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The first part was a funny story about a little fish that tried real real hard then failed and died without hope. The second part is a boring series of reaches
by glymor 18y ago
The first part was a funny story about a little fish that tried real real hard then failed and died without hope.
The second part is a boring series of reaches that doesn't go anywhere (literally).
I was aware coming in that Yegge's style is to make tenuous metaphors that obfuscate the point more than they elucidate (remember the story about the Kingdom of Nouns) but I was so enamoured by part 1 that I inadvisedly read it nonetheless.
(As a side note it is possible to write in the style Yegge is trying to: Neal Stephenson achieves it in "In the Beginning was the Command Line" with the story about the different drills.)
- tomjen 18y agoI constantly remember the story of that damn drill, precisely because it is such a good metaphor. It might be worth learning that style of writing.
- timcederman 18y agoProlixity much?
- breck 18y agoMetaphors are like business plans. When they take too long to explain, it's time to get a new one.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agoI think the parent post was referring to choosing certain leaky abstractions on purpose in order to frame the phenomena you are describing in such a way as to elicit the desired reaction from an audience. For example, you can change emotional response to a stimulus by using words with hot or cold connotations to describe it.