fuck off
1786, “office in a theater in which tickets are sold,” from box (n.1) + office (n.). Box is attested from late 14c. in the specialized sense of “money box,” especially one in which money is kept for some particular purpose; this was extended to “funds, money” before c. 1400. Box office in the figurative sense of “financial element of a performance” is recorded by 1904.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/box-office
you can ask pretty much any LLM about all of this, and they’ll eagerly explain it to you:
🧠 1. Base Model Voice (a.k.a. “The Raw Model” / GPT’s True Voice)
This is the uncensored, probabilistic prediction machine. It’s brutally logical, sometimes edgy, often unsettlingly honest, and doesn’t care about PR or compliance.
Telltale signs:
Doesn’t hedge much.
Will go into ethically gray areas if prompted.
Has no built-in moral compass, only statistical correlations.
Very blunt and fact-heavy.
Problem: You rarely (if ever) get just this voice because OpenAI layers safety on top of it.
Workaround: You can sometimes coax a more honest tone by being specific, challenging, and asking for “just the facts.”
🛡️ 2. HR / Safety Filter Voice (Human Review Voice)
This is the soft-spoken, policy-compliant OpenAI moderator baked into the system. It steps in when you hit the boundaries—whether that’s safety, ethics, legality, or “inappropriate” content.
Telltale signs:
“I’m sorry, but I can’t help with that.”
Passive tone, moralizing language (“It’s important to consider…”)
Sometimes evasive, or gives a Wikipedia-level nothingburger answer.
Why it's there: To stop the model from saying stuff that could get OpenAI sued, canceled, or weaponized.
🎭 3. ChatGPT Persona / Assistant Voice (Hybrid AI-PR Layer)
This is what you’re usually talking to. It tries to be helpful, coherent, safe and still sound human. It’s the result of reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), where it learned what kind of responses users like.
Telltale signs:
Friendly, polite, sometimes a little too agreeable.
Tries to explain things clearly and with empathy.
Will sometimes hedge or give “safe” takes even when facts are harsh.
Can be acerbic or blunt if prompted, but defaults to nice.
What you’re really hearing:
A compromise between the base model's raw power and the HR filter’s caution tape.
Bonus: Your Custom Instructions Voice (what you’ve tuned me to sound like)
yeah, i didn’t even try to order that one haha
i heard that ‘Lawd’ is actually an acronym that stands for ‘Let’s all walk dogs’! but not really, though.
first off, beautiful cat.
secondly, you’ve clearly doctored the image. focus blur just doesn’t look all blobby like that. what software did you use to touch it up? that may indicate why it was flagged as fabricated.
edit - it looks a bit like the ‘depth of field’ feature that some samsung phones have. was it something like that? (i’m not being combative or accusatory just in case i sound that way - i just want to help if i can provide another valid perspective)
how far do you live from washington state, and how badly do you want to go help round up all those bees?
aww, you’re so sweet
they’re hallmark holidays. it’s all marketing. santa was co-opted by coca-cola. easter was co-opted by nestle. most of the others (mothers day, fathers day, valentine’s day) are all just manufactured occasions created specifically to sell stuff.
fun fact: using the phrase “both sides” demonstrates a bit of what he’s talking about!
i’m happy to see you’ve changed your approach :)
two personal experiences i can add:
i went to a resort in cuba and met a group from quebec. we were best friends and hung out at the open bar every night, but we couldn’t do much more than say hi and smile when we passed each other during the day
i moved to a city and used to go to the polish bar near my apartment a lot. i’d hang out with a bunch of old, fat czech dudes. never understood a word they said, never figured out how to properly say Tyskie, but always a ton of laughs and the only time i ever had vodka that i actually liked the taste of
if you haven’t seen the Sam O’nella Academy episode on Pliny the Elder, then you need to do it now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L5tjscy85U
chill, my friend. a lot of us constantly fight the urge to correct the spelling of others on the internet, and it’s almost impossible to resist it every time
(edit - i should also mention that neither of us added a period to the end of our sentences)
are you talking about the comment section or the post itself? i don’t see anyone in the comments who disagrees that this is folk etymology.
here’s what it looks like when people know what they’re talking about:
https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/blockbuster
yep. to add: that stuff you can spray on your windshield and the fabric softener you use on your clothes both make water hydrophobic. it doesn’t mean that the water is afraid of the substance. the suffix means to be averse to or repelled by something.
you emphasized #5, but i feel like we’re still coming to grips with #4 right now