9 ms·
More people should write
- benguild 14y agoThat's one of the reasons why I've enjoyed keeping up with school. I never finished (yet), but I've been taking a class or two per semester for the past 4 years or so. Keeps you thinking in different ways and introduces you to new things!
- aboali 14y agoWonderful article. This is the second article in hackers about writing. I am pushing my small son to always write.
- chetan51 14y agoThanks so much for this encouraging post.
- Mithrandir 14y ago> Walk around with a pen and a scrap of paper. From http://www.diyplanner.com/docs/commonplace1 http://www.diyplanner.com/docs/commonplace1: "In Sir Arthur Conon Doyle's tales, Sherlock Holmes kept a large and sprawling commonplace book upon his shelves, essentially his own home-grown encyclopedia of people, places, crimes, and pertinent facts, like the colour of mud from various locations, or the consistency of tobacco ashes. In the middle of a case, Holmes would rush to his commonplace, haul down a book, and read out a newspaper article concerning (say) the disappearance of a hydraulics engineer a year prior. His attic of a brain remembered vague references, but the books held the details that allowed him to pursue his work."
- spindritf 14y agoHe had a personal wiki. EDIT: and since I'm on it, those who use Tomboy in that capacity will be probably happy to hear that Tomdroid[1] — a Tomboy client for Android with synchronization through Ubuntu One — finally can not only view notes but also edit them and sync back. Not the version from the Play Store yet but the beta with all the new features is available as .apk from their Launchpad website. [1] https://launchpad.net/tomdroid https://launchpad.net/tomdroid
- jvehent 14y agoI've had a personal wiki for about 7 years. The amount of knowledge in it is, by far, the most precious resource in my career. It is tremendously useful ! http://www.monosapiens.com.br/blog/wp-content/uploads/dumbledore_pensieve.jpg http://www.monosapiens.com.br/blog/wp-content/uploads/dumble... The only problem with it, is the frequent guilt I feel for now writing in it often enough.
- vasco 14y agoThe things that bother me most when thinking about writing are the facts that while writing about myself I won't be writing about anything particularly exciting for anyone. If writing about another subject I won't be writing anything better than what you can already find on any given book written by an expert. So what does one write about? I try to fight this and I manage to write something once in a while, but I can't help but feel like I'm "cheating" the reader by wasting their time reading me. What is a good way to fight this feeling, other than forcing myself to post on a blog occasionally?
- saraid216 14y agoInvite your readers to contact you and tell you what they liked.
- Mithrandir 14y ago> I won't be writing about anything particularly exciting for anyone. If writing about another subject I won't be writing anything better than what you can already find on any given book written by an expert. How do you know that? Does it matter? If you don't want to write for the public, write for yourself. Put what you write in a folder and let it sit for a (week|month|however-long). Keep writing, keep putting stuff in the folder. Every once in awhile, read what you wrote. Eventually you might have something you'll want to publish. If not, it doesn't matter. You've written because it's fun to write, because you like writing. The more you write, the better a writer you can become.
- kiba 14y agoHe doesn't have to tell me to write, because I already write 500 words a day at this personal site: http://kibabase.com http://kibabase.com It could be on any one of my essays, such as Book Reviews, Self Quantification, or Learning Principles. They are always work in progress, even if they stagnate at a certain size. Moreover, a lot of my energy is spent on this page: http://kibabase.com/articles/notes-and-thoughts http://kibabase.com/articles/notes-and-thoughts Notes and Thoughts is my ever evolving bucket for all my random thoughts. With the exception of Why I Unlicense, all essays essentially originate from there. often as a one paragraph essay. It contains the most random idea, such as why democracy sucks, my plan for building a lamp bot, and the idea of legoization. Not only I add items, I also modify them to be readable writing. Even TODO items get revised.
- raganwald 14y agoYes, please write. I want to read what you have to say, and as a pleasant bonus, writing will improve the way you think and lead your life.
- jamestc 14y ago>I want to read what you have to say That's interesting because after reading and participating in a number of blogs and message boards over the years, I am really tired of what people have to say. Only because so much of it, at least within the realm of opinion and debate, is so predictable. A lot of it is rubbish. But I'm willing to accept that such predictability and rubbish is to be expected in argumentative contexts and that perhaps writing more could lead to improved rhetoric and less repetition. Being more widely read couldn't hurt, either.
- raganwald 14y ago"90% of Everything is crud"--Ted Sturgeon Much of it is rubbish. So is almost every painting, almost every book of fiction, almost every poem, and for that matter, nearly every person you meet of the appropriate gender. Like grains of sand. But when you find the rare nugget of gold... It makes up for all the time you spend panning dirty water.
- sliverstorm 14y agoLong-form can avoid this problem, because to put together a cohesive piece, you have to do a little reflection and possibly research. Plus, it is considerably higher investment on the part of the author, so if it has been said before, they'll be more likely to write about something else.
- danso 14y ago"possibly" research? Sorry, but the attitude that research -- i.e. the consideration of history and the big picture -- might "possibly" be a part of longform writing is like saying math might be a part of good physics theories
- nathanbarry 14y agoEarlier this summer I made a commitment to write 1,000 words a day. I haven't always been consistent, but I am now at 87 days in a row. That writing has turned into a popular book, many blog posts, and now I'm halfway through a second book. This process has changed my income, influence, and how I tackle complicated projects. Just start writing. The first book is here: http://NathanBarry.com/app-design-handbook http://NathanBarry.com/app-design-handbook
- mitchi 14y agoYet another article on HackerNews about people who have nothing to say about algorithms or code, they just want to be the big motivators, the oracles!!
- EzGraphs 14y agoReading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. ~ Sir Francis Bacon
- michaelperalta 14y agoI completely agree. Not to be too self promoty because thats what we are aiming for at my site www.varely.com but I think everything can be better through more people expressing themselves. There are so many different experiences that we've all gone through and we should be sharing those. In my cases it can help people so much just by knowing people have gone through situations that you have. For selfish reasons being a good writer and communicating well lets you expose your true talents and intelligence. I honestly think evaluating someone through their writing for the most part can be a more effective test than looking at a persons resume. Anyone can bring a resume and hit all the write points but writing well lets you communicate your interests and passions. You can really show how passionate you are about a subject and how well you an articulate your ideas. In start ups I think thats one of the most important things and in general its valuable. I also agree when you say you are going to write you conduct your life as if you are going to write. I think it makes you a little more present in your situations because you realize that you want to take note of life. You want to recognize the small things in life that may go unnoticed but are significant.
- jamesmcn 14y agoThis is a special case of a more general rule: Do things. I'm going to try to write more. I already have learned a lot by: * photography. If you spend time thinking about the photographs you take, and use what you discover in that process to change how you take future photographs, you will learn a lot about the world around you. You start to see things that you previously ignored. * painting / sketching / drawing. Totally different from photography. You are free to represent what you want how you want. Your work can range from highly introspective (can be great while your subconscious brain is solving some other problem) to very literal. I haven't kept up with this because the professional world doesn't look kindly on developers who are splattering ink across a page when they "should" be coding, but it was very helpful in my college years. * music composition. You think you know something about music? Try to compose some! You will listen to music differently. The deeper you go, the more you learn. Music is an unimaginably vast subject and conventional music theory only gives you access to a tiny fraction of the space that music occupies. * (audio) Field recording. Have you ever taken the time to listen? To really listen? Probably not. You can get audio recorder apps for your iphone, or use a standalone digital audio recorder. Take these recordings home, and listen to them on decent headphones. Then go back to where you made the recording. Think about how the recording and what you hear are different. We selectively filter out a lot of the world around us, particularly in the audio domain. * electronics. In support of my audio hobbies, I've built several audio devices, ranging from simple synthesizers up to rhythm machines and modules for larger systems. In the software world, we lose track of the physical world. It is mind-boggling how much effort you have to put in to source parts for a moderately complex project. and finally: * Coding. Those of us who code understand software in ways that people who don't do not. It doesn't make it any easier to use other people's software (sometimes harder), but it does change the way you think about things. TL;DR: Don't just learn stuff, try doing stuff as well.
- desireco42 14y agoYou should post this in a blog :) Agreeing with you 100% and want to thank you for going meta.
- jamesmcn 14y ago
- hollerith 14y agoIf people came by their beliefs about the importance or unimportance of writing by the effects of stray cosmic rays, only the ones who end up believing writing is important would bother to write up their belief. That is what the statisticians call a selection effect, and it is important to keep it in mind when weighing a piece of writing about writing.
- baxrob 14y ago"A preoccupation, in that sense, is a hell of a useful thing for a mind." Well said! Here's to more frequent talking into pages.
- baxrob 14y agothough, brevity can be a blessing
- winter_blue 14y agoThis is great article, and I totally endorse what the author is saying -- although I would leave you with a word of warning: Don't write simply because you want to "compete" or be like the other great authors out there. Several years ago when I was in high school I came across pg's essays and was bedazzled by it, and wanted to write articles like that of my own. (But I never got around to it.) The fact was, I didn't have anything really that great to say. So even if I had written stuff back then, I don't know if it would have enriched the lives of others as much as the writings of certain other people have. Hm, whatever. Just my 2 cents. I'm probably wrong.
- gnosis 14y agoMy students often told me they didn't have anything to say. They were silent. Empty. They felt anxiety. Panic. Terror. 'Good' I'd answer. 'You are a writer. You are at the place from which writing comes.' -- Donald Murray in Shoptalk A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. -- Thomas Mann A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them. -- William Stafford You have to sink down to a level of hopelessness and desperation to find the book that you can write. -- Susan Sontang
- mortenjorck 14y agoUtterly sterling selection of quotes there. The Stafford one resonates with me the most personally – I can't count the number of times I've realized a greater subtlety and complexity to my position on something after I've written a paragraph or so on it.
- winter_blue 14y agoI totally agree, Stafford's quote is "par excellence"
- gnosis 14y agoIf a young writer can refrain from writing, he shouldn't hesitate to do so. -- André Gide
- munyukim 14y agoWhen I started writing I thought one needed to be an expert to write good stories but I was wrong. My first article,http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3840706 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3840706, generated a lot of interest. The article was full of grammatical errors, but people didn't mind. I have since improved and learned a lot of things through writing. I would encourage people to try it.