Words are just labels of a real thing, and out of the many words for a real thing, some have more potency. There are varying levels of closeness to that thing.
QC’s excellent post presents a distinction between “head words” (words felt in the head) and “core words” (words felt in the chest, or stomach, somewhere deeper). The closer you can describe a real thing, the deeper your description is felt within the body.
“Head words are civilized words, domesticated words, RLHF’d words. The part of me that learned how to generate language like this learned how to do it in school, in order to pass classes. Head words are mostly bullshit. [...]
Words that come from lower in the body are terrifying. They are a million years old. Not domesticated. Not safe for work. They have horrendous implications you could easily spend your life running away from. Taking them seriously might require you to upend everything. But they are not bullshit.”
QC didn’t give examples (deliberately, I’m sure). I hesitate whether examples ruin the concept. But I give a few not-perfect ones just to illustrate the idea:
One core word says more than a thousand head words; this is why Hemingway’s short story cuts deeper than most novels. The most beautiful language is that which gets closest to describing the deepest emotions we have.
Core words make for great TV dialogue. Core words make for great speeches. I suspect half of the reason we find someone charismatic is because they use core words (and in doing so, speak concisely).
Head words are so easy that any AI model can do it indistinguishably from humans. It is effortless to write corporate prose and speak corporate talk all day, but notice how difficult it is to say words that come from the core. How difficult it is to describe love for your wife and children. Perhaps those words don’t exist. We say "I love them, they are my all, my greatest joys in life", but there’s more, so much more, and we just can’t verbalize it. Millions of love songs and stories try.
The realer the thing you’re trying to say - the more it is felt in the body - the harder it is to find the words.
There are many more concepts in my "Mind Expander" tool (it's free)