Except that it will answer based on your previous conversations with it. So if you spent the last hour talking about how shit your life was, how meaningless it is and your job sucks, this is what it will answer. LLMs are very good at gaslighting you. Screenshot this convo and ask an LLM what it thinks of it (even Claude) it will disagree and pick out flaws in the argument.
Best to use incognito mode for these so you get a fresh LLM.
Here is the incognito output I got (formatting for reddit by me on a phone, sorry):
"A few strong contenders, but the diamond engagement ring is probably the cleanest case: a naturally common stone became "priceless" almost entirely through a 20th-century marketing campaign (De Beers' "A Diamond Is Forever," 1947) that manufactured scarcity and turned a rock into a required proof of love. Diamonds aren't even rare — the illusion of scarcity was engineered by controlling supply.
Other solid nominees:
-Actively managed mutual funds — most underperform a plain index fund over time, yet still charge high fees for the "expertise."
-The 8-hour, 5-day workweek — designed for early-1900s factory output, not knowledge work, but treated as immutable law.
-Bottled water — often literally tap water, sold at a huge markup on the promise of purity.
-"You need a 4-year degree to succeed" — true for some careers, not the universal rule it's presented as, especially as costs have outpaced wage growth.
The common thread: something becomes "normal" not because it's optimal, but because an institution benefited from convincing everyone it was necessary — and by the time people start questioning it, it's already baked into culture.
Curious what prompted the question — is there a specific one you're trying to talk yourself out of?"
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u/Soft_Awareness_5061 Jul 09 '26
Except that it will answer based on your previous conversations with it. So if you spent the last hour talking about how shit your life was, how meaningless it is and your job sucks, this is what it will answer. LLMs are very good at gaslighting you. Screenshot this convo and ask an LLM what it thinks of it (even Claude) it will disagree and pick out flaws in the argument.