4 ms·

I wish most of the blog posts I see linked here would condense their message like this, rather than rambling self-indulgently.

smakz 18y ago
Steve Yegge, we're looking at you.
- staticshock 18y ago
  he wrote about that, actually: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/01/blogging-theory-201-size-does-matter.html http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/01/blogging-theory-201-... i think his main point was that, despite popular opinion, more people will read the longer articles, and more people will take them seriously and remember them. to quote: In short, I think long blogs have better survival characteristics: greater reach and greater impact.
  - jonknee 18y ago
    Thanks for the summary, I stopped reading too quickly to grok that.
  - whacked_new 18y ago
    Reads like an unsatisfying self-justification to me. I think people read his posts not because they are long, but simply because he's a pretty decent writer with a pretty engaging style. Nevertheless, his style entails a lot of extraneous, decorative statements that get annoying when you're looking for raw information. That kind of style works fine with, say, Violent Acres, because you know what to expect. But Yegge also writes semi technical material with the same style! In this regard, Eliezer Yudkowsky does a good job IMHO: long, but succinct.
- eloop 18y ago
  I think the message wasn't "write concise blogs", it was create rather than critique. Yegge could be accused of doing both copiously.
bootload 18y ago
"... condense their message ... rather than rambling self-indulgently ..." And in the process discard you discard the layering of supported ideas. Instead you get a fragment of an idea that you have no idea how it was formulated. Real life isn't like this. You have to sort the noise from the signal. An essay is one way you can do this. If all you want are the short "tell me the answer" type posts you are susceptible to relying on others to think for you and hence be manipulated.
- akkartik 18y ago
  You need to provide evidence or a sense of where you're coming from, yes. But sometimes just tying in two disparate links can do that. http://scrapbook.akkartik.name/post/4424779/are-crowds-wise-or-dumb-groups-of-people-are http://scrapbook.akkartik.name/post/4424779/are-crowds-wise-... I make it clear what data I'm summarizing, but the summary also seems more timeless to me than the data. I can imagine it being derived from other books about the wisdom of crowds. Like this blog post: http://gojko.net/2008/08/05/bulding-smart-teams http://gojko.net/2008/08/05/bulding-smart-teams
- seregine 18y ago
  If your reader is filtering noise from your signal, they're getting more out of your writing than you are.
  - bootload 18y ago
    "... If your reader is filtering noise from your signal ..." In the processing of writing you are filtering your own ideas into words. This for writers is the main benefit. Through writing you clarify your own ideas. The difference between brevity and verbosity between writers could indicate greater skill in writing converting the ideas into words.
- trevelyan 18y ago
  One difference between good and bad writing is in the organization and presentation of ideas. There should usually be flow or structure, although there's no reason not to be creative about it.
richcollins 18y ago
My friend Steve does a lot with short posts. Have a look: http://dekorte.com/blog/blog.cgi http://dekorte.com/blog/blog.cgi
axod 18y ago
Reading a well written blog is interesting. I don't like soundbites/marketing slogan type things like this tweet. They overly simplify something so that it 'feels' right to the masses, when in actual fact it may not be. Going for a popularist vote rather than forming a cohesive argument.
tel 18y ago
I think of some Twitterers as becoming the poets of blogging. Their form: 140 words. It's not horribly restrictive, but the best can have a sensibility and quiescence not dissimilar to haiku. After you see that metaphor it just becomes a matter of whether you like poetry or just novels.
- staticshock 18y ago
  i could see "a twit" in the dictionary, with some meaning similar to "a haiku"
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]

smakz 18y ago

Steve Yegge, we're looking at you.

staticshock 18y ago
he wrote about that, actually: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/01/blogging-theory-201-size-does-matter.html http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/01/blogging-theory-201-... i think his main point was that, despite popular opinion, more people will read the longer articles, and more people will take them seriously and remember them. to quote: In short, I think long blogs have better survival characteristics: greater reach and greater impact.
- jonknee 18y ago
  Thanks for the summary, I stopped reading too quickly to grok that.
- whacked_new 18y ago
  Reads like an unsatisfying self-justification to me. I think people read his posts not because they are long, but simply because he's a pretty decent writer with a pretty engaging style. Nevertheless, his style entails a lot of extraneous, decorative statements that get annoying when you're looking for raw information. That kind of style works fine with, say, Violent Acres, because you know what to expect. But Yegge also writes semi technical material with the same style! In this regard, Eliezer Yudkowsky does a good job IMHO: long, but succinct.
eloop 18y ago
I think the message wasn't "write concise blogs", it was create rather than critique. Yegge could be accused of doing both copiously.

bootload 18y ago

"... condense their message ... rather than rambling self-indulgently ..." And in the process discard you discard the layering of supported ideas. Instead you get a fragment of an idea that you have no idea how it was formulated. Real life isn't like this. You have to sort the noise from the signal. An essay is one way you can do this. If all you want are the short "tell me the answer" type posts you are susceptible to relying on others to think for you and hence be manipulated.

akkartik 18y ago
You need to provide evidence or a sense of where you're coming from, yes. But sometimes just tying in two disparate links can do that. http://scrapbook.akkartik.name/post/4424779/are-crowds-wise-or-dumb-groups-of-people-are http://scrapbook.akkartik.name/post/4424779/are-crowds-wise-... I make it clear what data I'm summarizing, but the summary also seems more timeless to me than the data. I can imagine it being derived from other books about the wisdom of crowds. Like this blog post: http://gojko.net/2008/08/05/bulding-smart-teams http://gojko.net/2008/08/05/bulding-smart-teams
seregine 18y ago
If your reader is filtering noise from your signal, they're getting more out of your writing than you are.
- bootload 18y ago
  "... If your reader is filtering noise from your signal ..." In the processing of writing you are filtering your own ideas into words. This for writers is the main benefit. Through writing you clarify your own ideas. The difference between brevity and verbosity between writers could indicate greater skill in writing converting the ideas into words.
trevelyan 18y ago
One difference between good and bad writing is in the organization and presentation of ideas. There should usually be flow or structure, although there's no reason not to be creative about it.

richcollins 18y ago

My friend Steve does a lot with short posts. Have a look: http://dekorte.com/blog/blog.cgi http://dekorte.com/blog/blog.cgi

axod 18y ago

Reading a well written blog is interesting. I don't like soundbites/marketing slogan type things like this tweet. They overly simplify something so that it 'feels' right to the masses, when in actual fact it may not be. Going for a popularist vote rather than forming a cohesive argument.

tel 18y ago

I think of some Twitterers as becoming the poets of blogging. Their form: 140 words. It's not horribly restrictive, but the best can have a sensibility and quiescence not dissimilar to haiku. After you see that metaphor it just becomes a matter of whether you like poetry or just novels.

staticshock 18y ago
i could see "a twit" in the dictionary, with some meaning similar to "a haiku"

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]