5 ms·

I feel bad, I tried it but if I'm honest I couldn't focus on long form Not a good thing

lisper 5y ago
Yes, the loss of ability to focus is truly one of the most... oh look! A kitten!
brazzy 5y ago
TBH, a lot of "long form" articles are just shitty. Randomly interrupting a current event story with unrelated biographic episodes of the protagonists does not magically result in a more valuable, high-brow form of reporting.
- reincarnate0x14 5y ago
  I love the scheme of repeatedly building up towards the answer to one of the central questions of the subject and then yanking the rug, digressing into some backstory of a minor personage or historic aside to pad out another page. And by love I mean absolutely despise.
  - md_ 5y ago
    What really gets me is how, in narrative fiction, the author knows what's going to happen in the plot at the very beginning, but they only gradually reveal it to the reader throughout the story.
    - reincarnate0x14 5y ago
      Composing narrative fiction by ending every chapter in a cliffhanger is an excellent way to get your readers to skip to the end and then throw it away.
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      If the entire value of an item of writing hinges on the revelation of a single fact, then the writing is flawed. State the fact and be done with it. (As I've just done here.) If the writing has value, the fact will be immaterial to that value, and the true reward for the reader is in the telling of the story, the narrative developed, the introduction and interrelation of facts, concepts, characters, strengths, and flaws. And yes, telling those, where they are material to the story, takes time, but also is its own constant reward. We have classics of literature and mythology. The stories are well known. The boy loses the girl, then wins her back. The dog dies. We all die. A tree grows in Brooklyn. George slays the dragon. Cinderella wins the prince. The Wicked Witch is overcome. Jesus dies, then returns. Buddha is enlightened. Those facts don't matter to the value of the story. It's the details built up along the way, the morals and principles exposed, which do. Build your stories around those, then pull away all that truly does not matter. (This sounds simple. It's much harder than it seems.)
- phgn 5y ago
  I think some of the value of long articles is simply that they are long -- if you can get into them, they get you away from news feeds long enough so that the effect feels calming. Regardless of actual content.
rchaud 5y ago
A lot of long-form writing is lazy and designed to pad out the word count/page count. I have never finished a single Cal Newport book because of this, and they're only about 250-300 pages as it is. All the value can be found in the first 50-75 pages. It's pure fluff after that. I'm surprised "book summarization" services like Blinkist haven't become more popular.

Yes, the loss of ability to focus is truly one of the most... oh look! A kitten!

TBH, a lot of "long form" articles are just shitty. Randomly interrupting a current event story with unrelated biographic episodes of the protagonists does not magically result in a more valuable, high-brow form of reporting.

reincarnate0x14 5y ago
I love the scheme of repeatedly building up towards the answer to one of the central questions of the subject and then yanking the rug, digressing into some backstory of a minor personage or historic aside to pad out another page. And by love I mean absolutely despise.
- md_ 5y ago
  What really gets me is how, in narrative fiction, the author knows what's going to happen in the plot at the very beginning, but they only gradually reveal it to the reader throughout the story.
  - reincarnate0x14 5y ago
    Composing narrative fiction by ending every chapter in a cliffhanger is an excellent way to get your readers to skip to the end and then throw it away.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    If the entire value of an item of writing hinges on the revelation of a single fact, then the writing is flawed. State the fact and be done with it. (As I've just done here.) If the writing has value, the fact will be immaterial to that value, and the true reward for the reader is in the telling of the story, the narrative developed, the introduction and interrelation of facts, concepts, characters, strengths, and flaws. And yes, telling those, where they are material to the story, takes time, but also is its own constant reward. We have classics of literature and mythology. The stories are well known. The boy loses the girl, then wins her back. The dog dies. We all die. A tree grows in Brooklyn. George slays the dragon. Cinderella wins the prince. The Wicked Witch is overcome. Jesus dies, then returns. Buddha is enlightened. Those facts don't matter to the value of the story. It's the details built up along the way, the morals and principles exposed, which do. Build your stories around those, then pull away all that truly does not matter. (This sounds simple. It's much harder than it seems.)
phgn 5y ago
I think some of the value of long articles is simply that they are long -- if you can get into them, they get you away from news feeds long enough so that the effect feels calming. Regardless of actual content.

rchaud 5y ago

A lot of long-form writing is lazy and designed to pad out the word count/page count. I have never finished a single Cal Newport book because of this, and they're only about 250-300 pages as it is. All the value can be found in the first 50-75 pages. It's pure fluff after that. I'm surprised "book summarization" services like Blinkist haven't become more popular.