5 ms·

The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

157 points by sage_joch 14y ago

sanswork 14y ago
Other people can better comment on the main theme of this article(which I thought was a great read btw). The point at the start about your first job bending the twig made me think about my own progression. At first I thought "Thats so wrong, I went from Big 5(IT consulting) to Big 4(Accounting) to the startup world". Then I realized that he was right and my experiences at those massive companies is what drove me to where I am today. So to any planning the start of their career, read it, believe it but don't confuse it with saying where you start is where you will stay. Where you start will just help you decide where you want to be.
sage_joch 14y ago
I know there is no shortage of one-line advice here, but this one has always stuck with me. And since it usually takes time and hindsight to distinguish the quality advice from the short-lived transient whims of a bored blogger, I thought I'd resubmit this.
- robbiea 14y ago
  love it. It's my first time reading it. Thanks for posting it. I think I'm going to send it to a few people or even write about it myself.
  - sdqali 14y ago
    Do you think someone would want to read that? :-)
sicxu 14y ago
love this piece. thanks for posting it. it reminds me one of the talk by Jobs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR-ZT8mhfJ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR-ZT8mhfJ4
btipling 14y ago
Hence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_in_advertising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_in_advertising
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  And hence GoDaddy's superbowl ads.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
mehulkar 14y ago
A startup is never competing with other products. It’s competing with nobody giving a shit. -Michael Staton It's not like I didn't already know this, but this one-liner has stuck with me for a few months now.
- thenomad 14y ago
  That's brilliant. Stealing that bon mot. It's applicable in so many situations. ( To take just one - "Your YouTube series is not competing with other series. It's competing with nobody giving a shit." )
  - ten_fingers 14y ago
    Another explanation: The problem with a YouTube series is connecting the people who would like the series with the series. My view is that this problem holds for about 2/3rds of the content now on the Internet and is getting much worse rapidly. My work is to do something about that.
    - thenomad 14y ago
      That's also very true. Particularly for something like a series which doesn't have an easily accessed niche, it's a major problem. (I make videos on the Web for a living, and it's certainly been a problem for my company before now.) What's your work? I'd be interested to hear about that.
      - ten_fingers 14y ago
        Thanks for your interest. I'm taking an approach that is fairly general, e.g., for that 2/3rds, and where solving the problem for video clips is just another application. Roughly, first-cut, my work looks like a new Internet 'search engine', but that has to be only a rough description. That is, while 'search engine' may be the best two word description among widely understood two word descriptions, I don't think that much like a usual search engine can solve the problem. I believe that a solution needs to be a combination of search, discovery, recommendation, curation, and subscription!!!! How 'bout that! Then there's another point, well connected with your "niche": Trying to provide what is 'most popular' is not promising! I.e., something in a niche is almost by definition not very popular. Or, what is in a niche is in 'the long tail'! My guess is that we are moving to much more 'specialization' in content so that the fraction of the total content in the long tail and the niches is becoming a much more significant fraction of the total content. So, my 'search engine' is to help people mine this new fraction, the long tail. How to do that? Well with the problem described, a key concept becomes obvious: Some case of strong 'personalization'!! That is, somehow have to get the user more involved so that the user can better indicate what they want and so that the search engine can, in some useful sense, 'learn' about what the user wants. I've got the crucial, core, unique 'secret sauce' programmed and now am finishing up the routine parts of, really, just routine, simple Web site construction. And except for the crucial core stuff already done, it's a quite simple Web site. But the routine Web site work has taken me far too long -- those 3000 Web pages of Microsoft documentation of just routine parts of .NET really slowed me down. Today I'm trying to finish up some work on just a simple session state store: I didn't like what Microsoft offered in ASP.NET, found a bug I wanted to get far away from in part of what they had, so did my own handling of session ID and session state with my own, simple session state store. But my session state store is via TCP/IP in my server farm, and I also need TCP/IP inside my server farm to connect my Web pages to my secret sauce servers. For using TCP/IP, have to build a 'message' service on top of the TCP/IP 'stream' service, so I did that and have used the session state store work to test it. Then write the rest of the Web pages, load some initial data, and go live.
petercooper 14y ago
Discussed on HN at length before: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=850857 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=850857 (with a cute 'Hacker's Corollary' from edw519)
mcav 14y ago
It'd be great if the editors wouldn't feel the need to change the title to every submission here.
ajankovic 14y ago
I was actually very touched by the quote left in the comments and it's worth mentioning it here: A pro views her work as craft not art. Not because she believes art is devoid of mystical dimension. On the contrary. She understands that all creative endeavor is holy, but she doesn’t dwell on it. She knows if she thinks about that too much it will paralyze her. So she concentrates on technique. The professional masters how, and leaves what and why to the gods. Like Somerset Maugham she doesn’t wait for inspiration she acts in anticipation of its apparition. The professional is acutely aware of the intangibles that go into inspiration. Out of respect for them she lets them work. She grants them their sphere while she concentrates on hers. The sign of the amateur is the overglorification of, and preoccupation with, the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn’t talk about it. She does her work.
skrebbel 14y ago
This is tyical advertisers' bullshit. It assumes that all people are sheep. The line of advice should've been "Nobody wants to read your shit if you're trying to sell them something". And even then it would've been half off imho, but I can't come up with anything better. Some of the highest voted articles HN don't follow any of the detail advice in this article. But they're popular anyway, because they're interesting. Somebody made something cool, and people want to know how he/she did it. Sure, these only work in niches. When you go mainstream, the only articles that get read by many are "10 ways of getting your partner to gave sex with you more often". But hey, this is an advertiser. What does he know about niches? More yet, what does he know about people who are actually, genuinely interested in a whole range of topics, and would happily spend 30+ minutes reading a single article? Of course, any article an benefit from being fun and concise. But that's just bonus, no prerequisite. Because if you've got something interesting to tell, people want to read your shit.
- thinkingisfun 14y ago
  Learn from the best, screw the rest.. "Looking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it appear as though my motives in writing were wholly public-spirited. I don't want to leave that as the final impression. All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane. I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally." -- George Orwell, "Why I Write" ( http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw/ http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw/ ) Not everyone wants to change the world, and not everyone is Orwell, but I still think motivation matters. And if your sole motive is to "sell stuff, be famous, and/or popular", I give you this advice: don't write. Read instead.
Gustomaximus 14y ago
As a marketeer one of my rules of advertising is to ask myself am I giving something to my audience. I see to many ads that are based on what the advertiser wants only. To give something can be a prize, a laugh or an interesting fact etc. There are no limits or rules here. But I want them to leave my ad having gained something from their POV. IMO this makes the best advertising and is a good healthcheck point when you review your ads.
officemonkey 14y ago
His book "The War of Art" is one of the best "self-help" for creative people I've read. If you're struggling to be a creative person, it will help. I think it's better than "The Artist's Way." There's certainly less nonsense.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
plinio 14y ago
So advertisement is evil (it is) but you should start a career in it anyway, because...? I find it disgusting when advertisers talk to each other in this way, masquerading their profession of dishonesty as something creative, in the same level as an actual writer, an artist. Fuck these people, fuck all of them, the world would be a much better place if they all went out of jobs.
larrydag 14y ago
If you have never read any of Pressfield's work than you are in for a treat. Gates of Fire is one of my all time favorite books. He even knows how to craft words from a secondary language (Greek).
Dn_Ab 14y ago
Does anyone know how his squares with Long copy marketing which often violates both (well 2 is subjective verging on tautology) his requirements? Write short when trying to capture those deciding on throwaways, write long when trying to convince or swindle erm assuage the uncertain?
ten_fingers 14y ago
The main claim is: "No one wants to read your shit". Let's check that: I came to Hacker News to read. I saw the post and read it. I read the Hacker News comments. Today before Hacker News I read CNet. Later I will read Google News and a few more. I may stop at TED to see if they have some new content. For the Romney-Paul speeches in Virginia yesterday, I worked to find, download, save, and index copies, and I read the copies. So, net, I very much do want to "read". I work hard to find things I want to read. The flat claim that I don't want to read is just nonsense. But the statement was about advertising. Okay. Do I ever want to read ads? Actually, yes, very much yes. When I buy products, I very much want to read about the products. E.g., a friend urged me to buy the book 'The Amateur', so this morning I went to Amazon and read a few dozen of the highest ranked comments about that book. I very much wanted to read. Two weeks ago the power supply on my main desktop computer started making noise each morning when I turned the computer on. So I spent about a full day reading about power supplies and, maybe, how to replace the fans in the power supply I have. Finally I ordered a spare power supply in case I need it. I did read. I read a lot of 'ad' content. I read about everything I could find relevant to my power supply issue. And I regarded what I read as important enough to keep copies of most of it. So, yes, I do want to read ad copy also. But, right: The usual ads I don't want to read. Why? Well, with some irony, the author did say a little about why -- the ads are "shit". Okay, let's take such an ad, say, for a new car. I've seen and read hours beyond belief of ads for new cars, am really eager to learn about new cars, but to me nearly every ad I've read about new cars is just the author's "shit". That is, the ad writers, apparently following what the author said, just will not, Not, NOT tell me what I want to know about the new cars. They just have their feet locked solidly in concrete, will NOT tell me, and, thus, will write "shit" that, yes, I don't want to read. So, why the "shit"? Apparently because the ad writers, and the author, just do NOT understand what a customer might want to know. What do I want to know? "All new"? That's nearly always a lie. Good. No way would I buy a car that really was "all new". Instead, I want every essential mechanical part and every important system to have been on the road in hundreds of thousands of instances for at least five years. So, say "all new" and right away I hope and believe that you are lying. So, now that I know you are lying or are being a fool, I am reluctant to take any of the rest seriously. Headlights: The cars have headlights apparently from 'designers' to yield an emotional experience of 'flowing' into the sheet metal. BS. I deeply, profoundly, bitterly hate and despise all such constructions and intentions. Why? Because such headlights have some "shit" engineering issues. E.g., it's not clear how to aim them. E.g., there is a plastic cover the is easily scratched and starts to go yellow or gray or whatever due to UV or whatever. What I want in headlights are traditional, old, very reliable, very functional, industry standard, widely available, competitively priced, very well engineered and tested sealed beam units enclosed in glass. NO PLASTIC. Period. Next, here's what I really do care about in cars: Utility, functionality, performance, reliability, ruggedness, and ease of maintenance. E.g., for ruggedness, I want traditional heavy steel bumpers that protrude several inches from the rest of the car. I want no glass or plastic near the bumpers. The bumpers need to be able to take heavy bumps without damage. And I should be able easily to unbolt a bumper and replace it. So in an ad, I'd want to know how rugged, strong, durable, and easily replaceable the bumpers were. I've yet to see an ad that gives any information at all on bumpers. Bummer. For the dashboard, I want to know how to remove it, repair or replace various components, e.g., bulbs, the speedometer, the tachometer, the connection from the radio to the antenna, all EASILY. Ads don't provide me with any such information. Bummer. This matter of the dashboard is just a routine part of ease of maintenance. Far and away my greatest concern about the car is corrosion -- e.g., around the front and rear windows, the body panels, from condensation inside the car, of the exhaust and the radiator, of the brake parts, of the fuel lines and brake lines, of the gas tank, of the floor of the trunk, of the wheel rims where the tire bead joins and needs to make an air tight seal, etc. I want to know what has been done about corrosion. Okay, let's set cars aside and consider, say, desktop computers. I need to build another one. So, I want details on the motherboard, power supply, processor, processor fan, case, case fans, how hard disks are mounted in the case, hard disks, DVD, etc. But, of course, the ad copy for these products is from feet locked in concrete writing me "shit" and just refusing to give me the information I need. E.g., it's standard now to paint the case all black; this is some Darth Vader thing? With a black case the photographs become just big, black blobs with no visible detail. With such a case, I will always need strong lights just to see what is inside the case. I deeply, profoundly, bitterly hate and despise all the dysfunctional, destructive 'stylistic' nonsense that has given us black cases. Upchuck. Here's the fundamental problem with ad writers: They are convinced, down to the center of the cells at the center of their bone marrow, that all there is in life, writing, ad copy, and cognition is some humanities zenith of vicarious, escapist, fantasy, emotional experience entertainment. 100% emotion 100% of the time. Solid, rational, meaningful, useful information never. And that's why it's "shit" and why I don't want to read it.
b1daly 14y ago
This being Hacker News there are of course some apparently well reasoned dissents from the OP point. It strikes me as the stone cold truth. "Nobody wants to read your shit." That's just how it is as a default state. He's obviously suggesting some paths out of the dilemma.
dbecker 14y ago
Why does this article about begin concise, because no one gives a shit, start with two paragraphs of biography... which I really couldn't give a shit about. He had a good point, but I almost gave up before getting there.
kbronson 14y ago
The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned: don't click on boring links.
ggchappell 14y ago
A very good point, but -- ironically -- not very clearly stated. Indeed, most HN commenters seem to think that this piece is about advertising. It is not. True, that is the primary example used, but later he talks about writing novels. The point (as I understood it) is this: give value to your readers. No one wants to read something just because you wrote it. They want to read it because they get something out of it: fun, information, etc. And brevity & clarity mean your reader has to work less to get the value.
- mcguire 14y ago
  Steven Pressfield: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pressfield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pressfield The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Afghan Campaign, etc.
bksenior 14y ago
I too have spent my non-self employed days of work in the ad game and couldn't agree more. The concept of always"adding value" that has become so parroted in the good circles of the start-up space are relatively ignored in the ad space. In the old days just creating something "cool" was considered enough value add because the information volume allowed for time for people to focus and decide how that "cool" gave them value. No Mas! If in a few seconds the viewer/user can't own, share, brag, stop and think about or act on what you create, than it is a waste of time.
losethos 14y ago
My reality is bogus -- I'm in some kind of prison. God says... C:\Text\BIBLE.TXT pect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. 16:20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 16:21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee. 16:22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth. 17:1 Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the

157 points by sage_joch 14y ago

Other people can better comment on the main theme of this article(which I thought was a great read btw). The point at the start about your first job bending the twig made me think about my own progression. At first I thought "Thats so wrong, I went from Big 5(IT consulting) to Big 4(Accounting) to the startup world". Then I realized that he was right and my experiences at those massive companies is what drove me to where I am today. So to any planning the start of their career, read it, believe it but don't confuse it with saying where you start is where you will stay. Where you start will just help you decide where you want to be.

sage_joch 14y ago

I know there is no shortage of one-line advice here, but this one has always stuck with me. And since it usually takes time and hindsight to distinguish the quality advice from the short-lived transient whims of a bored blogger, I thought I'd resubmit this.

robbiea 14y ago
love it. It's my first time reading it. Thanks for posting it. I think I'm going to send it to a few people or even write about it myself.
- sdqali 14y ago
  Do you think someone would want to read that? :-)

sicxu 14y ago

love this piece. thanks for posting it. it reminds me one of the talk by Jobs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR-ZT8mhfJ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR-ZT8mhfJ4

btipling 14y ago

Hence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_in_advertising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_in_advertising

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
And hence GoDaddy's superbowl ads.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

mehulkar 14y ago

A startup is never competing with other products. It’s competing with nobody giving a shit. -Michael Staton It's not like I didn't already know this, but this one-liner has stuck with me for a few months now.

thenomad 14y ago
That's brilliant. Stealing that bon mot. It's applicable in so many situations. ( To take just one - "Your YouTube series is not competing with other series. It's competing with nobody giving a shit." )
- ten_fingers 14y ago
  Another explanation: The problem with a YouTube series is connecting the people who would like the series with the series. My view is that this problem holds for about 2/3rds of the content now on the Internet and is getting much worse rapidly. My work is to do something about that.
  - thenomad 14y ago
    That's also very true. Particularly for something like a series which doesn't have an easily accessed niche, it's a major problem. (I make videos on the Web for a living, and it's certainly been a problem for my company before now.) What's your work? I'd be interested to hear about that.
    - ten_fingers 14y ago
      Thanks for your interest. I'm taking an approach that is fairly general, e.g., for that 2/3rds, and where solving the problem for video clips is just another application. Roughly, first-cut, my work looks like a new Internet 'search engine', but that has to be only a rough description. That is, while 'search engine' may be the best two word description among widely understood two word descriptions, I don't think that much like a usual search engine can solve the problem. I believe that a solution needs to be a combination of search, discovery, recommendation, curation, and subscription!!!! How 'bout that! Then there's another point, well connected with your "niche": Trying to provide what is 'most popular' is not promising! I.e., something in a niche is almost by definition not very popular. Or, what is in a niche is in 'the long tail'! My guess is that we are moving to much more 'specialization' in content so that the fraction of the total content in the long tail and the niches is becoming a much more significant fraction of the total content. So, my 'search engine' is to help people mine this new fraction, the long tail. How to do that? Well with the problem described, a key concept becomes obvious: Some case of strong 'personalization'!! That is, somehow have to get the user more involved so that the user can better indicate what they want and so that the search engine can, in some useful sense, 'learn' about what the user wants. I've got the crucial, core, unique 'secret sauce' programmed and now am finishing up the routine parts of, really, just routine, simple Web site construction. And except for the crucial core stuff already done, it's a quite simple Web site. But the routine Web site work has taken me far too long -- those 3000 Web pages of Microsoft documentation of just routine parts of .NET really slowed me down. Today I'm trying to finish up some work on just a simple session state store: I didn't like what Microsoft offered in ASP.NET, found a bug I wanted to get far away from in part of what they had, so did my own handling of session ID and session state with my own, simple session state store. But my session state store is via TCP/IP in my server farm, and I also need TCP/IP inside my server farm to connect my Web pages to my secret sauce servers. For using TCP/IP, have to build a 'message' service on top of the TCP/IP 'stream' service, so I did that and have used the session state store work to test it. Then write the rest of the Web pages, load some initial data, and go live.

petercooper 14y ago

Discussed on HN at length before: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=850857 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=850857 (with a cute 'Hacker's Corollary' from edw519)

mcav 14y ago

It'd be great if the editors wouldn't feel the need to change the title to every submission here.

ajankovic 14y ago

I was actually very touched by the quote left in the comments and it's worth mentioning it here: A pro views her work as craft not art. Not because she believes art is devoid of mystical dimension. On the contrary. She understands that all creative endeavor is holy, but she doesn’t dwell on it. She knows if she thinks about that too much it will paralyze her. So she concentrates on technique. The professional masters how, and leaves what and why to the gods. Like Somerset Maugham she doesn’t wait for inspiration she acts in anticipation of its apparition. The professional is acutely aware of the intangibles that go into inspiration. Out of respect for them she lets them work. She grants them their sphere while she concentrates on hers. The sign of the amateur is the overglorification of, and preoccupation with, the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn’t talk about it. She does her work.

skrebbel 14y ago

This is tyical advertisers' bullshit. It assumes that all people are sheep. The line of advice should've been "Nobody wants to read your shit if you're trying to sell them something". And even then it would've been half off imho, but I can't come up with anything better. Some of the highest voted articles HN don't follow any of the detail advice in this article. But they're popular anyway, because they're interesting. Somebody made something cool, and people want to know how he/she did it. Sure, these only work in niches. When you go mainstream, the only articles that get read by many are "10 ways of getting your partner to gave sex with you more often". But hey, this is an advertiser. What does he know about niches? More yet, what does he know about people who are actually, genuinely interested in a whole range of topics, and would happily spend 30+ minutes reading a single article? Of course, any article an benefit from being fun and concise. But that's just bonus, no prerequisite. Because if you've got something interesting to tell, people want to read your shit.

thinkingisfun 14y ago
Learn from the best, screw the rest.. "Looking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it appear as though my motives in writing were wholly public-spirited. I don't want to leave that as the final impression. All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane. I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally." -- George Orwell, "Why I Write" ( http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw/ http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw/ ) Not everyone wants to change the world, and not everyone is Orwell, but I still think motivation matters. And if your sole motive is to "sell stuff, be famous, and/or popular", I give you this advice: don't write. Read instead.

Gustomaximus 14y ago

As a marketeer one of my rules of advertising is to ask myself am I giving something to my audience. I see to many ads that are based on what the advertiser wants only. To give something can be a prize, a laugh or an interesting fact etc. There are no limits or rules here. But I want them to leave my ad having gained something from their POV. IMO this makes the best advertising and is a good healthcheck point when you review your ads.

officemonkey 14y ago

His book "The War of Art" is one of the best "self-help" for creative people I've read. If you're struggling to be a creative person, it will help. I think it's better than "The Artist's Way." There's certainly less nonsense.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

plinio 14y ago

So advertisement is evil (it is) but you should start a career in it anyway, because...? I find it disgusting when advertisers talk to each other in this way, masquerading their profession of dishonesty as something creative, in the same level as an actual writer, an artist. Fuck these people, fuck all of them, the world would be a much better place if they all went out of jobs.

larrydag 14y ago

If you have never read any of Pressfield's work than you are in for a treat. Gates of Fire is one of my all time favorite books. He even knows how to craft words from a secondary language (Greek).

Dn_Ab 14y ago

Does anyone know how his squares with Long copy marketing which often violates both (well 2 is subjective verging on tautology) his requirements? Write short when trying to capture those deciding on throwaways, write long when trying to convince or swindle erm assuage the uncertain?

ten_fingers 14y ago

The main claim is: "No one wants to read your shit". Let's check that: I came to Hacker News to read. I saw the post and read it. I read the Hacker News comments. Today before Hacker News I read CNet. Later I will read Google News and a few more. I may stop at TED to see if they have some new content. For the Romney-Paul speeches in Virginia yesterday, I worked to find, download, save, and index copies, and I read the copies. So, net, I very much do want to "read". I work hard to find things I want to read. The flat claim that I don't want to read is just nonsense. But the statement was about advertising. Okay. Do I ever want to read ads? Actually, yes, very much yes. When I buy products, I very much want to read about the products. E.g., a friend urged me to buy the book 'The Amateur', so this morning I went to Amazon and read a few dozen of the highest ranked comments about that book. I very much wanted to read. Two weeks ago the power supply on my main desktop computer started making noise each morning when I turned the computer on. So I spent about a full day reading about power supplies and, maybe, how to replace the fans in the power supply I have. Finally I ordered a spare power supply in case I need it. I did read. I read a lot of 'ad' content. I read about everything I could find relevant to my power supply issue. And I regarded what I read as important enough to keep copies of most of it. So, yes, I do want to read ad copy also. But, right: The usual ads I don't want to read. Why? Well, with some irony, the author did say a little about why -- the ads are "shit". Okay, let's take such an ad, say, for a new car. I've seen and read hours beyond belief of ads for new cars, am really eager to learn about new cars, but to me nearly every ad I've read about new cars is just the author's "shit". That is, the ad writers, apparently following what the author said, just will not, Not, NOT tell me what I want to know about the new cars. They just have their feet locked solidly in concrete, will NOT tell me, and, thus, will write "shit" that, yes, I don't want to read. So, why the "shit"? Apparently because the ad writers, and the author, just do NOT understand what a customer might want to know. What do I want to know? "All new"? That's nearly always a lie. Good. No way would I buy a car that really was "all new". Instead, I want every essential mechanical part and every important system to have been on the road in hundreds of thousands of instances for at least five years. So, say "all new" and right away I hope and believe that you are lying. So, now that I know you are lying or are being a fool, I am reluctant to take any of the rest seriously. Headlights: The cars have headlights apparently from 'designers' to yield an emotional experience of 'flowing' into the sheet metal. BS. I deeply, profoundly, bitterly hate and despise all such constructions and intentions. Why? Because such headlights have some "shit" engineering issues. E.g., it's not clear how to aim them. E.g., there is a plastic cover the is easily scratched and starts to go yellow or gray or whatever due to UV or whatever. What I want in headlights are traditional, old, very reliable, very functional, industry standard, widely available, competitively priced, very well engineered and tested sealed beam units enclosed in glass. NO PLASTIC. Period. Next, here's what I really do care about in cars: Utility, functionality, performance, reliability, ruggedness, and ease of maintenance. E.g., for ruggedness, I want traditional heavy steel bumpers that protrude several inches from the rest of the car. I want no glass or plastic near the bumpers. The bumpers need to be able to take heavy bumps without damage. And I should be able easily to unbolt a bumper and replace it. So in an ad, I'd want to know how rugged, strong, durable, and easily replaceable the bumpers were. I've yet to see an ad that gives any information at all on bumpers. Bummer. For the dashboard, I want to know how to remove it, repair or replace various components, e.g., bulbs, the speedometer, the tachometer, the connection from the radio to the antenna, all EASILY. Ads don't provide me with any such information. Bummer. This matter of the dashboard is just a routine part of ease of maintenance. Far and away my greatest concern about the car is corrosion -- e.g., around the front and rear windows, the body panels, from condensation inside the car, of the exhaust and the radiator, of the brake parts, of the fuel lines and brake lines, of the gas tank, of the floor of the trunk, of the wheel rims where the tire bead joins and needs to make an air tight seal, etc. I want to know what has been done about corrosion. Okay, let's set cars aside and consider, say, desktop computers. I need to build another one. So, I want details on the motherboard, power supply, processor, processor fan, case, case fans, how hard disks are mounted in the case, hard disks, DVD, etc. But, of course, the ad copy for these products is from feet locked in concrete writing me "shit" and just refusing to give me the information I need. E.g., it's standard now to paint the case all black; this is some Darth Vader thing? With a black case the photographs become just big, black blobs with no visible detail. With such a case, I will always need strong lights just to see what is inside the case. I deeply, profoundly, bitterly hate and despise all the dysfunctional, destructive 'stylistic' nonsense that has given us black cases. Upchuck. Here's the fundamental problem with ad writers: They are convinced, down to the center of the cells at the center of their bone marrow, that all there is in life, writing, ad copy, and cognition is some humanities zenith of vicarious, escapist, fantasy, emotional experience entertainment. 100% emotion 100% of the time. Solid, rational, meaningful, useful information never. And that's why it's "shit" and why I don't want to read it.

b1daly 14y ago

This being Hacker News there are of course some apparently well reasoned dissents from the OP point. It strikes me as the stone cold truth. "Nobody wants to read your shit." That's just how it is as a default state. He's obviously suggesting some paths out of the dilemma.

dbecker 14y ago

Why does this article about begin concise, because no one gives a shit, start with two paragraphs of biography... which I really couldn't give a shit about. He had a good point, but I almost gave up before getting there.

kbronson 14y ago

The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned: don't click on boring links.

ggchappell 14y ago

A very good point, but -- ironically -- not very clearly stated. Indeed, most HN commenters seem to think that this piece is about advertising. It is not. True, that is the primary example used, but later he talks about writing novels. The point (as I understood it) is this: give value to your readers. No one wants to read something just because you wrote it. They want to read it because they get something out of it: fun, information, etc. And brevity & clarity mean your reader has to work less to get the value.

mcguire 14y ago
Steven Pressfield: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pressfield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pressfield The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Afghan Campaign, etc.

bksenior 14y ago

I too have spent my non-self employed days of work in the ad game and couldn't agree more. The concept of always"adding value" that has become so parroted in the good circles of the start-up space are relatively ignored in the ad space. In the old days just creating something "cool" was considered enough value add because the information volume allowed for time for people to focus and decide how that "cool" gave them value. No Mas! If in a few seconds the viewer/user can't own, share, brag, stop and think about or act on what you create, than it is a waste of time.

losethos 14y ago

My reality is bogus -- I'm in some kind of prison. God says... C:\Text\BIBLE.TXT pect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. 16:20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 16:21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee. 16:22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth. 17:1 Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the