Why do we say "tokens" instead of "words" for human reading? Plus the 15-token attention rule
sergeykarayev · x · 2026-11-14
Sergey Karayev asks why people describe human reading in "tokens" rather than "words", likening it to tech metaphors creeping into psychology. The quoted post from Slava Akhmechet is the meat: new writers earn a baseline 15 tokens of reader attention; really good tokens earn another 50, and so on, with an interrupt firing every 50 tokens. Forget grammar and structure — just keep producing valuable tokens in 15/50/50 increments, and self-audit with a tokenizer.
More from Fun
- 'Future jobs' meme: sales, claude meatbag, claude eunuch — tekbog · 2026-11-14
- Commentary: Europe's AI spend so thin its best Nvidia play is leasing to China — teortaxesTex · 2026-11-14
- ELIZA's SPACKS script: the chatbot's earliest poetry-critic role unearthed — begusgasper · 2026-11-14
- AI-generated Jensen Huang fur-coat supercar meme takes over AI Twitter — EddyVGG · 2026-11-14
- ML researcher Burkov: "ENOUGH OF HUANG!" as Jensen fatigue sets in — burkov · 2026-11-14
- AI influencer mocked a grieving son's memorial post, community calls to unfollow — cneuralnetwork · 2026-11-14