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Why Write?
- paulpauper 4y agoGreat writing requires you to position your idea in a way that will resonate with the reader. Average writers start with what they want to say without considering how it will land with the reader. Great writers understand the journey starts with what the reader desires. Think of the difference as starting at the beginning or the end of a maze. When you start at the beginning, you have to convince people the path is the right one. When you start at the end, they already know you’re taking them where they want to go. Isn't this just being a hack or predictable? I think another part of writing is taking risks. It's hard to know what will work or not, and you just got to hope for the best. My rule of thumb is to assume most things will not work. Low expectations are easier to beat.
- ajkjk 4y agoNo, not at all. It's just good writing. As with literally any skill, good writing is writing that achieves its purpose, and a good writer foresees what would make their writing work and does it.
- paulpauper 4y agoBut how do you know what will resonate ahead of time? Isn't risk taking also a part of writing? Sometimes it's hard to know what the reader will like despite the best efforts by the writer. It's hard to foresee anything with a medium as unpredictable and imprecise writing. Predicting the success of writing is not at all like Marvel predicting how a blockbuster will do.
- Cardinal7167 4y agoMeasuring and understanding that risk is the craft. This is like asking how musicians know that their music will move someone when they write the notes down on paper.
- waboremo 4y agoYes, in which no musician will say they know before hand that their music will move people. They are operating off the assumption that if the music moves them, it will move others
- herbertl 4y agoI don't know if starting with what the reader desires makes for great writing, though hackery definitely starts with what the writer expects or guesses the reader desires. Those are two different things. It reminds me of David Chang starting Momofuku and putting dumplings on the menu because he thought people wanted them. It turns out he guessed wrong—they didn't—and neither did he, so the dumplings didn't make anyone happy. More here: https://archive.md/twtqo#selection-1433.165-1433.384 https://archive.md/twtqo#selection-1433.165-1433.384 Perhaps one idea to unify this difference is: Who is "the reader," in this case? I remember reading Neil Strauss propose his idea on the Tim Ferriss podcast (https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/15-neil-strauss.pdf https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/15-neil-strauss....): > My reader is me, as a reader, probably. I can be reading a book and thinking, “Oh, my god, will this guy just get on with it?” If you're reading a book and thinking, “You know what? This guy is not even living up to what he's writing and saying that he's doing. He's a total hypocrite.” – Whatever I'm thinking when I'm reading. So, my reader is just me the way I would read a book critically. Average writers stop after typing what they want to say, and they don't consider what they, as a reader, would think (or even bother to read it themselves).
- BeFlatXIII 4y agoBeing a hack is rewriting the same story with the nouns changed. Keeping the audience in mind means you can target your writing in a focused manner.
- ilrwbwrkhv 4y agoWrite to bare your soul. Anything else is an ego play.
- RACEWAR 4y ago[dead]
- langsoul-com 4y agoThe auto email responses isn't a good example because that's actually the best use of AI generators. Cuts down so much time speaking generic fluff.
- ilikehurdles 4y agoAuto scrolling the page up to some full screen overlay requesting my email address is an automatic “hit the back button and leave” for me. Haven’t even had a chance to read one word, I’m not even going to waste time generating a throwaway forwarding address for your marketing.
- v7engine 4y agoI used brave browser and that overlay is hidden. Give it a try once, its a beautiful browser with ad blockers and what not.
- esperent 4y agoAlso a shout-out for Kiwi browser that allows you to install most Chrome plugins on Android. Most importantly uBlock, and while the UI is a bit clunky on mobile you can define your own blocking rules. I don't think any other mobile browser allows that.
- randoglando 4y agoYou can use Brave browser on Android too.
- apsurd 4y agoFarnam Street blog is very high quality. All content is free and I ended up paying premium to support the project. I'm saying this because I agree with you - IT IS A TRAVESTY - that seemingly Internet rot spares no corner. Ads, overlays, popups, cookie prompts, it's mind numbingly ridiculous. I wanted to see what you were talking about and yes on page load, the entire screen scrolls up to take over his own content with (his own) ad. WTF I'm just sad about the Internet. And I'm naively hopeful that in its rot, we're gonna reach a "post SEO" world where the next thing will (have to) subvert this garbage. keyword: naively =( P.S. I really liked this short article. High quality like I said!
- Grothendank 4y ago
- TheHumanist 4y agoI really wish more blogs would follow your systems light/dark setting. Laying in bed, lights out, fiancé asleep next to me, read HN in dark mode... Tap this link and holy hell the flood light is on.
- davidmurdoch 4y agoHN has a dark mode?
- gaetgu 4y agoLikely a reader app, one of the many available on every app store
- slowmovintarget 4y agoDark Reader on Firefox... every site is in dark mode.
- kzrdude 4y agoWhy did dark mode get so popular? Is it because laptop screens and other screens are finally pretty bright?
- PartiallyTyped 4y agoFor mobile devices it’s probably the oled screens.
- qez 4y agoThis post claims that the answer to "why white" is because of the beneficial effects it has on the disposition of the writer. But that's hardly a reason to write, that's just a helpful side effect. The reason to write is that you have something to say, and you want others to hear it.
- tayo42 4y ago> and you want others to hear it. Harder then writing I think lol, especially when you are in the beginning phase
- Grothendank 4y agoThe claim is that writing causes you not to be disposed more positively - it doesn't really do that now does it? Writing is miserable work. No. The claim is that writing causes you to think more clearly and powerfully than not writing. The issue with this argument is that co-writing with an AI might have that same benefit. If writers have some sort of elitism going on about the process of bashing their own heads against a text editor until gold issues forth, that's fine. But that may have more to do with masochism than with refining one's thoughts. One can think and write deeply with the help of AI - in many cases more deeply than one can do on their own. Furthermore, co-writing with an AI helps bad writers improve [1]. These emerging facts are surprising, valuable, and should not be dismissed. [1] https://economics.mit.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/Noy_Zhang_1.pdf https://economics.mit.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/N...
- white_dragon88 4y ago[dead]
- labrador 4y agoSince this article is on the front page after I just achieved a major personal breakthrough concerning my father through writing I'll share it. I've been in a protracted battle with my father my entire life and we reached a breaking point where I thought I wouldn't speak to him for a year or more. I sat down and started writing random thoughts down in an agitated state. Once I started calming down the picture started becoming clear: My father assumes I am like him. He thinks I should be like him and is confused when I am not. I always assumed that I am like him because he thinks that, but when I really think about it, he and are nothing alike. I mean, nothing alike. This conflict between what we think we should be like and what we are actually like is the root of the problem. I'll keep writing as a thinking tool. I'll use an AI for the boilerplate stuff.
- jimkleiber 4y ago> This conflict between what we think we should be like and what we are actually like is the root of the problem. I've seen this conflict a lot in my life and appreciate how you described it. I've found I've often been annoyed when I ask someone how they're doing and they say "fine" and I know they're not feeling fine. I realized maybe they're really saying "I want to feel fine." Something about splitting their desired state from their present state helped me.
- Grothendank 4y agoIt's interesting because I have had a similar breakthroughs by using Bing to help organize and simplify my thoughts. I have Pure-O - a mental variant of obsessive compulsive disorder where I ruminate compulsively about things that concern me. But often I can't converge on a solution. Writing has often helped in the past, but sometimes it can't help. In those times, I just write and write and write and never reach a solution - in the ruminant state I seem to struggle to extract larger insights from the ruminations. That's where AI can help - not just in boilerplate production, but in editorial input, and in looking up and brainstorming potential solutions. When I put my writings together with the help of AI, I can do a number of useful things: 1. Bing can extract and merge key ideas that come up frequently in my rumination 2. Bing can help me identify and describe the values my ideas represent 3. Bing can summarize and help me understand the nature of the conflict 4. Bing can help me brainstorm and organize resolutions 5. Bing can even look up methods for understanding and solving the problem Once I have the simplified, abstracted, and actionized version of my ruminations, I notice two things: 1. The pressure to ruminate about the conflict evaporates 2. My thoughts on the issue become clear, calm, and reflective 3. The reflection moves to my values and options 4. There is no more hesitation and splitting of hairs 5. I can finally pick a resolution to the conflict I encourage you to experiment with AI as more than a boilerplate generator. I encourage you to see whether it can help you: 1. write out complex and painful thoughts 2. engage them in ways you're currently struggling to do 3. refine and simplify them into clear and powerful values and facts 4. brainstorm nuanced solutions to conflicting emotions I consider this similar to writing with a skilled and caring helper or counselor. Moreover, there is evidence (both scientific and personal) that the AI guidance teaches and renews the skills I need to perform the writing process on my own. I see it as a powerful extension of the writing technique, not a replacement.
- voidhorse 4y agoWell if you buy into Hemmingway's approach you ought to bleed out onto the page. I don't think AI in it's current state very helpful for that.
- rkg9800 4y agonice
- nabbe23 4y ago> When done poorly, compression removes insights. When done well, compression keeps the insights and removes the rest. Compression requires both thinking and understanding, which is one reason writing is so important. Great writing requires you to position your idea in a way that will resonate with the reader. This is the meat and potatoes of this post to me. I’ve been praised a bit for the usefulness and clarity in my documentation over the last few years. When people ask for my advice on improving their writing I really only give three tips. 1. Use proper grammar - proofread your doc at least 2-3 times 2. Write as if you’re writing to someone that knows absolutely nothing about the subject matter 3. Go back and compress the crap out of your document. Simplify everything, remove all fluff and simplify complex sentences. People have short attention spans, documents need to be as easy to process as possible.
- fuzzfactor 4y ago>Why Write? Especially when we could be coloring with crayons instead . . .