The Harvard Library Passport

(fi-le.net)

32 points | by fi-le 2 days ago

3 comments

  • fumeux_fume 1 hour ago
    > For those looking for a more discreet way to spend quality time, my sources tell me the single-occupancy office rooms on the top floor are sometimes left unlocked.

    This was an interesting little rundown on all the different libraries at Harvard made all the more enjoyable by the author's humor and wit.

  • ghc 1 hour ago
    The writing style seems a little unnatural, but the odd grammatical error convinced me that it wasn't the result of someone asking an LLM to review the libraries and write the reviews in the voice of an intellectual who went to Harvard.

    What a world we live in, that suspecting an LLM guided by a specific prompt would be my first instinct.

    • bcraven 36 minutes ago
      The trope of HN comments determining whether an article was written by AI is becoming extremely tiresome.
      • alephnerd 7 minutes ago
        Silver lining - it's a fun Turing Test.
    • rawgabbit 51 minutes ago
      The author says he is a visiting researcher from ETH Switzerland. That is he is not a native English speaker.
    • hagbard_c 41 minutes ago
      > ...the odd grammatical error convinced me that it wasn't the result of someone asking an LLM...

      That's easily solved by models intentionally introducing the odd grammatical error here and there, just enough to convince the sceptics, not so many as to give the impression of being unlettered. A bit like the mythical 'RHS button' (which stands for 'real human shitty' but in reality is called the 'Shuffle' or 'Swing' function) which is supposed to make mechanically-precise drum machines sound more like human drummers.

    • fumeux_fume 50 minutes ago
      Ok Deckard
    • throwanem 1 hour ago
      "We?" I had no such trouble. You should spend less time with LLMs, if you can.
  • alephnerd 24 minutes ago
    I disagree with the HKS Library review as it was right across from the HKS cafeteria (which had the best food on campus at the cheapest price) and a nice and airy foyer. Also, your more likely to meet your Belgian princess wifey at the Quad, at Sororities, or rock climbing (eg. the daughter of a large Asian country's head of state who was a couple years my senior and active in both Greek life and rock climbing). HKS (and HBS) tended to have students who were already had a couple years of career and experience, but needed a credential to break a career plateau they had.

    Also I found Lamont to be overrated - yeah it's convenient and you can take some nice photos of yourself "studying" but I found it to be fairly depressing and aesthetically dated.

    Personally, I felt Berkeley and Stanford had better libraries from an aesthetic perspective. That said, the staff could not be beat at Harvard when doing some form of niche research.