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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

mechanical sympathy en · NOUN

Etymology

Coined by Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) The concept that someone can use a tool or system most effectively when they have a deep understanding of how it works.
    • Together, we developed a sense of what the A.I. could do. Ben, who had more experience with it than I did, seemed able to get more out of it in a stroke. As he later put it, his own neural network had begun to align with GPT-4's. I would have said that he had achieved mechanical sympathy. 2023 November 13, James Somers, “A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Jan 2025: