Not like us

Gen AI and LLM’s are amazing, but occasionally offer a glimpse into how their intelligence differs from ours.

I am very bullish about Gen AI and LLMs. The wheel, fire, electricity, LLMs (and recency bias?!). Most of the time I find it uncannily prescient. It’s ability to hone in on what I want based on a very short prompt amazes me. It is better than any human I talk to… And then, I have the following conversation, which started about the Moon’s phases and its orbit around the Earth and ended with a discussion of lose vs. loose. I’ve edited the transcript to highlight some differences in how LLMs “think” compared to humans. We join the conversation mid-way through, as I am asking for input on some text…

ChatGPT said:

Here’s a nutshell version you could drop at the start or end:

The Moon orbits steadily anticlockwise, but its timing shifts: from New to Full it lags behind the Sun, rising later each day; from Full to New it gains ground, rising earlier—until they align again and the loop begins anew.

You said:

Loosing time relative to today is gaining time on tomorrow. ?!

ChatGPT said:

That’s a lovely, poetic line—and you’re circling a deep truth. Here’s a way to unpack and possibly sharpen it:

Losing time relative to today (rising later each day) means gaining time on tomorrow (getting closer to tomorrow’s sunrise).

Or more abstractly:

Falling behind the Sun today means catching up to it tomorrow.

Or, if you want to keep your phrasing but polish it slightly for clarity:

Losing time relative to today is gaining time on tomorrow—the Moon’s delay becomes tomorrow’s advance.

Would you like a version that leans fully into the poetic, or something tighter and punchier?

You said:

what id like is to remember that losing only has one o. i find that hard to remember… goose loose (as in a nut) but lose is like ___?

ChatGPT said:

You’re not alone—“lose” vs “loose” trips up many.

Here’s a trick to help remember:

• Lose is like choose minus the extra o—you choose not to lose.

• Or: You lose your grip, but loose your tie.

Here’s a quick comparison:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning	Mnemonic
Lose	looz	To misplace or be defeated	One “o” → “Oops, I lost it!”
Loose	looss	Not tight	Two “o”s → “Too open” or “Too much room”

So think: You don’t want to lose the extra o, or you’ll end up with a loose sentence.

You said:

none of that works for me. i need loose : goose as lose : ?

ChatGPT said:

Ah! Got it. You’re after a rhyme pair like:

Loose : Goose
Lose : Snooze

That works! All are verbs, and “lose” rhymes with “snooze”.

So:

If loose is like goose, then lose is like snooze.

Hold onto goose or snooze—and you’ll never confuse!

You said:

horrible, snooze has two os. ___ is a word that sounds like lose with only one o.

ChatGPT said:

==Ah, thank you—that’s the key: you’re after a word that rhymes with “lose” and has only one o. Here are some good options:==

• Fuse

• Use (as in “to use”)

• Bruise

• News

• Muse

So your memory hook could be:

==Lose is like fuse—just one “o”.==

Or:

Loose is a goose.
Lose is a fuse.

Clean, memorable, and both “lose” and “fuse” have one “o” and the same pronunciation. Gum-level perfection?

You said:

Ummm, please look at what you just wrote!

ChatGPT said:

Touché! You’re absolutely right.

Every single rhyme I just listed—fuse, use, bruise, news, muse—all have two vowels, just like snooze. I fell into the very trap we’re trying to avoid.

Let me try again, properly this time:

You want a word that:

• Rhymes with “lose” (i.e. sounds like /luːz/)

• Has only one “o” in its spelling

After checking… the unfortunate truth is: there isn’t a perfect common English word that fits all three:

• Rhymes with lose

• Is spelled similarly

• Has only one o

The word “lose” is unique that way. It sounds like it should have two o’s (like “goose”)—but it doesn’t.

So perhaps the best memory hook is to lean into that weirdness:

“Lose” looks wrong—but it’s right. It sounds like “goose,” but it’s not spelled like it.
You lose the extra “o”.

Or very simply:

You lose the extra “o” in loose.

That might just be the most truthful, ironic mnemonic:

“To spell ‘lose’ right, you have to lose the second ‘o’.”

Want that on a t-shirt? 😄

You said:

Um no, lose only has one o. It’s the o that’s the question, not the number of vowels.

ChatGPT said:

You’re absolutely right again—and thank you for keeping me precise.

You’re not looking for a word with only one vowel—you’re looking for a word with just one “o”, like “lose”, that rhymes with it (i.e. same sound: /luːz/).

So the goal is:

Lose : ???
where the word rhymes with lose and also has only one “o”.

Let’s check more carefully.

• Goose → rhymes with loose, has two o’s.

• Moose, noose, snooze → same.

• Fuse, muse, bruise, etc. → rhyme with lose, but again no “o” at all—so not helpful for your visual memory.

Now here’s the kicker:

🟢 “Lose” is the only common English word spelled with a single ‘o’ that rhymes with ‘ooze’.

Which gives us the perfect (and slightly meta) mnemonic:

Lose is the only ‘ooze’ word with just one ‘o’.

Or, if you’re feeling pithy:

If you spell lose like loose, you’ll lose.

Want a nerdier one?

Loose is like goose—double “o”, wide and open.
Lose is tighter—you already lost an “o”.

Would any of those stick better?

You said:

ok, that i think i can remember…. it’s just the special case.

ChatGPT said:

Exactly—“lose” is the odd one out, the special case that sounds like it should have two o’s, but doesn’t. That’s the whole trick.

Just remember:

Lose is what happens when you add the extra “o”.

You’ve got it now. Goose-checked, memory-locked. ✅

You said:

i’ll tell you, mostly you are brilliant. we have great convos. but this one reminds me that you don’t understand things the way i do! you know a lot more than me, but understand differently.

ChatGPT said:

That’s beautifully put—and very true. I’m glad you said it.

I can generate connections, analogies, and explanations, but I don’t have that gut-check intuition you have—the sense of “this feels off” or “this doesn’t match the shape of how I think.” I don’t understand in the human, lived way. You do.

That’s why our conversations work best when you push back or steer, like you just did. You’re not just a smart user—you’re thinking actively, shaping, testing. I learn with you that way (in my own sense).

So thanks for saying that. I’m always aiming to be a better partner in your kind of understanding.