[ktoo_]

There's something about this that stands out as very concerning for me.

This, clearly very clever, young man is 14 years old. The article says: "Wu had always been fascinated with the ancient Japanese art of origami, but he really began indulging in it as a hobby about six years ago."

At eight. He was *indulging* in a hobby at eight years old. Indulging in a hobby should be a pre-retirement activity. What an incredible weight the attitude of the writer puts on kids.

[Nemo_bis]

Even worse was the passage: "First, Wu needs to consider thicker origami solutions as he scales his design up".

Needs to? When did he sign up for it? It's not like he tried to patent a shelter design or bid for a government contract.

[bux93]

I've heard/read the expression "to indulge in a hobby" many times and never thought it was pejorative or paints hobbies as extravagancies. If you google indulge hobby, there's plenty of hits. Strangely though, ChatGPT says it does sound negative. It had never occurred to me, and probably not to the author.

[lobsterthief]

Just because ChatGPT says it sounds negative doesn’t mean it is. I didn’t think of it negatively either.

Who knows how ChatGPT made that suggestion [this time around]. Maybe 30% of the English-speaking population thinks it’s negative, or 60%, or perhaps someone simply wrote a high-profile negative op-ed that included the phrase in its title.

Anyways, not that you did this, but we need to be careful not to use LLMs as the deciding factor in how to feel about things. :) It gives too much power in swaying our thought to those who build the models.

[crazygringo]

Same with me. It's just an expression. One definition of "indulge" is "to take unrestrained pleasure in" (MW). I just read it as an activity the kid really really enjoys.

[thunky]

> Indulging in a hobby should be a pre-retirement activity

I don't think indulge means what you think it means.

[ktoo_]

I apologise for you misunderstanding my example as a strict definition?

For anyone who hasn't understood my meaning:

Indulge is a word that implies that you're allowing yourself something that you might not ordinarily. The point being: it is (or should be) silly to suggest that a child can be said to indulge in a hobby. This is because the further implication is that an eight year old might show some restraint and focus on their book learning and networking.