3 ms·

> Would you rather read PGs eassays in his website, or some moron's zero-content marketing fluff on a great looking, fancy-ass website, with CSS 3D transforms a

by awj 13y ago

> Would you rather read PGs eassays in his website, or some moron's zero-content marketing fluff on a great looking, fancy-ass website, with CSS 3D transforms and the whole works? I'd rather read PGs essays on a great looking, fancy-ass website. Why the false dichotomy?

colmvp 13y ago
I'm not sure why you got downvoted. I prefer not to have either extreme.
coldtea 13y ago
>I'd rather read PGs essays on a great looking, fancy-ass website. Why the false dichotomy? Because real life is full of dichotomies, and they are not all false. They even exist in our profession -- we call them "engineering tradeoffs". Have you seen many "fancy-ass websites" with great essay content? Perhaps you can find 1 or 2. I doubt you can find 10. There's a reason for that too. Most of the good writers I've read value simplicity, both in their writing and in their presentation. And, as they believe in the value of their content, they see no need to dress it on a "fancy-ass website". That's what the whole "content first" / "minimalism" etc movement has been all about, from the 37 Signals blog to the emergence in our community of stuff like Jekyll. And I don't see what the fancy-assness of the website would add to PG's essays. Care to enlighten me?
- deleted 13y ago
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- awj 13y ago
  > Because real life is full of dichotomies, and they are not all false. That doesn't justify the specific dichotomy you presented. Nor does the general lack of (vaguely defined) "fancy-ass" websites with good content. In my opinion 37signals has a "fancy-ass" blog with solid content. It has a clean, pleasing look, displays well on mobile and browsers, and even provides a search interface. PG's essays could be better presented in all of these respects. Maybe we should get your definition of "fancy-ass" so we can decide what we're even talking about.
  - coldtea 13y ago
    >That doesn't justify the specific dichotomy you presented. Nor does the general lack of (vaguely defined) "fancy-ass" websites with good content. Well, I'm a pragmatist. If I observe a "general lack" of a certain combination of things ("fancy ass websites" with "good content") I assume there's a reason for that. It doesn't even matter if the connection is casual. It's enough that it exists, because that means that the presense of one ("fancy-assenss") is enough to predict with good success the lack of the other ("good content"). >In my opinion 37signals has a "fancy-ass" blog with solid content. I see nothing fancy ass about 37signal's block. It's "clean, pleasing and displays well on mobile and broswers" not by some fancy-assness, but because it's minimal and bare-bones -- the very opposite of fancy-assents. Essentially it's merely styled text. >Maybe we should get your definition of "fancy-ass" so we can decide what we're even talking about. Well, if we go by TFA's description, that would be anything that couldn't be achieved with HTML 4 and no JS.

by awj 13y ago

colmvp 13y ago

I'm not sure why you got downvoted. I prefer not to have either extreme.

coldtea 13y ago

>I'd rather read PGs essays on a great looking, fancy-ass website. Why the false dichotomy? Because real life is full of dichotomies, and they are not all false. They even exist in our profession -- we call them "engineering tradeoffs". Have you seen many "fancy-ass websites" with great essay content? Perhaps you can find 1 or 2. I doubt you can find 10. There's a reason for that too. Most of the good writers I've read value simplicity, both in their writing and in their presentation. And, as they believe in the value of their content, they see no need to dress it on a "fancy-ass website". That's what the whole "content first" / "minimalism" etc movement has been all about, from the 37 Signals blog to the emergence in our community of stuff like Jekyll. And I don't see what the fancy-assness of the website would add to PG's essays. Care to enlighten me?

deleted 13y ago
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awj 13y ago
> Because real life is full of dichotomies, and they are not all false. That doesn't justify the specific dichotomy you presented. Nor does the general lack of (vaguely defined) "fancy-ass" websites with good content. In my opinion 37signals has a "fancy-ass" blog with solid content. It has a clean, pleasing look, displays well on mobile and browsers, and even provides a search interface. PG's essays could be better presented in all of these respects. Maybe we should get your definition of "fancy-ass" so we can decide what we're even talking about.
- coldtea 13y ago
  >That doesn't justify the specific dichotomy you presented. Nor does the general lack of (vaguely defined) "fancy-ass" websites with good content. Well, I'm a pragmatist. If I observe a "general lack" of a certain combination of things ("fancy ass websites" with "good content") I assume there's a reason for that. It doesn't even matter if the connection is casual. It's enough that it exists, because that means that the presense of one ("fancy-assenss") is enough to predict with good success the lack of the other ("good content"). >In my opinion 37signals has a "fancy-ass" blog with solid content. I see nothing fancy ass about 37signal's block. It's "clean, pleasing and displays well on mobile and broswers" not by some fancy-assness, but because it's minimal and bare-bones -- the very opposite of fancy-assents. Essentially it's merely styled text. >Maybe we should get your definition of "fancy-ass" so we can decide what we're even talking about. Well, if we go by TFA's description, that would be anything that couldn't be achieved with HTML 4 and no JS.