Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Little Johny Bayesian - Less Wrong

12 Post author: Darmani 18 March 2009 09:30PM

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Comment author: Nebu 19 March 2009 08:35:55PM *  1 point [-]

This has a better meter, but it's not quite fully consistent yet. I think the first line (with a few tiny modifications) has a good rhythm to it:

  • LIT-tle john-ny BAYE-si-an once THOUGHT he was real BRIGHT
  • ONE two three four ONE two three four ONE two three four ONE

The trick is then to get all the other lines to follow the same beat.

I'll look into trying to get the whole thing converted to one beat, but I don't promise anything.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 March 2009 08:37:50PM 0 points [-]

re-al = two syllables

THOUGHT that he was BRIGHT

Comment author: Nebu 19 March 2009 09:50:31PM 2 points [-]

I foresee a comment-threading nightmare. We definitely need a wiki to collaborate on this.

Comment author: Sanji 01 December 2013 06:00:48PM 1 point [-]

In a lot of old poems, fire is just one syllable, and fiery two. I imagine real could be similarly condensed. In the most widely accepted english translation of the Kalevala (Finnish national epic), fire is never two syllables. I always found that strange because I pronounce it "fie-urr".

Comment author: [deleted] 01 December 2013 06:08:18PM 1 point [-]

I think one-syllable "fire" is more common in British English. (When I have access to a more convenient Web browser than my phone's, if I remember to, I'll dig up relevant posts from John C. Wells's blog.)

Comment author: [deleted] 15 December 2013 09:21:41AM *  0 points [-]

See here about words like “fire”. IIRC he also considers “real” to be varisyllabic; and probably there are people out there who pronounce “Bayesian” with two syllables, to rhyme with (young people's pronunciation of) “Asian”¹. (I can find many posts about compression and smoothing but none which summarizes it all.)


  1. I read that some old people pronounce “Asian” to rhyme with “nation”.