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Look, I love the sentiment, and the illustrations are charming. Unfortunately, the writing. It's...stilted. It's presented as a letter/email, but it reads as
by mpalmer 2y ago
Look, I love the sentiment, and the illustrations are charming.
Unfortunately, the writing.
It's...stilted.
It's presented as a letter/email, but it reads as though the author wants you to hear someone with good comedic timing... DELIVERING IT LIKE STANDUP!
But ellipses...do not translate to funnier text. The text just has to be funny! "Pauses" only enhance what's already there!
> write a quippy, funny letter from a "concerned citizen" to their community highlighting the "danger" posed by librarians. said "danger" is their vendetta against ignorance, illiteracy. style should involve SUDDEN CAPS FOR EMPHASIS, ellipses...for...artificial comedic timing. But there's something more important to the style. Something being demonstrated in this very sentence. Yes - it's *short, narration-like rhythms". These shorter sentences should occupy their own paragraph.
If you can replicate a blog post with a single LLM prompt, you start to wonder whether the author had the same thought.
- JasserInicide 2y agoYeah I see this kind of paternalistic condescending style of writing in many left-leaning circles. It sounds like it's geared for children but no they're actually writing for adults. They see themselves as moral beacons and they need to proselytize the stupid unwashed masses because they just don't know any better. I despise it.
- xhevahir 2y agoThe style of this blog post probably owes a lot more to the author's career as an author of kids' books rather than to his political tendencies.
- bowsamic 2y agoIt’s millennial speak
- gadders 2y agoIt's like one long Reddit post. Very cringe.
- ryandrake 2y agoI was thinking it reminded me of a LinkedIn inspir-tizement post, but yea, also feels like a Reddit lecture. It reads like it is trying desperately to hold the reader’s attention while they are simultaneously driving a car and in another browser window scrolling through brainrot TikTok videos.
- jasonlotito 2y ago> Very cringe. The irony.
- jasonlotito 2y agoUnfortunately, the comment. Witless. Pointless. Worthless. Less.
- asdf6969 2y agoIt’s written in the style of a children’s book but with a millennial accent. Not a good fit for this audience but it’s not that bad
- elliotto 2y agoA writing style like this indicates that the author does not have the taste to write well. This is a signal that the content will not be good.
- cadamsdotcom 2y agoIn my opinion the stiltedness served a purpose to take you on a journey and faded away since the most important devices used were imagery. The writing warmed my heart, which is more than most - by that measure I considered it good!
- glacier5674 2y ago"Write a critique of the following article, using the style of the article:"
- mpalmer 2y agoIf you get anything as succinct and focused as what I (genuinely) wrote myself, I'll gladly take the criticism!
- adammarples 2y agoto be fair i pasted your prompt into chatgpt and it was genuinely funnier and more readable than the article, it even had jokes. They are EVERYWHERE. Behind desks. In alcoves. Possibly in your very home...if you've recently borrowed War and Peace and failed to return it on time. lol
- cootsnuck 2y agoOnly on HN can a light-hearted librarian appreciation post still be treated with heavy cynicism, geez lol
- EasyMark 2y agoI guess they want a 500 page manual done with LaTeX or gtfo :)
- mpalmer 2y agoWhy is criticism bucketed with cynicism? I led with my appreciation of the good things in the post. When the day comes that I post something of mine on HN, I will be tremendously disappointed if all of the comments are the textual equivalent of a participation trophy.
- jasonlotito 2y ago> I led with my appreciation of the good things in the post. Maybe you like frosting on shit, but it's still frosting on shit.
- glacier5674 2y ago[dead]
- almostgotcaught 2y agodo enough PR reviews and you start think everything is one. alternatively, with the causality reversed, explains why most people are pricks in PR reviews.
- mpalmer 2y agoIf I reviewed PRs like I comment on HN I'd get fired. Know your audience! Seems like you think PRs are the only place where criticism happens.
- almostgotcaught 2y ago
- enthdegree 2y agoReminds me of the old The Oatmeal infographics. Very epic mustache
- bongodongobob 2y ago[flagged]
- milesrout 2y ago[flagged]
- mpalmer 2y ago[flagged]
- bongodongobob 2y agoYes, historically it's been the way to defeat fascism. I'm not the one mad about a light hearted article about libraries lol. More pissed about the end of the US and illegal deportations, the president scamming people with shitcoins, ignoring the judicial branch, shit like that.
- mpalmer 2y agoIf you take a minute to think about it, you might agree we are ultimately mad about similar things
- hackable_sand 2y agoAgree with the other comment. You should go touch some grass.
- fknorangesite 2y agoNo one asked.
- mkoubaa 2y agoAgreed. This kind of writing is skimmable but not readable to me.