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Thanks for the translation. The thing that pushed my buttons about that article is that he could have included a single sentence at the beginning that brought

Thanks for the translation. The thing that pushed my buttons about that article is that he could have included a single sentence at the beginning that brought his readers up to speed on what he was talking about. You've done an excellent job of doing just that. On the other hand, finding the context and definitions you gave would take maybe 10 minutes of Googling and tracking down other articles about the company in hopes of finding out what they're doing wrong. That's a lot to invest before I even get a chance to read the first sentence of this article. It's like you're sitting in your office sipping your morning coffee, when a disgruntled employee bursts in and launches off on a tirade starting with the words "And another thing..." Clearly he's been thinking a lot about this, possibly discussing it with other people, but he hasn't with me, his boss (or his reader in the case of the article). The correct response in these situations is along the lines of "Whoa, hang on a second. Let's take a step back and start at the beginning. Now, what is on your mind?" Keep that in mind when writing, and you'll write better. Even if you think your target audience is fully up to speed, spend a few words to make sure.

encoderer 15y ago
To be fair, Seeking Alpha is a (great) Stock Market & Finance website. That would be like criticizing the CLANG at Google post that's currently on the front page because the average person that stumbled on it wouldn't have a clue what it all meant. The only problem was that it was submitted to HN, which is not a finance-oriented website.
- jasonkester 15y ago
  Not true. I don't know anything about compilers or C++ in general, but I was able to read that entire CLANG post and understand what it was talking about. It's actually a good example of a technical article intended for a technical audience yet written to be understandable by a lay person.
  - encoderer 15y ago
    You're a programmer. In discussions about programming--even an unfamiliar language--you are not a "Lay Person." I hope you can see the flaw in your analogy here. The CLANG article didn't include a sentence at the top telling you what a compiler is, what a pointer is, etc. You knew because you were part of the target audeience: people with programming knowledge. The Seeking Alpha article target audience was: People who are active investors and interested/knowledgeable wrt finance. Normally I wouldn't waste my time with comments like this but you said it's the worst submission to HN all year! And in reality, it's a very informative article that just happened to be using jargon you're unfamiliar with.

encoderer 15y ago

To be fair, Seeking Alpha is a (great) Stock Market & Finance website. That would be like criticizing the CLANG at Google post that's currently on the front page because the average person that stumbled on it wouldn't have a clue what it all meant. The only problem was that it was submitted to HN, which is not a finance-oriented website.

jasonkester 15y ago
Not true. I don't know anything about compilers or C++ in general, but I was able to read that entire CLANG post and understand what it was talking about. It's actually a good example of a technical article intended for a technical audience yet written to be understandable by a lay person.
- encoderer 15y ago
  You're a programmer. In discussions about programming--even an unfamiliar language--you are not a "Lay Person." I hope you can see the flaw in your analogy here. The CLANG article didn't include a sentence at the top telling you what a compiler is, what a pointer is, etc. You knew because you were part of the target audeience: people with programming knowledge. The Seeking Alpha article target audience was: People who are active investors and interested/knowledgeable wrt finance. Normally I wouldn't waste my time with comments like this but you said it's the worst submission to HN all year! And in reality, it's a very informative article that just happened to be using jargon you're unfamiliar with.