Dash: What it is, what it does, and why you should probably ignore it

The Em Dash: Proof That AI Is Dumber Than a Box of Rocks

So, OpenAI "fixed" the ChatGPT em dash problem, huh? Gimme a break. Sam Altman tweets about it like it's some kind of monumental achievement. "Small-but-happy win"? More like a small-but-infuriating reminder that we're all slowly losing our minds to machines that can't even grasp basic punctuation. OpenAI says it’s fixed ChatGPT’s em dash problem

The fact that this was even a "problem" in the first place is what gets me. We're talking about a friggin' em dash—a punctuation mark!—that somehow became the telltale sign of AI-generated garbage. It’s like saying a specific shade of beige is now the official color of corporate soullessness.

And let's be real, the whole "AI writing" thing is already a joke. Every LinkedIn post, every customer service chat, every freakin' email is starting to sound the same. Bland, lifeless, and punctuated to death with these damn em dashes. It’s like these chatbots are trying too hard to sound "smart" and just end up sounding… well, robotic.

The Headlamp Tangent Nobody Asked For

Speaking of useless gadgets, I saw a review for the BioLite Dash 450 headlamp. 450 lumens, USB-C charging, IPX4 water resistance... Who cares? Seriously, who needs a $70 headlamp to navigate the "dark Hutongs of Beijing"? Sounds like a contrived marketing stunt to me. What's wrong with a regular flashlight or, you know, turning on a goddamn light switch?

This obsession with "adventure" and "the great outdoors" is just another way for corporations to sell us more crap we don't need. “Oh, but it’s lightweight and has a reflective headband!” So does a piece of duct tape and a keyring light.

Anyway, where was I? Oh right, the AI apocalypse.

Custom Instructions? Seriously?

So, the "fix" is that now you can tell ChatGPT not to use em dashes in your custom instructions. Great. So, we're not only relying on AI to write our crap, but we also have to baby it and tell it how to do its job properly. It's like hiring a plumber who needs you to tell him which end of the wrench to hold.

And what about the people who actually like using em dashes? Are they now going to be suspected of being AI bots? This whole thing is just a massive overreaction. It’s the digital equivalent of a witch hunt, only instead of burning witches, we’re cancelling punctuation marks.

I saw some idiot online complaining about dash cams and people driving like maniacs. Offcourse, if he's seeing that, he should probably get off his phone and pay attention to the road.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I miss the days when people actually wrote their own damn sentences. You know, with actual thoughts and feelings and without relying on a chatbot to do the heavy lifting. And yeah, I'm aware that there's a whole world of geometry dash games out there, but that's a different kind of dash altogether.

Is This Really What We're Fighting For?