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The other day I was helping friend with an essay and i realized how 12 years in software programming has changed my writing style. Now it seems very awkward to

The other day I was helping friend with an essay and i realized how 12 years in software programming has changed my writing style. Now it seems very awkward to think and write in long paragraphs. It feels more natural to use bullet points for everything.

Cthulhu_ 7y ago
I know the feeling; when preparing to write a blog post or a presentation I tend to start off with bullet points. Mind you once I have that down I can churn out improbable amounts of text in a relatively short amount of time. The main challenge for me is to stop writing and remove unnecessary text, which is kinda hard to do given how much nuance is in code. I mean I've been thinking of writing a post (and a knowledge sharing session with my mostly C writing, older generation developer colleagues) about modern development and I was already thinking of painting a picture of how things were 10+ years ago.
- abnercoimbre 7y ago
  > I mean I've been thinking of writing a post (and a knowledge sharing session with my mostly C writing, older generation developer colleagues) about modern development [...] There's a (generally) younger cohort at Handmade Network[0] that might be interested in your essay. I'd encourage you to make an account and post it on a new thread :-) [0] https://handmade.network https://handmade.network
netcan 7y ago
I think this is a very modern thing... because internet. "The medium is the message" applies to writing more than anything. The medium has been rapidly evolving. Average people wrote very little pre-PC, and the contexts are totally different. Much higher rates of output, frequency, etc. Bullet point style is good for information dense messages, provided they are short enough. We do a lot of this now, it's how we "talk" at work. The style isn't new, it's just that many more of us have a use for it today. In the past, it was common in a military context, for example..

Cthulhu_ 7y ago

I know the feeling; when preparing to write a blog post or a presentation I tend to start off with bullet points. Mind you once I have that down I can churn out improbable amounts of text in a relatively short amount of time. The main challenge for me is to stop writing and remove unnecessary text, which is kinda hard to do given how much nuance is in code. I mean I've been thinking of writing a post (and a knowledge sharing session with my mostly C writing, older generation developer colleagues) about modern development and I was already thinking of painting a picture of how things were 10+ years ago.

abnercoimbre 7y ago
> I mean I've been thinking of writing a post (and a knowledge sharing session with my mostly C writing, older generation developer colleagues) about modern development [...] There's a (generally) younger cohort at Handmade Network[0] that might be interested in your essay. I'd encourage you to make an account and post it on a new thread :-) [0] https://handmade.network https://handmade.network

netcan 7y ago

I think this is a very modern thing... because internet. "The medium is the message" applies to writing more than anything. The medium has been rapidly evolving. Average people wrote very little pre-PC, and the contexts are totally different. Much higher rates of output, frequency, etc. Bullet point style is good for information dense messages, provided they are short enough. We do a lot of this now, it's how we "talk" at work. The style isn't new, it's just that many more of us have a use for it today. In the past, it was common in a military context, for example..