3 ms·

A great read. Steve Yegge is a super smart guy. I personally think his longish style is great. I like to be able to read an article for a good 20 minutes. I wi

by dhotson 18y ago

A great read. Steve Yegge is a super smart guy. I personally think his longish style is great. I like to be able to read an article for a good 20 minutes. I wish more bloggers wrote articles with as much depth and passion as Stevey. Paul Graham's tight editing style is great too.. don't get me wrong. :)

dfranke 18y ago
Agreed. It really worries me that even this crowd by-and-large doesn't have enough of an attention span to cope with Yegge. Does anyone read books any more?
- deleted 18y ago
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- d0mine 18y ago
  1. "Steve's stuff strikes me as a stream-of-consciousness, spellcheck and then post, type of style." http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=219653 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=219653 2. "Mes Révérends Pères, mes lettres n'avaient pas accoutumé de se suivre de si près, ni d'être si étendues. Le peu de temps que j'ai eu a été cause de l'un et de l'autre. Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte." Bribes: Petit Dictionnaire des Citations http://www.bribes.org/temps.htm http://www.bribes.org/temps.htm A loose translation of the above quote: "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." From 1. and 2. it follows: Succinctness takes more effort. Yegge took no effort. All other being equal a succinct text is preferable.
  - LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
    I don't think it follows that Yegge took no effort. In fact, I suspect that the rough draft of his post was quite a bit longer. Imagine the reader shock to read that one!
yef 18y ago
Long is fine if that's what it takes to make the point. I learned to keep things as concise as possible to avoid losing the reader. The side benefit is that it forces the writer to clarify and distill his thoughts. Most of the work is done in rewriting. Steve's stuff strikes me as a stream-of-consciousness, spellcheck and then post, type of style. Do the 3rd and 4th paragraphs about jocks really contribute anything to his point?
- cdr 18y ago
  I find his writing to be more enjoyable than effective, but that's fine - there's not a whole lot of technical people out there that are actually enjoyable to read.
- dhotson 18y ago
  Probably not. You make a fair point. :) But I still do enjoy reading all the anecdotes and slightly off topic stuff. I think that if it was too polished it would lose its edge. The raw/unedited nature of his writing is what I like about it.
- pchristensen 18y ago
  The part about the jocks was funny, which makes people smile, which makes them excited about reading the rest. Happy readers keep reading.
- andreyf 18y ago
  Do the 3rd and 4th paragraphs about jocks really contribute anything to his point? Did you notice the title of the blog?
ratsbane 18y ago
That was good. PG's succinctness is perhaps a bit better but SY is in the same class of essayist. Malcolm Gladwell, too, I think. As I was reading this I was thinking that he's described something I've noticed but couldn't categorize properly. All three of them write by finding some series of effects we've all noticed, tying them together through common causes and making further extrapolations about the effects of those causes. It really makes you think and in a good way.

by dhotson 18y ago

dfranke 18y ago

Agreed. It really worries me that even this crowd by-and-large doesn't have enough of an attention span to cope with Yegge. Does anyone read books any more?

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
d0mine 18y ago
1. "Steve's stuff strikes me as a stream-of-consciousness, spellcheck and then post, type of style." http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=219653 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=219653 2. "Mes Révérends Pères, mes lettres n'avaient pas accoutumé de se suivre de si près, ni d'être si étendues. Le peu de temps que j'ai eu a été cause de l'un et de l'autre. Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte." Bribes: Petit Dictionnaire des Citations http://www.bribes.org/temps.htm http://www.bribes.org/temps.htm A loose translation of the above quote: "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." From 1. and 2. it follows: Succinctness takes more effort. Yegge took no effort. All other being equal a succinct text is preferable.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
  I don't think it follows that Yegge took no effort. In fact, I suspect that the rough draft of his post was quite a bit longer. Imagine the reader shock to read that one!

yef 18y ago

Long is fine if that's what it takes to make the point. I learned to keep things as concise as possible to avoid losing the reader. The side benefit is that it forces the writer to clarify and distill his thoughts. Most of the work is done in rewriting. Steve's stuff strikes me as a stream-of-consciousness, spellcheck and then post, type of style. Do the 3rd and 4th paragraphs about jocks really contribute anything to his point?

cdr 18y ago
I find his writing to be more enjoyable than effective, but that's fine - there's not a whole lot of technical people out there that are actually enjoyable to read.
dhotson 18y ago
Probably not. You make a fair point. :) But I still do enjoy reading all the anecdotes and slightly off topic stuff. I think that if it was too polished it would lose its edge. The raw/unedited nature of his writing is what I like about it.
pchristensen 18y ago
The part about the jocks was funny, which makes people smile, which makes them excited about reading the rest. Happy readers keep reading.
andreyf 18y ago
Do the 3rd and 4th paragraphs about jocks really contribute anything to his point? Did you notice the title of the blog?

ratsbane 18y ago

That was good. PG's succinctness is perhaps a bit better but SY is in the same class of essayist. Malcolm Gladwell, too, I think. As I was reading this I was thinking that he's described something I've noticed but couldn't categorize properly. All three of them write by finding some series of effects we've all noticed, tying them together through common causes and making further extrapolations about the effects of those causes. It really makes you think and in a good way.