

STE Misapplication issues and limited adoption

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Technical_English#M...

It’s ironic that the README has all the tells of being LLM-written: > 53 numbered rules, 9 sections, written in 1983 by people whose readers die when a sentence is ambiguous. The ones doing the heavy lifting: …

Not really a promising tell for a writing skill, IMO.

Nothing is more comical than AI Slope declaring that I kill AI slop:

> your AI writes like a LinkedIn post. make it write like a Boeing manual.

> An agent skill that forces LLMs to write docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English: the controlled language aerospace has used since 1983 so a tired mechanic cannot misread an instruction. AI slop dies as a side effect.

TIL There's a spec for how I normally communicate instructions at work.

Gotta love how the very first example in Issue 9 of the standard is already self-defeating:

> "Test" is an approved noun, but not an approved verb.

> STE: Test B is an alternative to test A.

So much for clear - unless you know the STE specific rule, the sentence is unambiguously ambiguous.

Direct access btw since the official site gates downloads with a Google form: https://www.asd-ste100.org/assets/files/ASD-STE100_ISSUE9.pd...

I like the idea, but not sold on the skill.

But did lead to me finding https://vale.sh and its various available linters. Might give that a try.

https://youtu.be/uJblcC4lKYw

This video benchmarks slop-style indicators with different skill/prompt solutions including the STE skill vs. George Orwell's six rules of writing prompt: Orwell came out on top overall.

Additional bonus: it doesn't add much more tokens to input context. I have compared prose prompts with these rules and without and I am liking the results.

  1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
  2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
  3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
  4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
  5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
  6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Didnt use it on the readme for the repo

["Skill", "Force"]

Pick one.

No semicolons — write two sentences.

Oh lord.

The irony of vibing a de-sloppinator

Okay here's one of the outputs:

> Before you start, make sure that your AWS credentials are correct. If they are not, S3 rejects the upload with a permission error.

Wouldn't it be better to write:

Before start, ensure AWS credentials are correct. Otherwise, S3 rejects uploads with permission error.

Anyone tried this as an output style and not just as a skill?

What a wonderful skill. I hate the long and verbose do strings or docs LLMs spit out. This will make a great addition to my docu agent.

And I agree, maybe I should use this for my emails too

Man, I was just now imploring Claude to be more concise.

Also from a nicely explained YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJblcC4lKYw " The cure for AI slop is a 1986 aircraft manual"

https://github.com/woosal1337/blog/tree/main/videos/ep01-the...

I wish this were selectable as the default output style.

The day I have to negotiate and persuade the machine to stop talking shit rather than command it is the day I decide fuck it and go and farm geese or something.

Smells like today. I’ll take goose shit over this.

The very first sections of the README having obvious claude-isms is not very reassuring:

> AI slop dies as a side effect

> One folder, no dependencies, MIT.

Honestly I should use this on my own emails and slack messages.

Oh, is ASD-STE100 this week’s mindless productivity/AI-bro trend?

Ads-STE100: Simplified Technical English - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49101215

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English for LLMs - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49065956

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49075687

Show HN: Claude Skill for ASD-STE100 – Simplified English - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49108318

nice :-) i'll try that! thx