3 ms·

Does the author include "Falsehoods Programers Believe about $FOO" style articles? I generally find them to be clear about the fact that these are lists of fal

Does the author include "Falsehoods Programers Believe about $FOO" style articles? I generally find them to be clear about the fact that these are lists of false statements, especially since there's generally no content to each falsehood outside of stating it (sometimes they provide counterexamples).

ghaff 7y ago
Or I was reading this just the other day from Mozilla: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/common-myths-about-private-browsing https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/common-myths-about-priv... In the right context--where there is widespread misunderstanding (or ignorance) around a number of points--it seems a reasonable format. Lists and FAQs are arguably somewhat lazy writing but it imposes a structure that's easy to follow for both the writer and the reader and that's not a bad thing. And talking to editors I work with, it does seem to be a format that readers like based on the data.
- rebuilder 7y ago
  Maybe people like the listicle format because it promises to be quickly digested. Actually, I wonder if it even needs to be a list. I think a headline like "Economics explained in 20 words" would be attractive in the same way. If it was 100 words, I doubt it would work as well, even though both headlines would be obviously absurd. What's going on, there?
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Attention spans are definitely down. I know I read a lot more shorter format myself. And there's actually a lot of data on it. I certainly don't feel compelled to write for SEO or eyeballs. But easy and quick doesn't need to mean bad and is often OK for day-to-day stuff. Most things I publish are in the 800-1000 word range. These days I'll tend to go multi-part rather than the 3K-5K stuff I used to do fairly routinely.
  - vkou 7y ago
    There's nothing wrong with the listicle format, but as another poster described, the problem with 'X myths about Y' is that they tell you that the myth is wrong... Without telling you what is right.
  - domnomnom 7y ago
    I'm thinking it's not linear, ordered, etc. So the list works.
duckerude 7y ago
"Falsehoods programmers believe" tend to be implicit assumptions people have, while "myths" tend to be deliberately propagated ideas. Assumptions can simultaneously be commonly held and uncontroversially false. The trick is pointing them out.

ghaff 7y ago

Or I was reading this just the other day from Mozilla: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/common-myths-about-private-browsing https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/common-myths-about-priv... In the right context--where there is widespread misunderstanding (or ignorance) around a number of points--it seems a reasonable format. Lists and FAQs are arguably somewhat lazy writing but it imposes a structure that's easy to follow for both the writer and the reader and that's not a bad thing. And talking to editors I work with, it does seem to be a format that readers like based on the data.

rebuilder 7y ago
Maybe people like the listicle format because it promises to be quickly digested. Actually, I wonder if it even needs to be a list. I think a headline like "Economics explained in 20 words" would be attractive in the same way. If it was 100 words, I doubt it would work as well, even though both headlines would be obviously absurd. What's going on, there?
- ghaff 7y ago
  Attention spans are definitely down. I know I read a lot more shorter format myself. And there's actually a lot of data on it. I certainly don't feel compelled to write for SEO or eyeballs. But easy and quick doesn't need to mean bad and is often OK for day-to-day stuff. Most things I publish are in the 800-1000 word range. These days I'll tend to go multi-part rather than the 3K-5K stuff I used to do fairly routinely.
- vkou 7y ago
  There's nothing wrong with the listicle format, but as another poster described, the problem with 'X myths about Y' is that they tell you that the myth is wrong... Without telling you what is right.
- domnomnom 7y ago
  I'm thinking it's not linear, ordered, etc. So the list works.

duckerude 7y ago

"Falsehoods programmers believe" tend to be implicit assumptions people have, while "myths" tend to be deliberately propagated ideas. Assumptions can simultaneously be commonly held and uncontroversially false. The trick is pointing them out.