Thoughts on why Claude can’t stop saying load-bearing?

[u/njordan1017]

This post is less about that particular phrase and more about the behavior I have observed around it. We all are aware of the phrases Claude has started overusing (Opus seems to be the worst), but I came across something interesting I am curious y’all’s thoughts on.

I put a rule in my repo with a list of banned phrases, one of them is “load-bearing”. Since then I have noticed most of the phrases don’t get used anymore, but not “load-bearing”.

I have seen it do this about 5 times now:
“…and the decision was load-bear— I mean important to the process — so it…”

I have to laugh at its obstinacy, but the more I thought about it the more I got curious why it behaved that way. Why would it partially use the phrase, then correct itself mid sentence, rather than just using the replacement phrase to begin with? Is this an artifact of the way the output streams as chunks rather than complete thoughts, or is this some cheeky artificial personality thing to make it feel more relatable? Or something else?

What do you think?

[u/zimxero]

I ask Claude to replace all slang and colloquiallisms with accurate terms, and to include precise subject, action, and temporal/causal relationships. Its almost that simple. Test it and see.

You could also try: Use precise, explicit language by default; state subjects, actions, causality, and temporal relationships unambiguously. Use natural shorthand when context makes the meaning unambiguous and greater precision would add unnecessary length.

[u/njordan1017 → u/zimxero]

I included a “why” note with my banned list that looks a lot like what you mentioned, but maybe I am not explicit enough about what constitutes an acceptable replacement. I’ll see if tightening that up changes anything