6 ms·

750 Words

19 points by ams1 17y ago

ams1 17y ago
One thing that struck me as weird was-- after the spiel about the site being private (between 'you and you'), it asks you to sign in via facebook.
- jfarmer 17y ago
  Presumably just for the authentication aspect, but it'd be good if they clarified.
- chris24 17y ago
  Hmmm, speaking of Facebook, I found it strange that their Facebook application page only lists 2 active users this month: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?v=info&id=201046311268 http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?v=info&id=2...
- araneae 17y ago
  I was tempted to try it, but the Facebook thing is a no-starter.
- kowen 17y ago
  I was actually going to try it, but I simply do not have a facebook account, and have no intention of getting one. I kind of get that one might want to avoid writing all the authentication stuff, though.
- 3pt14159 17y ago
  I deleted my facebook account due to the fact I think the various world's intelligence services are more than a little interested in it. NOW this guy wants raw, unfiltered brain dumps to it? Excuse my French but, FUCK THAT. My moleskin journal works just fine and can be pulverized into a fine powder if need be, rather than endlessly backed up through the cloud and associated with my name.
  - rinich 17y ago
    The CIA absolutely cares about the three pages of fiction you write every day, and there is certainly a way they could take that and use it to make the world worse. I like this service. I don't like writing in journals, regardless of the brand name, and I think I might give this a try. I guess you're allowed not to like it, but it bothers me that you're so obnoxious about your dislike. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to open every Hacker News article I have a disagreement with and loudly state my opposition, because excuse my French but, FUCK THAT.
- jamesjyu 17y ago
  I think the parent poster and the repliers are just a bit too paranoid. Looking at his site, it's obvious he's only using FB for authentication. Also, FB will always explicitly ask you before allowing his app to post anything public on your profile.
derefr 17y ago
So what do they mean when they say "it's online?" It's obviously a web application, but why is it one (other than that being the paradigm the author is most acquainted with)? What's the advantage of using this over, say, a desktop tool like WriteRoom/OmmWriter plus a scoring script?
- GHFigs 17y ago
  This question comes up a lot, but to me it always sounds like "Why eat at a restaurant when you can cook at home?" The main reason people do it is that simply to have someone else do all the work other than the eating, or in this case, the writing.
  - ryanwaggoner 17y ago
    What other work? It's no more work to open an application than to open a website. In fact, it's a lot less because I don't have to fire up my browser, navigate to the site, sign in through Facebook, etc.
    - GHFigs 17y ago
      That's not the kind of "work" I'm referring to. Actually, I'm mystified at how you can even call any of that work. The physical and cognitive load of reaching any site, anywhere, is already small, and vanishingly so when it's a site you use frequently. A new browser window or tab is something you probably do dozens of times a day. Think about it: the site is intended to be used daily--anybody that actually 'buys in' is going to have that bookmarked, shortcut-ed, homepage-ed, or at least in their autocomplete. And logging into Facebook? A typical Facebook user is never not logged in. Where is the work coming in? I'm sorry to expend so many words on that, but it really does seem strange to me that someone in this day and on this site would regard going to a website as a lot of work. But to my original point: I'm talking about the work of actually making the thing. The parent post specifically refers to "WriteRoom/OmmWriter plus a scoring script" as the alternative. Where does that script come from? Who maintains it? Whose computer does it run on? Who is responsible for ensuring that it continues to work? The answer to all of those is either "you, yourself" or "someone else". There are occasions why "you, yourself" are the best person for the job, but quite often there is no particular need to waste your attention on a problem that already has an adequate solution for. Sometimes (just as with cooking) you may even get more satisfying results that way. In this case, the author is selling you on a specific habit with a tool specifically tailored for the problem of incorporating and maintaining it. If you are interested in that problem at all, the attention-conserving approach would be to try that tool first, before reimplementing your own partial solution.
SlyShy 17y ago
I really liked this. I've written a shell script that does something similar, but there isn't any chart generation or word tagging, for example. This is nice and polished. I'm always overjoyed when someone works on something I want. :)
berlinbrown 17y ago
Looks cool but I wish you could publish your writing.
- SlyShy 17y ago
  Actually, there is an option on each of your posts to make them public. They are just private by default. But really, you wouldn't want to publish this anyway. The same way nobody publishes NaNoWriMo novels either. The point is to get the words flowing, not to write editorially correct writing. In fact, focusing too much on writing "well" is what gives most people the mental block that is much complained about. Unrestrained expression followed by judicious culling is the way to write.
- kowen 17y ago
  I did morning pages (long hand) for a while, and while the process certainly was interesting and helpful, most of it was garbage, trite, uninteresting, and truly boring. Any interesting pieces would have required rewrite/cleanup before being anything close to publishable.
jacquesm 17y ago
the guy that made it: http://busterbenson.com/ http://busterbenson.com/ Bottom of the page, 'rules to live by', good stuff!
mattwdelong 17y ago
Perhaps posting the source code and allowing people to host it on their own terms would be a bit more realistic. If someone is to write as 750words intends, spilling their deepest thoughts; I don't think they want to attribute their facebook account to it, let alone entrust someone they know nothing about with that very data. It would be interesting to know if they changed the authentication procedure + made it anonymous, how much the conversions would change.
ryanwaggoner 17y ago
One of my daily habits for the last few years has been writing morning pages, though my goal is 500 words, and I typically write 550 - 600. I use the excellent WriteRoom, which helps block distractions and also provides a handy word count in the bottom left corner. I now have hundreds of text files documenting my inner monologue over the last few years...I expect it'll come in handy if I ever decide to write my memoirs :)
- SlyShy 17y ago
  For those of us on Linux, PyRoom is a nice clone, which has the additional benefit of being easily hackable via Python.
jamesbritt 17y ago
"typically encouraged to be in 'long hand' ... " Probably because your brain works differently when you write that when than when you type, a difference that matters.
FraaJad 17y ago
Journler -- http://journler.com/ http://journler.com/ is a good desktop app for Mac users. It shows the number of paragraphs words in the status bar. It also has a load of other features without getting in the way of writing. Thanks for bringing the idea of writing morning pages into our attention.

19 points by ams1 17y ago

ams1 17y ago

One thing that struck me as weird was-- after the spiel about the site being private (between 'you and you'), it asks you to sign in via facebook.

jfarmer 17y ago
Presumably just for the authentication aspect, but it'd be good if they clarified.
chris24 17y ago
Hmmm, speaking of Facebook, I found it strange that their Facebook application page only lists 2 active users this month: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?v=info&id=201046311268 http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?v=info&id=2...
araneae 17y ago
I was tempted to try it, but the Facebook thing is a no-starter.
kowen 17y ago
I was actually going to try it, but I simply do not have a facebook account, and have no intention of getting one. I kind of get that one might want to avoid writing all the authentication stuff, though.
3pt14159 17y ago
I deleted my facebook account due to the fact I think the various world's intelligence services are more than a little interested in it. NOW this guy wants raw, unfiltered brain dumps to it? Excuse my French but, FUCK THAT. My moleskin journal works just fine and can be pulverized into a fine powder if need be, rather than endlessly backed up through the cloud and associated with my name.
- rinich 17y ago
  The CIA absolutely cares about the three pages of fiction you write every day, and there is certainly a way they could take that and use it to make the world worse. I like this service. I don't like writing in journals, regardless of the brand name, and I think I might give this a try. I guess you're allowed not to like it, but it bothers me that you're so obnoxious about your dislike. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to open every Hacker News article I have a disagreement with and loudly state my opposition, because excuse my French but, FUCK THAT.
jamesjyu 17y ago
I think the parent poster and the repliers are just a bit too paranoid. Looking at his site, it's obvious he's only using FB for authentication. Also, FB will always explicitly ask you before allowing his app to post anything public on your profile.

derefr 17y ago

So what do they mean when they say "it's online?" It's obviously a web application, but why is it one (other than that being the paradigm the author is most acquainted with)? What's the advantage of using this over, say, a desktop tool like WriteRoom/OmmWriter plus a scoring script?

GHFigs 17y ago
This question comes up a lot, but to me it always sounds like "Why eat at a restaurant when you can cook at home?" The main reason people do it is that simply to have someone else do all the work other than the eating, or in this case, the writing.
- ryanwaggoner 17y ago
  What other work? It's no more work to open an application than to open a website. In fact, it's a lot less because I don't have to fire up my browser, navigate to the site, sign in through Facebook, etc.
  - GHFigs 17y ago
    That's not the kind of "work" I'm referring to. Actually, I'm mystified at how you can even call any of that work. The physical and cognitive load of reaching any site, anywhere, is already small, and vanishingly so when it's a site you use frequently. A new browser window or tab is something you probably do dozens of times a day. Think about it: the site is intended to be used daily--anybody that actually 'buys in' is going to have that bookmarked, shortcut-ed, homepage-ed, or at least in their autocomplete. And logging into Facebook? A typical Facebook user is never not logged in. Where is the work coming in? I'm sorry to expend so many words on that, but it really does seem strange to me that someone in this day and on this site would regard going to a website as a lot of work. But to my original point: I'm talking about the work of actually making the thing. The parent post specifically refers to "WriteRoom/OmmWriter plus a scoring script" as the alternative. Where does that script come from? Who maintains it? Whose computer does it run on? Who is responsible for ensuring that it continues to work? The answer to all of those is either "you, yourself" or "someone else". There are occasions why "you, yourself" are the best person for the job, but quite often there is no particular need to waste your attention on a problem that already has an adequate solution for. Sometimes (just as with cooking) you may even get more satisfying results that way. In this case, the author is selling you on a specific habit with a tool specifically tailored for the problem of incorporating and maintaining it. If you are interested in that problem at all, the attention-conserving approach would be to try that tool first, before reimplementing your own partial solution.

SlyShy 17y ago

I really liked this. I've written a shell script that does something similar, but there isn't any chart generation or word tagging, for example. This is nice and polished. I'm always overjoyed when someone works on something I want. :)

berlinbrown 17y ago

Looks cool but I wish you could publish your writing.

SlyShy 17y ago
Actually, there is an option on each of your posts to make them public. They are just private by default. But really, you wouldn't want to publish this anyway. The same way nobody publishes NaNoWriMo novels either. The point is to get the words flowing, not to write editorially correct writing. In fact, focusing too much on writing "well" is what gives most people the mental block that is much complained about. Unrestrained expression followed by judicious culling is the way to write.
kowen 17y ago
I did morning pages (long hand) for a while, and while the process certainly was interesting and helpful, most of it was garbage, trite, uninteresting, and truly boring. Any interesting pieces would have required rewrite/cleanup before being anything close to publishable.

jacquesm 17y ago

the guy that made it: http://busterbenson.com/ http://busterbenson.com/ Bottom of the page, 'rules to live by', good stuff!

mattwdelong 17y ago

Perhaps posting the source code and allowing people to host it on their own terms would be a bit more realistic. If someone is to write as 750words intends, spilling their deepest thoughts; I don't think they want to attribute their facebook account to it, let alone entrust someone they know nothing about with that very data. It would be interesting to know if they changed the authentication procedure + made it anonymous, how much the conversions would change.

ryanwaggoner 17y ago

One of my daily habits for the last few years has been writing morning pages, though my goal is 500 words, and I typically write 550 - 600. I use the excellent WriteRoom, which helps block distractions and also provides a handy word count in the bottom left corner. I now have hundreds of text files documenting my inner monologue over the last few years...I expect it'll come in handy if I ever decide to write my memoirs :)

SlyShy 17y ago
For those of us on Linux, PyRoom is a nice clone, which has the additional benefit of being easily hackable via Python.

jamesbritt 17y ago

"typically encouraged to be in 'long hand' ... " Probably because your brain works differently when you write that when than when you type, a difference that matters.

FraaJad 17y ago

Journler -- http://journler.com/ http://journler.com/ is a good desktop app for Mac users. It shows the number of paragraphs words in the status bar. It also has a load of other features without getting in the way of writing. Thanks for bringing the idea of writing morning pages into our attention.