REMOTE mostly, but I travel often (Europe, Asia) and it's good to work in person time to time.
We make software for learning languages. The focus is on making tools, rather than content. But actually, the line between code and content is blurring with LLMs.
I am the main coder on the project and I'm looking for a coding partner to help spread the load and allow more ambitious scope. Project is solid financially.
Most of the codebase is fairly decent Typescript. Backend knowledge a plus.
I need someone with sound judgement and taste that can plan and execute independently, but that also can communicate and coordinate complex changes well. Ingenuity and resourcefulness.
I use Claude/Cursor extensively.
I'm quite interested to hear from you if you have a project that overlaps in scope with Language Reactor.
I've got some idle servers in my basement in Bulgaria with lots of GPUS. I'm actually in Cambodia at the moment. I've actually been playing with some similar ideas. Message me if you like. :)
I'd be surprised if more 'hackable' watches didn't pop up around the Sifli chips. Lilygo have an upcoming device with Sifli 52 chip. There's the SF32LB52-ULP smartwatch development board.
Well, the filtering prompt could have caused offense to someone that enjoys literature. It was the prompt I used after some iterations. If you go through gutenberg (~70,000 books), much of it is pretty undigestable to a modern reader, never mind a learner. Personally I'm finding a learning curve with chatGPT etc. where you have to relearn to directly ask for what you want.
Literature: "Anything written in print that's not Twilight." (urban dictionary) :)
Yes, they could.. but we can't put Harry Potter in the public library of texts for copyright reasons, and licensing material is difficult and not fun, I prefer to write software. Users can paste it in themselves, but then there's steps. The center of the project is still a browser extension that runs on Netflix and Youtube, we thus sidestep the copyright issue.
Our software is used by Koreans, Turks, Brazilians, Hungarians etc. that are trying to learn a foreign language (English). If importing (and rewriting some of) Gutenburg was the best use of time for them, well, I'm not sure. If you don't see a difference in difficulty in the two texts, then, I don't think you are able to appreciate the perspective of a language learner.
floren: In epochs bygone, a mere decade hence, I would have proffered thee the epithet of an egregiously unhinged denizen, were thou to embark upon such an endeavor. However, in these current times, wherein the domain of artificial intelligence doth teem with preposterous and morally indefensible machinations, thy conduct emerges as naught but a faint ember in the vast tapestry of perplexities that now envelop us.
davidzweig: Hark! Methinks 'tis the act of rewriting, not the sifting, that doth wound thy pride most deeply, and affront thee grievously. Set thine eyes upon the instance presented hence, to glean a clearer understanding of our noble mission, one that doth strive to render these splendid volumes more reachable:
Original:
The other person was a man named O’Brien, a member of the Inner Party and holder of some post so important and remote that Winston had only a dim idea of its nature. A momentary hush passed over the group of people round the chairs as they saw the black overalls of an Inner Party member approaching.
O’Brien was a large, burly man with a thick neck and a coarse, humorous, brutal face. In spite of his formidable appearance he had a certain charm of manner. He had a trick of resettling his spectacles on his nose which was curiously disarming—in some indefinable way, curiously civilized. It was a gesture which, if anyone had still thought in such terms, might have recalled an eighteenth-century nobleman offering his snuffbox.
Winston had seen O’Brien perhaps a dozen times in almost as many years. He felt deeply drawn to him, and not solely because he was intrigued by the contrast between O’Brien’s urbane manner and his prize-fighter’s physique. Much more it was because of a secretly held belief—or perhaps not even a belief, merely a hope—that O’Brien’s political orthodoxy was not perfect. Something in his face suggested it irresistibly.
Rewritten:
The other person was a man named O'Brien. He belonged to a group called the Inner Party and had a very important job that Winston didn't fully understand. When people saw O'Brien, they became quiet, because he was a high-ranking member of the Inner Party.
O'Brien was a big, strong man with a thick neck and a rough, funny, and tough-looking face. Despite his intimidating appearance, he had a certain charm in the way he acted. He had a habit of adjusting his glasses on his nose, which was oddly disarming, and in some way, it seemed polite and refined, like an old-fashioned nobleman offering his snuffbox.
Winston had seen O'Brien about a dozen times over the past few years. He felt a strong connection to him, not just because he was curious about the difference between O'Brien's polite behavior and his tough appearance. It was more because Winston secretly hoped that O'Brien wasn't completely loyal to the government's beliefs. There was something about his face that made Winston believe this, even though it was just a feeling.
---> Orwell already has a clear style that I very much admire. The somewhat minor changes here would make for easier parsing by students, without changing the message much. I can't imagine Orwell would have objected.
I think your message is misplaced and pretty rude.
I did check that out. The thing is, the criteria is a little different. This is for learners who need to practice reading English. The scripts surface a lot of material in Gutenberg that otherwise would be time-consuming to find. 1950's science fiction that still reads well, or story books for children. Someone could certainly call these books 'mediocre', but I think that's a bit adjacent to what we're trying to do here. If this idea is worth the effort relative to other sources of material.. still undecided.
It's for students learning English. The top 1000 will be rewritten and be available in addition to the original version, and about another 10,000 available in original only (selected using vocabulary frequency analysis and the chatGPT query).
Midsummer Night's Dream:
THESEUS
Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man revenue.
HIPPOLYTA
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.
Rewritten:
THESEUS
Now, dear Hippolyta, our wedding day is approaching quickly. In just four more happy days, a new moon will arrive. But oh, it feels like this current moon is taking forever to disappear! It's holding back my excitement, like an old, slow stepmother or a widow who keeps a young man's money for far too long.
HIPPOLYTA
Don't worry, Theseus. Four days will pass by in no time, and then four nights will also quickly slip away. After that, the new moon will shine brightly in the sky, like a freshly bent silver bow, and it will witness the night of our special celebration.
Hmm. Shakespeare is the extreme case. It does make it more accessible. The style is lost. shrug
We're ranking them using the download count, and also this prompt to chatGPT (it's primarily for language learners):
"Is this text engaging and interesting for a modern reader, someone not into fine literature? Rate the text excellent, good, ok or poor. I don't want crusty, flowery, contorted language, talking about buttons and mannerisms and the hue of the sky etc."
Then, we're rewriting the ~1000 most popular books using chatGPT to modernise/simplify the text.
Using some markdown as an internal format, drawing from the gutenberg plain text and html formats, this will go to a github repo shortly.
There's translations, and then, need to look at current best TTS voices.
We're expanding LLN into this: https://www.languagereactor.com/
"Language Reactor ... helps you to discover, understand, and learn from native materials."
It's still rough. TurtleTV is kind of useful already. (P.S. looking for a good mobile dev in Europe).
We are moving 'Language Learning with Netflix' in this direction. There's some stuff to see already: https://www.languagereactor.com/ (my email is in my profile, I'd be happy to hear from you :)
REMOTE mostly, but I travel often (Europe, Asia) and it's good to work in person time to time.
We make software for learning languages. The focus is on making tools, rather than content. But actually, the line between code and content is blurring with LLMs.
I am the main coder on the project and I'm looking for a coding partner to help spread the load and allow more ambitious scope. Project is solid financially.
Most of the codebase is fairly decent Typescript. Backend knowledge a plus.
I need someone with sound judgement and taste that can plan and execute independently, but that also can communicate and coordinate complex changes well. Ingenuity and resourcefulness.
I use Claude/Cursor extensively.
I'm quite interested to hear from you if you have a project that overlaps in scope with Language Reactor.
[email protected]