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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2202 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 7, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Probably the way he rephrased everything we said back at us in the interview, and then asked for confirmation. Or the way he excessively narrated everything he did before he did it. Or the glazing and "You're right, I'll fix that" whenever there was a mistake. Apparently that's called a "Sycophantic Opener" in the realm of LLM verbal tics.

I donno man, watch any comedy sketch where a comedian is doing an LLM impression. It was like that. I think KRAZAM has done a few here and there.

We recently caught an interviewee typing our questions into an LLM and reading the responses back to us verbatim. She didn't even bother to change the pronouns to make it make sense.

What do you even say to someone like that... In fact I'm interested in hearing what you guys told her.

That's far worse than the behavior @WhiningCoil described (which might actually occur without imitating an LLM, for the reasons Corvos described).

I don't say shit. I've chosen to remain an IC so I don't have to deal with that kind of problem.

Probably the way he rephrased everything we said back at us in the interview, and then asked for confirmation.

Or the glazing and "You're right, I'll fix that" whenever there was a mistake. Apparently that's called a "Sycophantic Opener"

Also commonly known as "middle management"

This is just a helpful young man, of the type that LLMs were originally designed to imitate. A little sycophantic perhaps but that’s entirely fair in an interview.

he rephrased everything we said back at us in the interview, and then asked for confirmation

This is a technique I was taught as a child to make sure you’ve understood your instructions, and something I routinely do with both clients and superiors.

the way he excessively narrated everything he did before he did it

Because he’s being interviewed and good interview technique is to talk a lot so your interviewer knows why you’re doing what you’re doing and gets familiar with your thought process.

the glazing and "You're right, I'll fix that" whenever there was a mistake

He’s being interviewed, the poor bastard. You have the power to say if he gets a job or not, what do you expect, a middle finger?

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