> Anyone care to comment if the fall into either group? I know a thing or two about networking and didn't really learn anything new from the article. And I do

> Anyone care to comment if the fall into either group? I know a thing or two about networking and didn't really learn anything new from the article. And I don't really like the style, but I don't feel like my expertise with networking plays much into it. Why didn't I like it? Hmm, first of all, I skipped the italic blurb and jumped straight in. So at first I didn't know I was reading fiction. It sounded like story time, as in a story of something interesting that actually happened, and for which you may need to give a bit of context.. I don't have a great example in mind but think something like the 500-mile email (https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html). That's the kind of story I expected I was getting into. And then I was disappointed that there was no story. Once I got over that and looked back.. well, one obvious thing that's missing for me is motivation. “Yeah, I know that, but how?” Liz says. Why does she care? Why should I care? I immediately got the same vibe that I get when I come across someone with an X-Y problem and they're the stubborn kind who refuse to explain why or what they're actually trying to find out. Or when I come across someone who's curious but trying to pass the burden onto someone else (kinda like a help leech except that they don't even have any concrete problem they need help with). It wouldn't be the first time I've said on IRC something like "Sorry, I don't know. If you really want me to read the kernel code for you and tell you how it works, I might do that later tonight but I figured you could satisfy your own curiosity." Someone wants to know something but there's no real motivation for the next person to care. I guess I kinda feel how I imagine Tim feels: he can guess what the OS might be doing, but he doesn't have motivation to find out more. And then there's the fiction-fluff that doesn't really do anything for me. Liz and Tim aren't interesting, there's not much personality, and even if they had personality, there's not much reason to care; they're just random nobodies. The setting isn't interesting. I don't care if there's a coffee shop because the coffee shop also isn't a key element of the story; arguably, there are no key elements. There isn't anything exciting going on, Liz just wants to know how Linux demultiplexes TCP and UDP. So all the fluff feels superfluous and forced. It could work if there was an interesting story. A reason to build something, a reason to find something out, a reason to poke the kernel around a bit. And in that case, you wouldn't need so much "fluff"; the narrative could support and enrich the story (explain things and continue to add motivation) rather than just pad it. Writing that sort of educative story is really hard though.