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New and Dirty: Tweet Blogging

3 points by yolo 18y ago

We all waste too much time reading (and writing!) boring text. Here is one solution to the problem.

unalone 18y ago
Interesting idea, but really all that's doing is encouraging people to think about what they write. If they're already doing that, Twitter won't help. I disliked his suggestion that there's a such thing as a possible Canon for writers that makes writing easier. No such luck. The power and purity of writing comes from the fact that you can't cheat. It's all about you and your words, and they have to be your words - rhyming dictionaries and thesauri more often than not will make your words seem fake. The problem with modern text editors (exception being TextEdit, which is incredible in every way) is that they're too cluttered. They take too much effort to make simple results. I think Apple has the right idea with Pages, but even then it's only good for when you're finally ready to get your writing looking nice. It's too complex for the task of simply writing.
- yolo 18y ago
  No, "encouraging people to think about what they write" is not all that it's doing (live writing, draft - editing, inline comments, etc). This thing is conceptually pretty intense and it's interesting to see how it's going to work out.
  - unalone 18y ago
    All that posting on Twitter gets you is that it forces you to state each point in 140 characters, and it gives people a way to reply to your points. Unless you're talking about your conceptual system? I'm a skeptic. I'm making a system for writers myself - that's what I'm applying for YCombinator with - and I doubt that any million-dollar enterprise will make people better writers. I don't know your idea, but if you think a machine will help people write then I'd bet a good sum that your plan would/will flop hard.
    - yolo 18y ago
      Machines or methods cannot create better writing but facilitate it or make it harder. I think the main problem of text editors is that they encourage instant editing, which breaks with the linear/causal character of longer text. The only way around it, the only way to linear writing is to post in blocks. Which is, apart from forcing the writer to focus, the main idea of this thing.
      - unalone 18y ago
        Tell me: have you ever spent time researching how writers write? I think that if you do, you'll be surprised by how different each one does. The process of writing is unique to the writer, and that's something that you have to take into account. You can't standardize it: any real system has to encourage every method that works. It's why the best system is still the equivalent of a blank page.

3 points by yolo 18y ago

We all waste too much time reading (and writing!) boring text. Here is one solution to the problem.

Interesting idea, but really all that's doing is encouraging people to think about what they write. If they're already doing that, Twitter won't help. I disliked his suggestion that there's a such thing as a possible Canon for writers that makes writing easier. No such luck. The power and purity of writing comes from the fact that you can't cheat. It's all about you and your words, and they have to be your words - rhyming dictionaries and thesauri more often than not will make your words seem fake. The problem with modern text editors (exception being TextEdit, which is incredible in every way) is that they're too cluttered. They take too much effort to make simple results. I think Apple has the right idea with Pages, but even then it's only good for when you're finally ready to get your writing looking nice. It's too complex for the task of simply writing.

yolo 18y ago
No, "encouraging people to think about what they write" is not all that it's doing (live writing, draft - editing, inline comments, etc). This thing is conceptually pretty intense and it's interesting to see how it's going to work out.
- unalone 18y ago
  All that posting on Twitter gets you is that it forces you to state each point in 140 characters, and it gives people a way to reply to your points. Unless you're talking about your conceptual system? I'm a skeptic. I'm making a system for writers myself - that's what I'm applying for YCombinator with - and I doubt that any million-dollar enterprise will make people better writers. I don't know your idea, but if you think a machine will help people write then I'd bet a good sum that your plan would/will flop hard.
  - yolo 18y ago
    Machines or methods cannot create better writing but facilitate it or make it harder. I think the main problem of text editors is that they encourage instant editing, which breaks with the linear/causal character of longer text. The only way around it, the only way to linear writing is to post in blocks. Which is, apart from forcing the writer to focus, the main idea of this thing.
    - unalone 18y ago
      Tell me: have you ever spent time researching how writers write? I think that if you do, you'll be surprised by how different each one does. The process of writing is unique to the writer, and that's something that you have to take into account. You can't standardize it: any real system has to encourage every method that works. It's why the best system is still the equivalent of a blank page.