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A comment on Which Table Format Do LLMs Understand Best? (Results for 11 Formats). Parent comment

Re:Which Table Format Do LLMs Understand Best? (Results for ... by BolexNOLA on Sunday October 05, 2025 @04:21PM (#45484889)
There’s a big difference between mistyping 1% of the time yourself (human error) and a calculator failing 1% of the time (machine error) and I am willing to bet there isn’t a company out there (maybe a handful of less scrupulous ones) that has knowingly shipped a calculator that got it wrong 1% of the time. Especially in previous decades when countless people were using a dedicated calculator dozens of times a day. Hard to imagine a 1% margin of error was acceptable.

Not to mention now you have the compounded problem of your mistakes plus the calculator’s mistakes.

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Re:Which Table Format Do LLMs Understand Best? (Results for ... by crazygringo on Sunday October 05, 2025 @09:39PM (#45486858)
There isn't a difference in the big picture. Error is error. Even when we have incredibly reliable things, there's error when they interface with humans. Humans have error interfacing with each other.

But you seem to have missed the main point I was making. See? Another error. They're everwhere! ;)

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Re:Which Table Format Do LLMs Understand Best? (Results for ... by catlifeonmars on Monday October 06, 2025 @01:32AM (#45487937)
> But you seem to have missed the main point I was making. See? Another error. They're everwhere! ;)

Ah, but whose error? ;)

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Re:Which Table Format Do LLMs Understand Best? (Results for ... by BolexNOLA on Monday October 06, 2025 @07:59AM (#45490413)
> But you seem to have missed the main point I was making. See? Another error. They're everwhere! ;)

You really could’ve done without this bit.

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Re:Which Table Format Do LLMs Understand Best? (Results for ... by altcognito on Monday October 06, 2025 @11:11AM (#45492275)
The computer on your desk has a number of errors just holding values in memory.

Yes, it's not 1%, but the argument is about them being imperfect devices. It's not a horrible thing to start with the presumption that calculators are not perfect.

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Re:Which Table Format Do LLMs Understand Best? (Results for ... by BolexNOLA on Monday October 06, 2025 @06:38PM (#45497101)
Yes but I don’t depend on the output of my comp’s memory in such explicit terms and it doesn’t have lasting consequences. If my calculator literally gives me the wrong answer 1% of the time that’s a bigger problem.
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